Erica Hargreave Archives - Ahimsa Kids: Set Teachers

Happy Holidays from Ahimsa Kids, Live From Burnaby Village Museum

December 28, 2010 by Erica Leave a Comment

The winter holidays to us at Ahimsa Kids are all about spending time having fun and laughing with folks we love. It is for this reason that Lori and I take a break from the pre-holiday craziness each year to be goofy and shoot a holiday card together. We admit, we add quite a bit of fun on a regular basis while working together at our set tutoring agency in Vancouver, but we love to step it up for special occasions!

2010 Holiday Card — A typical bit of Erica / Lori silliness, as caught by the talented Jeremy Lim.

This year’s shoot was even more delightful than usual, as we were fortunate enough to shoot at the Burnaby Village Museum, which is such a magical place. What an absolutely perfect location for two gals that have a love for hands-on learning and engaging in creative ways! If you haven’t been, you must go. Burnaby Village Museum is a living history museum, with historic interpretors dressed in period clothing there to spin tales for you of BC’s history. Having worked in such environments in my teens and twenties, I can tell you I view such sites with a discerning eye and am not easily impressed. Burnaby Village Museum impresses me. It is a place of magic.

To experience a bit of the magic yourself you can visit the Museum from noon until 8 pm each day, up until January 2nd, 2011. Who knows you may even see Rudolph. He was after all created there.

After that the Museum doesn’t reopen until May 2011, except for special event openings. Hoping they host their scavenger hunt again in February and March.

Games to Beat the Summer Heat: Protective Padding

August 5, 2009 by Erica Leave a Comment

Sufficed to say it’s been a little hotter than we’re used to in BC this summer. Rather than let our tempers boil over, we’ve got a few games to beat the summer heat and cool down over the next couple of weeks from Erica Hargreave, the founder of Ahimsa Media (Digital, Interactive, Transmedia Storytelling Company), and Ahimsa Kids (Representing Set Teachers and Child Coordinators in BC). Take it away Erica!

I’ve set these activities up like mini-Olympic Games competitions to add a bit of friendly sport in there.

The first one:

Protective Padding

Because it’s not only the athletes that need to protect their noggins…..

child coordinators in BC ,Water Balloons, Steve Wilhelm — Our Child Coordinators in BC can attest to the importance of this! Photo by Steve Wilhelm

MATERIALS:

Water Balloons (filled up and ready to fire)
Anything in the recycling bin
String (an arms length / balloon)
Tape (a forearms length / balloon)

THE SKINNY:
Here’s the deal kids. Your building a helmet to protect your water balloon from bursting. You can build it in anyway you like as long as you don’t break the rules (I’ll get to those in a minute). Once you’ve built and fastened on your water balloon’s helmet, partner up and take turns tossing your partners water balloon gently in front of their feet. To win, you need to be the last dry kid standing (ie. your balloon has not burst).

THE RULES: (Yes, there are rules, because without them it would be chaos people, chaos I tell yah)

You can only use building materials from the recycling bin.
No, you can’t have more tape or string, if you ruin yours, improvise.
No whipping balloons at people. Immediate disqualification.

About the Author:

Erica Hargreave is a writer, storyteller, teacher and scientist. She’s been having fun doing a few summer camps for the Delta School District, including the Wild World of Science, Outdoor Ed and Hogwart’s Travelling School of Magic. She has two up and coming Hogwart’s Camps, the week’s of August 10 – 15 in North Delta and August 17 – 22 in Ladner.

Outdoor Ed Adventures

August 2, 2009 by Erica Leave a Comment

I was lucky enough to spend my afternoons two weeks ago in beautiful Boundary Bay, Tsawwassen with a great group of young people. We rambled through the forests, fields and beaches on outdoor ed adventures, team building, studying edible and medicinal plants, creating things from plants and learning survival skills. Here are a few of the pics:

Boundary Bay Rambles

July 19, 2009 by Erica 2 Comments

Spent a morning earlier this week exploring Boundary Bay in prep for this week’s Outdoor Ed Camp. I can’t wait!!! It’s just so beautiful and absolutely perfect for a week of leadership building, camp cooking, survival skills and tracking. Looking forward to it! Here’s a couple of pics I snapped as I was out and about:

Ethnobiology Boundary Bay — Ethnobiology

Conservation Boundary Bay — Conservation

Beach Rambles Boundary Bay — Beach Rambles

Survival Skills Boundary Bay — Survival Skills

Nutty for Nature: Pond Scope and Treasures Aquarium

July 3, 2009 by Erica Leave a Comment

It doesn’t matter how old I get, the summer still brings with it a yearning to return to my old stomping grounds – the pond. As kids, some of my fondest memories are of mucking about in the pond. My brother, Petey, and I even had ‘frogging birthdays’. Rather fitting really that summer brings with it childhood memoirs of time spent at the pond, as ponds are the old stomping grounds for many critters in the spring & summer. A pond is in fact a ‘creature nursery’. I’ve got some great instructions for you on how to build your own pond scope and a temporary treasures aquarium. Often, when out on set teaching in BC, we have found ourselves schooling in an outdoor classroom on location. This is a great inspiration to give the child a break, take a nature walk and get some science based learning in!

Here are a few of my favourite childhood pond nursery pals:

And a few that spend their lives in the pond:

Pond waters teeming with life, you just have to slow down to see it. Heres two ways that I’ve done this:

Building a Pond Scope

Supplies:

yohgurt / ice cream container
saran wrap
elastic band
exacto knife

Get an adult to help you cut out the bottom of the container.
Cover new opening with saran wrap and fasten it to the container with an elastic band.
Stick the saran wrap side of the container in pond water, hold still and and watch to see what swims by. It works just like a pair off goggles. Be patient and try not to stir up the water.

Creating a Temporary Treasures Aquarium

Supplies

pond water
pond dipping nets
clear glass container
door screen

Fill glass container with pond water.
Use a dip net and run it over the vegetation in the pond. Empty the contents of the net into the aquarium.
Cover the opening of the container with door screen and place in the shade.
Let the water settle and watch the critters inside that you didn’t even realize were there.
Many of the critters are babies and leave the water as adults, so don’t keep the critters more than a couple of days before returning them to where you found them.

Have fun and remember to be respectful of the critters and the pond. Your visiting their home.

For more science fun, check out my science camp this summer.