One component of the Wenatchee Naturalist course is to learn to quickly recognize 100 common plants and animals of the Wenatchee watershed. Class member Jan Evans created a fun Charades game. Try your hand at this quick brain teaser (answers are at the end of this post). I encourage anyone to create additions and share them with me!
Jan Evans
Jan introduced three categories to act out by showing different heights: Tree, Shrub, or Wildflower
Puzzle # 1 2 words Category: Tree: 3 clues to act out: pretend to hold a shovel and dig, draw line-hyphen, use hand to pet a fur coat
Puzzle #2 2 words Category: Shrub: 3 clues to act out: make a big circle with arms, use fingers to stroke a beard, hold a pretend hairbrush and brush hair
Puzzle #3 2 words Category: Tree : 3 clues to act out: outline of big house, using hands to outline an upright pole . For the second word, show the emotion of “pining” or longing by touching heart
Puzzle #4 2 words Category: Bird 2 clues to act out: Act out an explorer in a canoe and walking; 2nd word: flap wings
Puzzle #5 1 word Category: Wildflower: 2 clues to act out: point to wall, draw a pretend flower
Puzzle #6 1 word Category: Wildflower: 2 clues to act out : folded hands under cheek with eyes closed to show napping, both hands pulling a weed with angry face!
Jan’s Charades Answers with links to photos of each under LEARN 10 on this website
#1 Douglas-Fir: This was the first tree name Jan learned in 6th grade at Outdoor Ed Camp
#2 Big sagebrush: Jan has come to appreciate this plant. It can often survive fire, and is crucial habitat for different species
#3 Lodgepole pine: Jan really wanted to act out whitebark pine (to accompany puzzle #4), but settled on this related tree.
#4 Clark’s nutcracker. Jan loves the story of inter-species dependence with withbark pine.
#5 wallfower: Jan recalls that she was a bit of a wallflower while growing up
#6 Difuse knapweed (non-native weed). Jan choose this for her dear friend who is the killer of knapweed in Cashmere and who also introduced me to the Land Trust years ago.