Rodeo season is quickly approaching. Every Tucson parent knows what that means: a day off of school for the kids.
Keep them busy at the Arizona-Sonora Museum’s Cholla Buddies: Rodeo Break Day Camp, this year focusing on dinosaurs.
The camp will be held from 8:30 to 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, at the museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road. The museum's grounds feature seventeen life-sized animatronic dinosaurs.
“The goal of our camp is to create a connectedness to nature, to the outdoors, so kids fall in love with the Sonoran Desert,” said Catherine Bartlett, associate director of education.
“What’s special about this year’s camp is it’s going to be completely dinosaur themed.”
Students are divided into two groups: first through third grades and fourth through sixth grades. No kindergarteners, middle schoolers, or high school students will be present. The lessons and activities are geared toward each age group, but the students unite for lunch and visits to the live animals and animatronics.
The Sonoran Desert is no stranger to thundering lizards. Bartlett said the animatronic dinosaurs represent the animals that might have roamed the area.
“They’re what you would have seen if they were real,” she said. “The dinosaurs that (were) picked for the exhibit are from as close as we could figure out of Western North America so it would have been (dinosaurs) in this region.”
Interestingly, their size created some logistical challenges.
“We had to be pretty careful about where we put them because they are so big,” she added.
Still, the beasts are placed to show their best advantage and don’t compete for attention.
“It’s completely immersive so if you’re standing on our front patio and you’re looking down into the Sonoran Desert valley in Avra Valley, there are two dinosaurs that are in your view, the T-rex and the triceratops,” Bartlett said.
“There is nothing in your way. There’s no other building; you can’t see any man-made thing. It’s completely immersive, and it gives you that sense of what life would have been like millions of years ago.”
Bartlett said the students will be doing arts and crafts activities, but most of the time, they will be outside, so kids will have exploratory time at all of the desert museum exhibits. When the students are in the classrooms, they will see live animals from the museum’s interpretive animal collection. They will learn about what dinosaurs look like today.
“We’ll cover dinosaurs but also how they’re connected to living animals now, whether that’s the reptiles or birds,” she said.
They will also learn why the Sonoran Desert is called the “lushest desert on earth” at Stingray Touch, where they touch stingrays.
The camp promises to be fun and interesting. Students should dress for the weather and bring their lunches and reusable water bottles.
The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum also offers weeklong summer camps, two in June and two in July. Bartlett said this one-day experience is a good way to see if your student likes day camp.
“This is an excellent opportunity to meet us, get to know the staff, get to know the desert museum in general and after that they have the opportunity to sign up for a full week of summer camp,” she said.
As an added bonus, and because the museum is so far away, parents may make a reservation for a workstation at the museum so they can work while the kids are at camp. However, space is limited.
Bartlett anticipates welcoming the kids on Rodeo Day and this summer. She knows the museum is a great place to learn and have fun.
“Summer camps are a really amazing opportunity, especially at the desert museum,” she said. “They involve all of the exhibits, all of the live animals, a connectedness to nature, and an extremely high-quality, well-trained staff.”
Cholla Buddies: Rodeo Break Day Camp, featuring dinosaurs
WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20
WHERE: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, 2021 N. Kinney Road, Tucson
COST: For Rodeo Break Day Camp, members pay $96 per child; non-members pay $110 per child. Check the website for the cost of a weeklong day camp.
INFO: 520-883-1380 or visit desertmuseum.org
