Natural Science Fieldtrips
Life In The Coastal Hills:
Our Local Wildlife & Hillside Habitat
For 2nd through 6th grade
Cost: $5.50 per child with a $165 minimum. This program can
accomodate up to 60 children with special arrangements at time of registration.
Non-resident fee please add $25 per program.
Our local coastal hills provide homes for many kinds of animals and birds that are specifically adapted to live in this environment. A variety of unique plants make up Ventura's native hillside habitat: the coastal sage scrub plant community, a habitat that is rapidly disappearing in Southern California.
This
2 1/2-hour program offers an opportunity for close-up exploration of this
fascinating habitat and includes:
- Activities that acquaint students with our local native animal species, including an introduction to animal tracking
- Hands-on materials including animal skulls, teeth, and scat models
- Sounds of the night, when hidden nocturnal animals come out
- A nature-hike on hillside/canyon trails of Ventura's Arroyo Verde Park
- Hardy coastal sage community: how plants (and the animals that depend on them) survive and thrive – activities, including a "seedling survival" running game
All About Plants For preschool through
2nd grade
Cost: $3 per child with a $90 minimum.
Non-resident fee please add $15.
Students will see, touch and smell a variety of plants in this one-hour
program at Arroyo Verde Park. Activities include:
- Interactive plant walk
- Plant structure activity with costume dress up activity
- Leaf art craft
- Songs
Monarch Caterpillars For preschool
through 2nd grade
Cost: $3 per child with a $90 minimum.
Non-resident fee please add $15 per program.
The remarkable monarch butterfly will be the focus of this one-hour field
trip for younger students. This program
includes:
- Close-up views of monarchs through spotting scopes
- Guided metamorphosis activity where students transform from eggs to butterflies
- Songs, games and costume dress up activity under the trees as monarchs flutter nearby
- Hands-on crafts — students make monarch creations to take back to the classroom
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This is a seasonal field trip, November through January during the monarch overwintering season.
Monarch Butterflies (and other
arthropods) For 3rd through 6th grade
Cost: $4 per child with a $120 minimum.
Non-resident fee please add $25 per program.
The monarch butterfly is one of California's most colorful and unusual long-distance travelers. The only North American butterfly to migrate, monarchs arrive in Ventura each winter to form spectacular clusters of butterflies. Ventura is one of a limited number of California coastal communities to shelter overwintering monarch butterflies. This two-hour field trip includes:
- A nature walk and close-up observation of clustering monarchs through spotting scopes and binoculars
- Fun games and illustrated activities about insects and the monarch life cycle and migration
This is a seasonal program, November through January, during the monarch overwintering season.
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Seaside Tidepool Adventure For 3rd through
6th grade
Cost: $4 per child with a $120 minimum. Non-resident fee please
add $25 per program.
Seaside Wilderness Park with its cobble beach, tidepools, sand
dunes, Ventura River estuary, and nature trails offers something
of interest to all nature lovers. The park provides a perfect environment
for students to actively participate in stimulating hands-on learning.
This two-hour program (scheduled during a low tide) includes:
- Tidepool exploration
- Hardy plant survivors of the saltmarsh and sand dunes
- Ventura River estuary, home to rare and endangered wildlife
- Beach drift scavenger hunt
Marina Park Outreach For preschool
through 2nd grade
Cost: $3 per child with a $90 minimum.
Non-resident fee please add $15 per program.
This one-hour seashore experience at Marina Park offers students an opportunity to take a look at the plants and animals that live along our coast. The program includes:
- A walk with songs, and wave, dune and sand activities
- A special collection of shells to touch, a lively discussion of sea animals, and a costume dress up activity
Note: We offer a version of this program specifically for grade two. Your 2nd grade students will enjoy seeing live tidepool animals. Programs for 2nd graders scheduled during low tides.
Birding & Wetland Ecology For 3rd through 6th grade
Cost: $4
per child with a $120 minimum. Non-resident fee please add $25.
Ventura’s Harbor Wetlands Ecological Reserve, formerly known as
the Wildlife Lagoons, located next to the Santa Clara River Estuary is
the ideal location
to
learn
about
wetland
ecology
and
birds.
These unique ponds attract thousands of
migratory birds each year, as well as year-round feathered residents.
This two-hour program includes:
- "Migration headache" running game on the beach
- Guided bird walk, which includes:
- Instruction on use of spotting scope and binoculars (for each child)
- A fun exploratory walk around the ponds
- Instruction in use of field guides
- Learning how to identify and appreciate birds
- Training the eye to look for key characteristics
- Feeding methods of common coastal birds, divers vs. dabblers
- A stop at spider alley
- Wetlands walk, includes:
- Wetlands as nature’s water purification system
- Wetlands match-up game
- Wildlife evidence search, tracks & scat
- Feather structure activity
- Wetland plant activities
- Duckweed patch
- Black-crowned night heron hideaway
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Option: You may add our one-hour classroom program Coastal Birds as an introduction to the bird walk section of your Wildlife Lagoons field trip. Schools traveling from a distance may schedule their slide presentation at Arroyo Verde Center on the same day as the field trip. Cost for the two-part program (classroom plus field trip) is $6 per child with a $180 minimum.