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Seeking Shelter

Activity

Craft your Own Tiny Home

Look around and identify natural materials in the Park that can be used to build shelters. Imagine what you can use to make a sturdy structure, and then build a very small-scale structure of your own using natural materials. Remember to return your materials to where you found them!

Science Seed

The area around Memorial Park has been home to Indigenous tribes like the Akokisa and Karankawa for thousands of years, and they are still present and active in their culture today. Long ago, these tribes used natural resources like wood, grasses, and animal skins to build shelters. To adapt to Houston’s warm, humid climate, shelters had open sides to increase airflow during summer months, which could be covered with animal hides in colder months. The Akokisa lived in round houses made of wooden frames covered with grasses and palmetto—while the Karankawa who moved around more, built shelters called ba-ak from willow sticks and leaves that were easy to put up and take down. Ba-ak were temporary, portable or both. These shelters show how the Akokisa and Karankawa used what they found in nature to live in harmony with the land, a tradition their communities continue to honor today.

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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).

Explore the Memorial Park Conservancy

The mission of Memorial Park Conservancy is to preserve, restore, and enhance Memorial Park for the enjoyment of all Houstonians, today and tomorrow.

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