Explore Our Planet – Journey Through the February 4-8, 2019

A desert is a dry place that receives little or almost no rainfall. The temperature of the desert can be hot or cold. Around one third of the Earth’s surface is covered in . The meaning of desert is ‘an abandoned place’.

The largest cold desert on Earth is Antarctica, and the largest hot desert on Earth is the . Only around 20% of the deserts on Earth are covered in sand, the others are covered in snow or ice. Hot deserts usually feature high temperatures in the daytime and cold temperatures at night. Cold deserts have extremely hot summers and very cold winters. Names of hot deserts; The Arabian desert (located in Middle East), the Kalahari desert (located in ), and the Patagonian desert (located in South America). Names of cold deserts; The (located in Asia), the Great Basin desert (located in North America), and Turkestan (located in Turkey).

Plants and animals in the desert cope with the extreme dry conditions in their own unique ways. Plants store water in their leaves, roots and stems, and most have small, spiky leaves to minimize the evaporation of water. Most desert animals stay hidden during the day and venture out only when night falls and the temperature is much lower. Fat sand rat, rattle snakes, roadrunners are animals that live in the hot desert. The bald eagle, bison, coyote are animals that live in the cold desert. With the lack of water, high daytime temperatures and sometimes freezing conditions at nights, deserts can be extremely dangerous for humans; therefore you will not see towns, cities, or homes in the desert.

Fun Facts about Deserts • The oldest desert has been around for 40 million years • Atacama desert in Chile has no rain ever recorded, but farmers live there and grow their crops • Deserts receive more energy from the sun than humans consume in a year. • can drink lots of water at one time only to store it in a special pouch inside their body. It can survive without drinking for days. • First dinosaur egg was found in the Gobi desert in 1923.

Our weeklong event, “Journey Through the Desert” gives Providers and children the opportunity to learn all about the desert. During the week of February 4-8, 2018 we are going on a Journey Through the Desert with our friend Alice the ! Let’s go!

Play and Learn – Journey Through the Desert

Journey Through The Desert With Alice The Camel

Alice the Camel lives in the desert, and one day she decided she was going to go on a journey to see what she can see and find in the desert. So let’s go along with Alice the Camel on an adventure though the desert and see all that she can see.

Alice the Camel Felt Puppet What you need:

• Various colours of felt or cardstock • Glue or hot glue gun (with adult only) • Marker • Scissors • Camel and eyebrow template (on the following page) • Popsicle stick

What to do:

1. Trace the camel pattern onto a piece of felt or cardstock. 2. Cut the camel pattern and the eye lash pattern. 3. Cut various designs or patterns from other felt pieces (square for a saddle). 4. Glue pieces onto the camel. 5. Glue the popsicle stick at the back of the camel pattern to use it as a puppet

Play and Learn – Journey Through the Desert

Journey Through The Desert With Alice The Camel

Print then cut out the template and trace onto felt pieces.

Play & Learn: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel: The first thing Alice saw was all the different kinds and sizes of cactus found in the desert, some were small, and some were as tall as trees.

The plural word for cactus is cacti. A cactus is a plant that grows where the soil is dry and rocky—most usually in the desert. A cactus doesn't have leaves like most plants; it has spines or thorns.

Cactus Craft

What you need:

• Rocks – choose them based on the size of your terra cotta pot • Googly eyes or eyes cut out from construction paper • Outdoor acrylic paint – green, white & bright green • Mini Terra Cotta Pots • Hot glue (adults only) or Glue dots for kids

What to do:

1. First, select your rocks. You want to look for rocks that are flat on one side, so the eyes will go on smoothly. See if you can find some extra details that may give the rock a mouth too. Clean your rocks before painting. 2. Paint with your outdoor paint. Once you have the green painted, use the white to create different cactus designs. 3. Now glue on your googly eyes or eyes made from construction paper. Use hot glue or glue dots 4. Now they are ready to go into their pots!

If you’d like them to stand higher in their pots, use a little bit of paper towel or foam in the bottom of the pots.

Play & Learn: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel: Alice continued her journey and realized that the desert was surrounded by sand.

Nearly all sand in deserts come from somewhere else – sometimes hundreds of kilometers away; washed in by rivers or streams in distant, less arid times – often before the area became a desert. When sand gets blown around, it can pile up, forming a sand dune, sand dunes come in many different shapes and sizes. The highest sand dunes can reach up to 4,000 feet high!

Sand Slime Sensory Play

What you need:

• Elmer’s Clear Glue -use two 5 oz. bottles • Liquid Starch • Play sand

What to do: 1. Pour all the glue (10 oz.) into a bowl. 2. Stir in sand until it looks like liquid with the glue 3. Stir in 1/2 cup of liquid starch, 1/4 cup at a time. Stir until well mixed, and then mix with your hands. If your slime is too sticky, add more starch a little at a time and mix well. 4. The finished slime should be stretchy and oozy but should not stick to hands. If it does, add more starch.

Play & Learn: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel: As Alice continued walking through the desert she saw some of her animal friends that live in the desert, such as a fox, a lizard, other camels, and jackrabbits.

Desert Animals • To avoid the intense daytime heat most desert animals are primarily active at night (nocturnal) or during dawn and dusk (crepuscular). • Desert animals are very adept at obtaining water. Many eat plants filled with water. They often wait until nighttime to dine because this is when the water content is the highest in the plants. • Animals that survive in the desert are also very efficient at storing and conserving water. In fact, camels will often obtain enough water from eating plants in the winter to go two months without water. • Small desert animals dig burrows to live in. These burrows become microenvironments, cooler during the hot days and warmer during the cold desert nights.

Popsicle Stick Lizard

What you need: • Popsicle sticks or colored craft sticks • Glue or tape • Scissors and black marker • Pipe cleaners • Construction paper to make eyes

What to do: 1. Cut two pipe cleaners to make the legs. Cut four, 1 inch lengths. Wrap the 1 inch piece around the end of the leg piece and twist once. Flatten out to make 3 toes. Repeat on the other end. It helps to make a lot of legs in advance before doing the craft with the kids. 2. Cut another piece of pipe cleaner for the tail and add a curl. 3. Generously glue the leg and tail pieces to one of your colored craft sticks. 4. Sandwich another stick-on top. Push down and allow to dry. You could also substitute tape to cut down on time. 5. Take a marker and decorate the top to look like scaly skin. 6. Glue on eyes made from construction paper.

Play & Learn: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel: When Alice was done seeing everything in the desert, she met up with her friends and they went on a camel caravan (train).

• A camel train or caravan is a series of camels carrying passengers and/or goods on a regular or semi-regular service between points. • Although they rarely travelled faster than the walking speed of a person, camels' ability to withstand harsh conditions made them ideal for communication and trade in the desert areas of North Africa and the for centuries. • Camel trains were also used sparingly elsewhere around the globe.

A Camel Caravan (train)

What you need:

• Pillows (big/small or round/square)

What to do:

1. Put the pillow on your back under your clothes. 2. Form a line with your other camel friends and go for a journey inside or outside like Alice the Camel. 3. Come back from your journey and talk about what you saw in the desert.

Activity Book: Help children fill out their activity books. Children have received their own “Together Wee Can Explore Our Planet” activity book, work together and fill out the desert activity pages.

Play & Learn: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel Alice the camel has five humps. Alice the camel has five humps. Alice the camel has five humps. So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has four humps. Alice the camel has four humps. Alice the camel has four humps. So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has three humps. Alice the camel has three humps. Alice the camel has three humps. So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has two humps. Alice the camel has two humps. Alice the camel has two humps. So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has one hump. Alice the camel has one hump. Alice the camel has one hump. So go, Alice, go.

Alice the camel has no humps. Alice the camel has no humps. Alice the camel has no humps. Now Alice is a horse of course!

To enter our Together Wee Can Explore Our Planet “Journey

Through the Desert” contest, send in photos of children CONTEST participating in Together Wee Can events this month. Send ALERT! photo entries to your local Wee Watch office no later than February 28, 2019.

Reading Fun: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel: Alice’s favourite thing to do is read books before she goes to bed. Here are some of Alice’s favourite books.

Desert Night, Desert Day By Anthony Fredricks

Why oh Why are Deserts Dry By Tish Rabe

Desert Scrapbook By Virginia Wright-Frierson

Kids Kitchen: Journey Through the Desert

Alice the Camel: After a long journey, Alice needed a snack.

Cactus Flower Snack

What you need:

• One cheese block • One cucumber • Carrot coins • Toothpicks

What to do:

1. Cut cheese into cubes. 2. Slice cucumber, cut slices in half and cut out the middle (seeds) 3. Cut carrot into coins, and then cut each coin into a flower as seen below. 4. Place the cheese cube on the bottom and stick a toothpick in it. Then place the cucumber onto the toothpick, and then the carrot coins on the top

Colouring Page: Journey Through the Desert

Colouring Page: Journey Through the Desert