Niqually Delta

About a week ago I took the kids down to Nisqually Delta park, just them and myself... it was really nice! Typically we do many of these outings with a larger group and I have to say that I loved enjoying this day with just my two kiddos. They were on their very best behavior, very engaged, cooperative, inquisitive and joyful!

The park was rather quiet as the weather was not the most promising. We lucked out and enjoed the few hours in between rains squalls, in fact the sun came to visit us. With the park being quiet it offered ample opportunity to find animals we don't normally find such as racoon, mice, rabbits, snakes, frogs and turtles. The forest was filled with song from more birds than we could count... it was amazing!

We took many opportunities to just sit, watch and listen versus rushing along the boardwalk... we slowed down! Slowing down truly ensured we found all of these amazing sightings, watch bird behaviours, listened to bird songs and located the matching birds, watched raccoons forage and rabbits nibble. It was amaizing! All of this really inspired Holly to nature journal - and both Hudson and I joined in.

It was a beautiful day!!

Chalk Garden

We have been spending a lot of time out doors lately, great time of year! With that we have been observing our garden space - the different leaves, flowers, bunching of plants for larger impact, discussing the different elements in a garden and dreaming of the perfect garden for Holly to enjoy.

Today she took that dream and created her own garden scene for art with chalks. I placed a large paper on he easel and she used our nice chalk set to create. First we reviewed our many talks over the past week or two, looked at several photos online together, read a book on gardens and then stacked a few good garden planning books around her. She then set to create... and a beautiful job she did!

Holly enjoyed using her easel, something she hasn't done for a bit - we'll have to keep it in for a couple weeks. She loves using the nice chalks too. Using these chalks has really helped her to learn blending and softening her lines... a messy experience for certain but oh so worth it.

Tadpoles

We  have a small water area in Holly's exploration garden. A couple week back we finally noticed some small egg masses from frogs... which we have a lot of. We went out and checked them daily, saw the growth happening in each egg mass and then one day we went out and one large mass had hatched! Little tadpoles were everywhere in the water. There was still one more egg mass that had to hatch, about two days later it did. We now have a lot of tadpoles to observe both outdoors and indoors.

Holly carefully scooped a few cups of pond water and then scooped up some tadpoles. She had some from each hatch. It was really neat to see the growth difference that just two days or so made. Tadpoles grow so quickly!!!

Indoors we set up a small tank for them, gathered all of our books and I downloaded a great app on our Ipad for a virtual frog dissection. These materials have been used a lot since! We looked up the proper care of tadpoles, even though we do this each year I wanted her to still research and learn. I was going to put up a poster for Hudson to watch the changes as this is his first experience - Holly has done this each year. Instead of a store bought poster Holly decided to make one. She worked hard on it, making sure to include the major changes and draw pictures of each stage! It turned out great!!!

Owl Pellet Dissection

Friday we enjoyed a wonderful morning of learning with our Nature Club friends dissecting owl pellets. This was a first for both Holly and myself! I started out by doing a small reading to the kiddos on an owls diet and how they digest then regurgitate a pellet containing the fur, bones, feathers, and such of animals. At that point the kids unwrapped their pellets and began their work.

Holly started out working through a sheet that had her take measurements and make observations of the pellet to attempt to determine what kind of environment the pellet was collected from. As well, she made a guess as to what might be in the pellet from observing the exterior of the pellet.

Many of us were surprised to learn the owl pellet they had contained more than one set of bones in it... offering a glimpse into the diet needs of an owl - they must need more than one critter if they are small critters. Holly's had two little animals but a later pellet she dissected with her Dad had a much larger animal and only one. A great comparison for her to observe.

Holly dissected the bones out of the pellet, cleaned them off and then tried to identify them on a chart - they type of bone and the animal it might belong to. She also attempted to rebuild the animals on a different chart which offered a great visual for her.

She adored this project so much - it was fascinating to her!! We will do this again in the future for certain!

Nature Club Dissection

Black Capped Chickadee

For the next month or so we are going to taking a closer look at birds in our area at home and in our Nature Club. Today we started with choosing one bird that visits our feeders daily - the Black Capped Chickadee. This is a favorite of mine for sure.

We spent about half an hour watching and observing the birds from our kitchen window where a popular feeder is located. There were several varieties visiting but a frequent visitor was the Black Capped Chickadee. After a while Holly did some nature journaling, jotting down observations and discussing them with me. I took some photos of the birds we watched as well.

Then we looked up the Black Capped Chickadee to read more - online and in our bird book. We read about this bird at Wikipedia . We found a great site that had a sound recording of the bird, we listened to several different calls and compared them to what we were hearing outside our window that morning. Holly believes she heard all the different calls we were comparing. I think she is right.

After her observation we then looked through the photos I had taken and chose one to look closer at and journal. I have decided to participate in a nature journal as well for a couple of reasons:
     1) Holly seems to slow down more and become more detailed when we do it together
     2) It is something for us to enjoy together and learn over. Hudson will join us soon.
     3) It is fun! I really enjoy it, observing and drawing - making notes.

We read up on their habitats which can be urban or open forest areas. Their diets which consist of insects, in particular caterpillars and black oil sunflower seeds... which is what is in our feeders right now. Their song is made up of a few different calls but they are most known for their namesake call of 'chick a dee, dee, dee, dee, dee'. They are permanent residents of the Pacific Northwest, even in the winter in which they can lower their body temperature to make it through cold snaps. On interesting thing we found is that they can cache their food in tree bark for up to 28 days - and in fact will know the quality of their food cache till about day 24. Who knew? I had no idea they cached food... which was a whole other lesson for Holly - caching.

This was a lot of fun! She is looking forward to learning a bit more detail on more birds throughout the rest of Fall.

Black Capped Chickadee at our feeder.

A different Black Capped Chickadee.

They come to take the seed from our Pampas Grass too! It is cool to watch!

Holly's beautiful & detailed Nature Journal drawing.

My nature journal entry.

Coloring the Black Capped Chickadee in her great bird coloring book.

Black Capped Chickadee color page.

This is a fantastic bird coloring book - nice drawings, examples and information!

Nature Club ~ One Square Foot

Friday we met up with some fellow Nature Club friends and did a small observation lesson called One Square Foot. Each child created a tool to measure out a square foot and then found a spot in the wooded areas of a park to measure out and observe for 10 minutes. They nature journaled the square foot, moved materials around to see what might be underneath the layers of leaves, moss, pine cones, etc... After about 10 minutes they children found a friend to switch with and share their findings with. We talked about how their square foot included the space above the ground and under the ground - to look for signs of life like little animal holes or trees above them.

Each child also took a white plate with them to bring back finding, shake out branches or plants for smaller signs of life and nature. We collected the findings back at a table and looked some of them up, inspected closer and a few kids even nature journaled these extra findings. 

Holly discovered the various layers of nature in her square. We talked about digging down a bit carefully to look for bugs, eggs or larvae - which she found a small larvae. She also discovered layers of decaying plant life. Seeing this decay triggered a discussion on composting - she drew out a little diagram of how composting works in her mind within nature. This was a fantastic lesson. We have done this before at home in our yard, but I think we need to do this more frequently in different settings. I'd even love to mark off one area and observe it long term to see changes throughout a year. Really, so much could be done with this lesson.

To finish off we read this book at home, One Small Square - Woods by Donald M. Silver. A great book to open a child's mind to observation and the bigger picture!

Fantastic Book - entire series looks great!

Picture we discussed on how a square foot is more than just the 'ground' but up, over, under and inside.

Holly & other kids making their 'square foot' tool to measure out their research area.

Holly's sqaure foot.

Busy recording her findings.

Now carefully digging under the initial leaf and debris cover to look for more.



She discovered composting materials and a larvae.



Some findings the kids discovered and brought back for further observation.

Another GREAT book - we used this for some identification today.

Holly's journal page of her Square Foot, drawn & labeled.

Her diagram on composting in nature. A great discussion.

Starting a Cat's Eye or God's Eye with sticks  and yarn.

Having some fun!

Almost done...



Holly & a friend - all done! They look proud!