Kids get muddy during "Backyard Safari"

Madison Ayala-Smith, 6, left, and Kaitlynn MacLean, 4, right, both daughters of Senior Airman Megan Jamison, 2nd Combat Weather Systems Squadron, leap on to a dirt-covered tarp during a Mud Day event at the library in Hurlburt Field, Fla., June. 30, 2012. Volunteers from the base community held the outdoor event to teach young children about nature and learn science in a hands-on environment. (U.S Air Force Photo/Airman 1st Class Nigel Sandridge/Released)

Kids get muddy during "Backyard Safari"

Jazlyn Wiehrdt, 4, daughter of Lt. Col. Jason Wiehrdt of the Air Force Special Operations Command, stands covered in dirt during a Mud Day event at the library in Hurlburt Field, Fla., June. 30, 2012. Children messed around in a mud pit while searching for "dinosaur fossils." (U.S Air Force Photo/Airman 1st Class Nigel Sandridge/Released)

Kids get muddy during "Backyard Safari"

Valerie Martin, 5, daughter of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Kyle Martin, a ranger instructor with 6 Ranger Training Battalion at Camp Rudder, Fla., plays in dirt during a Mud Day event at the library in Hurlburt Field, Fla., June. 30, 2012. International Mud Day was initiated to educate children on nature. (U.S Air Force Photo/Airman 1st Class Nigel Sandridge/Released)

Kids get muddy during "Backyard Safari"

Dirt covered children rinse off in inflatable pools after a fossil excavation excercise during a Mud Day event at the library in Hurlburt Field, Fla., June. 30, 2012. Organizers offered children to small craft boats made of tinfoil and float them in a small inflatable pool. (U.S Air Force Photo/Airman 1st Class Nigel Sandridge/Released)

Kids get muddy during 'Backyard Safari'

Published July 5, 2012
By Airman 1st Class Nigel Sandridge
1st Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- Dozens of children floated boats filled with pinto beans and dug up "fossils" hidden under piles of topsoil at the base library's outdoor classroom during a Backyard Safari "Mud Day"event June 30.

Volunteers from the base community held the outdoor event to educate young children about nature and learn science in a hands-on environment.

"We initiated Backyard Safari as an avenue for kids between the ages of 2 and 8 to get out in the great outdoors, socialize with children their age, get dirty, meet nature face-to-face and learn a little something along the way," said Senior Airman Megan Jamison, 2nd Combat Weather Systems Squadron and Backyard Safari coordinator.

Organizers challenged children to craft small boats made of tinfoil and float them in a small inflatable pool. They then filled the boats with beans to demonstrate buoyancy and density.

To celebrate International Mud Day, children played around on a dirt-covered tarp while attempting to excavate "dinosaur fossils."

According to the World Forum Foundation's website, International Mud Day is an initiative to get children and early childhood professional all over the world to celebrate nature and the outdoors by getting muddy.

"This is an opportunity to take a break from your busy life and enjoy what nature has to offer," Jamison said. "It gives children the chance to have fun and not hold back for fear of making a mess. It is a sensory-orientated activity, allowing both children and adults to divulge in their five senses."

After completing the sequence of activities, children got the opportunity to hatch and take home their own plastic dinosaur.

"I like that I could get dirty and play in the mud," said Juliana Wiehrdt, 8-year-old daughter of Lt. Col. Jason Wiehrdt, Air Force Special Operations Command. "And the best part was when we got dinosaur eggs at the end."

For more information on Backyard Safari, call the library at 884-6266.