Environmental Education Center Trip

We went on a great field trip last week to the Environment Education Center in Hammond Indiana.  I had never been there before.  You can't miss the building though, it is brightly painted with a huge trout fish painted on the front of the building.  The kids loved it!  They have a fish tank, a toad, a bearded dragon and a guinea pig.  Everyone was able to pet the guinea pig.  They started off with a quick lesson on the building, what they have there and information on the 3 R's.... reduce, reuse, recycle.  Then we went to the "garbage room" or the ReUz room.  This room is filled with donated "garbage", there are bins and bins filled with endless craft supplies (or "garbage") that you can take home with you.  They had ribbon, fabric scraps, empty yogurt cups, bottle caps, wrapping paper, packaging peanuts, wood scraps, and so so so so much more.  We stopped back in there before we left and the kids picked out some crafting supplies to take home.  After the ReUZ room we were off to the trout stream.  We walked over a bridge that takes you over the stream.  The kids fed the trout and listened to a presentation about the care of the trout, wildlife and water.  After getting off the bridge we came to a large tree house.  The kids climb up and a slide takes them back down through the tree.  And you know they had to go through that a few times.  We took a lunch/snack break in their lunchroom after the treehouse.  The kids loved the empty capri sun drink pouches that were turned into wallpaper/backsplash in their kitchen.  They also had quite a few of those large hand shaped chairs all over the building.  They are made from recycled laundry detergent bottles.  After lunch we learned a little more about the trout and played a fun game pinning body parts on the fish while blindfolded.  Sort of a spin on pin the tail on the donkey.  We also learned that the carpet in the classroom was made of recycled pop bottles.  It was a great field trip and the girls are looking forward to going back just to find some craft items in the "garbage" room and of course play in the tree house.  A great resource and I think we may plan another field trip there.   They have a Merrillville location as well and offer many different field trip options.

Check them out here!