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Ancient Art

Activity

Telling Stories with Symbols

Learn about pictographs & petroglyphs! In the Rio Grande Valley, indigenous people used pictographs and petroglyphs to tell stories and record important events. Paint or draw your own pictograph or create one using paper and natural materials like berries, clay, and sticks. Can you include symbols from your environment? Think of local animals and plants, how might they represent a story or event that is important to you?

Science Seed

Petroglyphs (carved) and pictographs (painted) are indigenous pictures used to represent words or ideas. In the Rio Grande Valley, pictographs were most commonly found on rocks. Indigenous people like the Lipan Apache and Karankawa used pictographs and petroglyphs to share stories, record events, and communicate with others. These images often showed animals, plants, or objects that held special meaning, like the deer for hunting or the sun for the time of day. Pictographs can also be created on surfaces like pottery or animal hides — each symbol helped people remember important events or beliefs. By using pictures instead of writing, they could pass down knowledge across generations.

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earn Badges

Badges can be earned through hands-on experiences within each of the 16 branches of science, or “Science Slices.” You can earn a badge in each branch of science by doing four activities in these categories. We also encourage participants to keep a Nature Journal to record their memories, and to express themselves creatively through writing or drawing after each activity. We recommend that each child (and parent if they’d like) write or draw in a journal after each activity, with expectations of your children that match their age (the goal is self-expression, not perfection).

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join Families in Nature

It is our vision to inspire all families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists. Becoming a member of Families in Nature will give your family the opportunity to have adventures in nature, experience field science, develop as youth conservation leaders, and make memories that will last a lifetime. Memberships are free for everyone.

Who are we?

Families in Nature works to create opportunities for nature connection with the purpose of sparking a deep love and desire to protect, conserve and restore the environment. Our mission is to connect children and their families to nature and to each other through time spent learning, playing, and volunteering outdoors. It is our vision to inspire ALL families to fall in love with nature and foster the next generation of conservationists.

This project was made possible by HEB.