(lighthearted guitar music) - We're gonna do a quick activity where you guys are gonna be using your senses.
What are you noticing?
- [Narrator] Imagine a boulder in the middle of a grassy field.
The boulder just sits there day after day.
Through spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Year after year.
Imagine if you were the boulder, what would you see, hear, smell, and feel.
If you become still as a stone and sit in one spot, your sit spot.
You may discover remarkable things that you've never noticed before.
Even in your own backyard.
(upbeat music) Sit Spots on this episode of Nature WY.
A sit spot isn't just what you say to your dog.
(dog barking) For example, the best sit spot to watch cartoons might be in your living room, but the best sit spot to enjoy nature is well, anywhere where there is nature.
(dog panting) A sit spot in nature is a place you go to be quiet, slow down, breathe, and use your ears, eyes, nose, and skin to sense the world.
- So make a circle right here.
I'm gonna stand in the middle of our circle.
You guys are not not looking at me, you're looking out and your voices are off.
First thing you're gonna do.
You're just gonna listen with your ears right now.
(insects chirping) So you're listening for any sounds.
Okay.
When I come by, I'm gonna touch you on your shoulder and you're gonna tell me what you hear.
- I heard a car driving, buzzing and cicadas.
- I heard birds, bugs, and I think that grasshopper sound.
- [Narrator] What do you hear?
Do you hear human sounds?
Nature sounds.
(water rushing) - Now I want you to focus with your eyes.
Look and see what there is to see here.
And if I touch you on the shoulder I want you to tell me something unique or different that you're seeing now.
- Dogs, trees, bushes, rocks, grass, cows, cars, clouds in the sky.
- [Emily] Whoa, lots of things.
Good.
What else are we seeing?
- What I see is several trees, birds hiding in their nests.
I see a ton of grass.
I did see dogs over there, but they're gone now.
- [Narrator] What do you see when you slow down?
(lighthearted guitar music) - All right.
Now I want you guys all to just sit right where you are.
We're gonna use our sense of touch.
So gently, cause some of these plants are a little bit pokey.
I want you to make some observations about what the things around you feel like.
- Well, I feel like this is spiky, like it's soft, spiky, weird.
I'm feeling that these leaves are very soft and some other flowers are feeling very fuzzy.
This leaf, right here.
It's like ...
Fuzzy.
This one is like rough on the edges and I've never seen that.
I like this leaf.
- Okay.
Yeah.
Saw tooth edges.
Nice, good.
So what do you have in your hand right now?
- It's this leaf that has a larva in it.
- So that's, a seed pod from a lupin, but there's a little creature living in that.
So just, you just happened to pick one up that had a larva in it.
Very cool.
- If you were here in this very place, what would you feel?
- We did sight.
We did sound.
We did touch.
What else do we need to do?
- [Kids] Smell.
- Smell, exactly.
And I said already, we're gonna skip taste.
We're not gonna taste anything.
But, so I want you... Everyone close your eyes.
Turn your voice off.
And I want you to take three deep breaths.
(deep breathing) What are you noticing about the smells around you?
- I notices sap.
It smells.
It smells like sap.
- Charlotte.
What else are you noticing about the smell?
- It smells fresh.
- Such good observations you guys.
Amazing.
- [Narrator] If you were here, what would you smell?
Would you smell the scent of flowers or soil warmed by sun?
Would it smell fresh as Charlotte said?
Maybe like the crisp, fresh scent of sage brush.
Slowing down and using your senses can be hard work at first but you'll uncover things you've never noticed before.
Take some paper and a pencil and draw what you see, hear, smell, or feel.
Then come back to the same sit spot on another day and try again.
Notice anything different?
For instructions on how to be an observer from your own sit spot visit wyomingpbs.org/naturewy.
From Science Kids and us at Wyoming PBS we invite you outside to slow down and sit for a while in your own sit spot.
Thanks for watching.