Kids' Things to Do Page
| There are many things you can enjoy doing when you visit a provincial park. There are lots of ways to explore and get to know the parks without removing the plants or creatures that live there. When doing these activities, be sure to stay close by to mom or dad and let them know where you are at all times. |  |
Here are some ideas:
1. Visit a barnacle
- barnacles are shrimps that live in castles. Find a tide pool with barnacles attached to rocks under the water. Look closely and perhaps you'll see a barnacle sweeping the water with its long feathery feet to catch food. Gently touch the legs; what happens? The glue a barnacle uses to attach itself to rocks is the strongest known to exist. Think about how the shell protects its owner.
2. Go on a sandhopper hunt
- a sandhopper is not a flea, though it 
jumps like one. It is a relative of the shrimps and barnacles. Search
for them under high-tide debris, and in a tidepool. Are the same
kinds in both places? Most choose a special home. Are they insect?
(clue: insects have 6 legs). Does it crawl and burrow? Do you
think the time of the day may have something to do with these movements?
What do they eat?
3.
Go birding on the beach
- beaches attract people and birds for different
reasons. People
are there for sun and fun,
birds for food and rest. Look carefully
to see how
they differ from forest birds and those that swim.
How
do their long legs help them? What is their
slender bill used for?
Does their colour and
pattern help camouflage them from their
enemies
or prey? Wait a while to see what
they seek as food.
Wading birds
have long legs
and big feet to help them stand still. Shoreline
birds
have short and sturdy legs.
4. Listen to insect songs
- on hot summer days or evenings, insect 'songs' are often heard. Approach a 'songster' with care. At night, don't use a flashlight until the sound is very close. Males 'sing' in the evening - females are wingless and silent.
5. Measure a storm
- the next time you see lightening and then
hear thunder, you can figure out 
how far away the flash is.
You see the lightning instantly because light travels so fast.
But it takes sound about 3 seconds to travel 1 kilometre. Use a
watch to count
the seconds between a flash and its thunder, or count out loud: "One thousand, two thousand..." If
you count 9 seconds, for example, the lightning is 3 kilometres
away. If the flash and the thunder are close, its time to be sure
no one is swimming!
