Showing posts with label outdoor learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outdoor learning. Show all posts
Monday, October 8, 2012
Nature Club ~ McLane Creek
Last week our Nature Club met up at McLane Creek nature trail for a day of exploring and seeking out signs of fall. We spent time enjoying the trail as we moved along beaver ponds, creeks, evergreen forest, fields and deciduous forests. They had a wonderful place to head off trail a little while and explore along a creek with many fallen trees that offered great climbing. The kids had a wonderful day and Holly got in some good nature journal work!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Nature Club ~ Botany Scavenger Hunt
Last week we met up with our Nature Club friends and enjoyed a wonderful Botany Scavenger Hunt at a local park. This park offers some great nature trails that you can either enjoy lightly or really take off for a good, solid hike -- right in the middle of town. It is a great treasure in my community!
The Botany Scavenger hunt was found at this sight, Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop, there are several great links and project ideas at this site. I printed them and laminated them for forest use. We did some basic review of taking a finer look at the plant world around us, how to be kind in the woods, looked at the scavenger hunt while trying to match a few items I had preselected and then broke up into to teams to hunt.
Our team headed on up and immediately found a large array of different plants. Many different leaf style, seed pods, flowers and more! They would gently select items and bring them back to the chart in which they would work together to identify the style. It was a great teamwork experience as well as learning to take a much finer look at the world around them. We collected items and brought them back to nature journal and inspect closer.
This was a wonderful activity, one we will replicate again soon!
The Botany Scavenger hunt was found at this sight, Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop, there are several great links and project ideas at this site. I printed them and laminated them for forest use. We did some basic review of taking a finer look at the plant world around us, how to be kind in the woods, looked at the scavenger hunt while trying to match a few items I had preselected and then broke up into to teams to hunt.
Our team headed on up and immediately found a large array of different plants. Many different leaf style, seed pods, flowers and more! They would gently select items and bring them back to the chart in which they would work together to identify the style. It was a great teamwork experience as well as learning to take a much finer look at the world around them. We collected items and brought them back to nature journal and inspect closer.
This was a wonderful activity, one we will replicate again soon!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Fish Hatchery
We joined out Nature Club for a tour of a local fish hatchery on Friday. This particular fish hatchery is a trout hatchery, although they do assist another local hatchery with salmon eggs because the have great local, spring fed water. An interesting and wonderful relationship between the two facilities.
The tour began with the learning a Native American lore or two about salmon. They saw some Native American art on salmon as well. This was great because we have briefly touched this at home this month, to hear more was a wonderful addition for Holly. Once finished with the stories the kids met their tour guide for the hatchery.
He talked to them about salmon and trout, discussing differences between the two - then took them inside the hatchery. Here he went over the whole process of hatching eggs, holding and feeding and then how they release them. Answered questions kids and adults had as well. After this we headed out to the holding tanks and he let the kids dip their hands in to touch trout and then the fun part... feed trout! They were able to feed little trout and then really large trout. They really enjoyed this part, a lot!
Once the kids were finished up with feeding our guide then walked with us out to the stream to see how the salmon run was going. It was great to compare two weeks after out last visit and see such amazing changes. First Holly noticed there were no salmon running at this location any longer (while we were there). She also talked with me about how much the salmon had decayed in the stream since our last visit - and boy oh boy, are they decayed! Such an amazing journey a salmon's life is. Later that day we reviewed once more the salmon life cycle and read one more book. This has been such a great year to learn and witness so much of the ending portion of a salmon's life.
The tour began with the learning a Native American lore or two about salmon. They saw some Native American art on salmon as well. This was great because we have briefly touched this at home this month, to hear more was a wonderful addition for Holly. Once finished with the stories the kids met their tour guide for the hatchery.
He talked to them about salmon and trout, discussing differences between the two - then took them inside the hatchery. Here he went over the whole process of hatching eggs, holding and feeding and then how they release them. Answered questions kids and adults had as well. After this we headed out to the holding tanks and he let the kids dip their hands in to touch trout and then the fun part... feed trout! They were able to feed little trout and then really large trout. They really enjoyed this part, a lot!
Once the kids were finished up with feeding our guide then walked with us out to the stream to see how the salmon run was going. It was great to compare two weeks after out last visit and see such amazing changes. First Holly noticed there were no salmon running at this location any longer (while we were there). She also talked with me about how much the salmon had decayed in the stream since our last visit - and boy oh boy, are they decayed! Such an amazing journey a salmon's life is. Later that day we reviewed once more the salmon life cycle and read one more book. This has been such a great year to learn and witness so much of the ending portion of a salmon's life.
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| Listening to stories. |
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| What little brothers do while waiting! |
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| Discussing the differences between trout and salmon. |
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| Inside the hatchery. |
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| Tanks that hold trout eggs. |
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| Holly, age 6. |
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| Feeding the small trout. |
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| Feeding. |
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| She invited Hudson over to show him how to feed. It was so sweet! |
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| Bring a great big sister! |
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| Small trout. |
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| Sibling puddle fun! |
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| Heading out to the creek. |
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| Salmon is washed up in that tree, rotting. |
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| It is so pretty back here - all the fall colors are moving in. |
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| Checking out some dead salmon. |
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Tree Study & Changing Leaves
Holly did her tree study for Fall today. She went out with me and did a close inspection, recorded in her nature journal the changes that have happened, did a bark rubbing and a leaf rubbing. We had a good discussion to what changes she has found and then we talked about why those changes have happened.
We then read the book Why Do Leaves Change Color by Betsy Maestro. This was a great refresher and actually broke it down a bit further than we have before. This book included a diagram of a leaf and how it works along with discussing the richness of colors in leaves and how it relates to the amount of sugar the tree has.
After reading this book we took a walk around the yard to compare some of our trees. We looked at their colors to try and determine if they have a lot of sugar or not. As well, she collected a bunch of leaves. We brought them in and took a closer look at them and then did the classic leaf rubbings in fall colors.
This mini study came together wonderfully - she was able to make some bigger connections about the tree she is following for the year. Now we are watching closely to see how quickly her tree loses its leaves and become dormant for winter. What will winter bring be like for her tree?
We then read the book Why Do Leaves Change Color by Betsy Maestro. This was a great refresher and actually broke it down a bit further than we have before. This book included a diagram of a leaf and how it works along with discussing the richness of colors in leaves and how it relates to the amount of sugar the tree has.
After reading this book we took a walk around the yard to compare some of our trees. We looked at their colors to try and determine if they have a lot of sugar or not. As well, she collected a bunch of leaves. We brought them in and took a closer look at them and then did the classic leaf rubbings in fall colors.
This mini study came together wonderfully - she was able to make some bigger connections about the tree she is following for the year. Now we are watching closely to see how quickly her tree loses its leaves and become dormant for winter. What will winter bring be like for her tree?
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Woodland Park Zoo
This was our first year attending the homeschool days with Woodland Park Zoo... but will now be a part of our year for years to come. We had a great time! We arrived just before opening and stayed until moments before closing time - a full day of learning, exploring, journaling and enjoyment!
Holly began in the education building where they had several hands on stations to learn about life cycles of some various animals, learned about camouflage with birds and their eggs and more. After the stations we sat in on a talk on reptiles. The zoo keeper did a great job breaking down the types of reptiles, why they are reptiles and facts about them. Then she shared a couple of critters - a boa and a skink. At the end of the talk the kids all got to touch the skink. A hit for sure!
The rest of the day we spent with friends exploring various areas, enjoying some hands on carts with more animals encounters, did an observation on penguins, a packet on bugs and a visit to the nature exchange. Of course she enjoyed some play throughout the zoo as well! The whole day was wonderful and I look forward to a future visit during their homeschool days - next year we will visit the zoo in a different order to hit the parts we missed.
Holly began in the education building where they had several hands on stations to learn about life cycles of some various animals, learned about camouflage with birds and their eggs and more. After the stations we sat in on a talk on reptiles. The zoo keeper did a great job breaking down the types of reptiles, why they are reptiles and facts about them. Then she shared a couple of critters - a boa and a skink. At the end of the talk the kids all got to touch the skink. A hit for sure!
The rest of the day we spent with friends exploring various areas, enjoying some hands on carts with more animals encounters, did an observation on penguins, a packet on bugs and a visit to the nature exchange. Of course she enjoyed some play throughout the zoo as well! The whole day was wonderful and I look forward to a future visit during their homeschool days - next year we will visit the zoo in a different order to hit the parts we missed.
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