Blog

Virtual Recreation

Posted on Updated: by dwood

We miss you all, and our recreation team is bummed we can’t play together. So we’ve put together this online resource to help you and your family keep active while where social distancing. Follow us on Facebook to keep up the latest installments. We plan to post Monday, Wednesday and Fridays at the very least.

 

Activities for the advanced naturalist

The Vermont Spring Backyard BioBlitz

What’s a bioblitz? The Vermont Spring Backyard BioBlitz is a challenge to Vermonters to document every species they can find between April 20th and May 20th, 2020. The project is hosted by the North Branch Nature Center, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies, and the Vermont Alliance for Half-Earth and can be found on iNaturalist.org here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/the-vermont-spring-backyard-bioblitz

You will need an account on iNaturalist to contribute, which you can learn about here:

https://enjoyburlington.com/phenology-clock-and-inaturalist/

May Challenge List

Are you an expert wildlife watcher and want to log a unique observation? Check out our May Challenge List to see if you can log an observation on iNaturalist of a species that has never before been seen in Burlington in the month of May. The list has three categories which divides whether the observation would be earlier than, later than, or a missing link between months these species have been seen before.

Download the list:

iNaturalist Challenge 2020 May.pdf

iNaturalist Challenge 2020 May.xlsx

Spring Bingo

Play this game with your family and friends! There’s SIX different BINGO cards in the the PDF so everyone can get their own unique card.  Whether you’re hanging out in your back yard or walking around town or exploring a park near you, try and find all of these spring themed things. You can go even further with your exploration by adding your finding to the iNaturalist app!

Play Ball in the House with Coach Gary: Episode 4

Coach Gary plays a family game of golf. You can design your own course using a broom or a stick and any type of ball.

Disc Golf

Let’s play Disc Golf today for our Virtual Recreation session! Here’s some tips from Disc Golf Vermont that offers summer camps and programs with us.

We’re still taking registration for all summer camps. Hoping they’ll be able able run as usual, or in some modified form at least. Reserve your spot today!

Our own recreation staffer and disc golf enthusiast, Jen Cotton, has some tips on making your own disc golf course. Get creative! Any flying disc will do! Post your set up and best shots!

Creative ReUse

Rainy days are perfect for some Virtual Recreation doing creative activities together!

Our friends at Creative ReUse had been working with our Senior Center, but they’ve adapted their in-person sessions to an online platform by creating activities that students and families can do with minimal, accessible materials.

Discover creative projects that use plastic bags, cardboard boxes and more! Share you creations on our Facebook page too!

Play Ball in the House with Coach Gary: Episode 3

Here’s the anticipated third episode of “Play Ball In The House With Coach Gary” for more of our Virtual Recreation program. Today, Henry takes his dribbling drills outside to practice basketball skills.

 

Explore Burlington (from your couch!) – Greenmount Cemetery

You might not think of a cemetery as much of a point of interest, but as Burlington’s oldest cemetery, Greenmount was designed to be a places to wander. Take a stroll along the meandering paths and capture a glimpse into the history of the city.

“The Greenmount Cemetery is the oldest institution and architectural feature in Burlington, Vermont. In its landscape and monuments, the cemetery captures the community’s history. The cemetery’s most prominent and well-known feature is a monument to Ethan Allen, a man who was a prominent figure of the Revolutionary War and founder of the State of Vermont. However, walking through the cemetery, you also can see surnames that appear on many of Burlington’s street signs and buildings, representing the who’s who of Burlington. Among these monuments are also those of shop owners, farmers, laborers, innkeepers, captains, and other folk, representing the great diversity of residents in the city since its founding in 1763.” (excerpt from the Historic guidebook created by UVM)

You can learn more about the Greenmount cemetery on our web page.

Find links to read all about the location from a research document from UVM, and when the weather gets nicer, you can take the self guided walking tour that Branch Out Burlington put together! Please remember to follow posted rules.

 

Play Ball in the House with Coach Gary: Episode 2

This time on “Play Ball in the House with Coach Gary”, the family gets creative with a game of P.I.G. ….Careful trying THIS one at home kids!

Here’s our first installment of Play Ball in the House with Coach Gary

Laura Ray (who teaches our summer camps) has a fun game to build soccer skills

 

MORE fun stuff we recommend from our partners: