CBEC’s Preschool Education Program Has a New Educator!
Hi! I’m Karen Bogue and I’m the new Creepy Crawler Educator at CBEC. I live in Stevensville with my husband, Jason; two daughters, Ellie and Emma; and our dog Bear. I’m a former pre-K and kindergarten teacher and initially got my start in environmental education many years ago as an intern at Pickering Creek Audubon Center. I’ve always had a love of the outdoors and enjoy sharing it with children, and being able to do that at CBEC is a wonderful opportunity for me.
I’m very pleased to be able to continue to teach engaging monthly classes for our Creepy Crawler Nature class. My goal is to provide the kids with a fun and interesting introduction to elements of nature that they may not get to experience outside of CBEC and to give them a deeper understanding of the things they do experience. Additionally, I hope to open their minds to things that they may not consider likable or exciting. If I can get even one child to look at spiders, jellyfish, and oysters as fascinating, instead of icky, I’ll feel I’ve done my job!
I’m also very excited to be a part of the rejuvenation of not only the Creepy Crawler Garden itself, but the curriculum aligned with it as well. Our garden is getting a complete overhaul from top to bottom! We’ll have new beds, several plots, and various other new features. Each bed and plot will be designed with themes such as “Pizza” and “Rainbow” to be entertaining as well as informative for the kids. Our new curriculum will focus on many aspects of gardening from plant structure and insects, to how to germinate seeds and compost. The children will have hands-on participation in every class that will directly benefit the garden, even in the months when planting outdoors or harvesting isn’t favorable. My focus is to encourage the little ones to get dirty and have fun, all the while learning how our food is grown and how the tomato sauce on their pizza actually started on a plant – and not in a jar.
I’m looking forward to an exciting and fun year with our youngest students and hope to see everyone on the trails or in the garden! You can find the 2017 Creepy Crawler class themes for both the nature and gardening programs here. Class sizes are limited, so be sure to register online to secure your spot! If you have any questions, feel free to drop me a line at kbogue@bayrestoration.org, or call 240-304-7707.
