Nature Club

We had our first Nature Club meeting this week in all the preschool rooms, RRR and Kindergarten. We talked about what "nature" is and learned how to use the words natural and man-made. We played a game in which each child got to pick an item from a group of miscellaneous things, decide what it was, and put it in either the natural wood basket or the plastic bucket. After that, I read Nature Spy by Shelley Rotner and Ken Kreisler. Everyone had fun and got very excited about watching for nature!

Nature Watch- Cozumel, Mexico

(1)This is bouganvillia in our front yard in my very favorite color.
(2)Palm trees poking their heads out of a palmetto jungle on the east side of the island (the wild side). I think they look like the truffula trees in The Lorax by Dr. Seuss.
(3)You can see a double rainbow over the Yucutan Penninsula if you look very hard.
(4)The hole in the sand is a sea turtle nest- the tracks leading to and from the ocean are made by the turtle. The nests are protected by the government.
(5)Can you find the iguana on the branch? We named him Waldo because he's hard to find. He comes out when the sun is high to warm up his body!

Nature Club- The Last One for the Year

This week we had our very last Nature Clubs for the school year. I showed the preschoolers how to make bark rubbings and challenged them to find other natural things to get rubbings from. I also showed them how they could try rubbing dandelions, grass, rocks, etc., on their papers to see if some color would rub off. They were very creative in the things they tried AND even got some grass to rub off on their clothes (grass stains- I didn't tell them to do that!)
A fun class time and then we had suckers as an end-of-the-year treat. Have a great summer and...watch for nature!

Nature Nuts

We had our last Nature Nuts class on May 20. The weather just has not been cooperating with anyone this spring and last Friday was no exception. It rained and since most of the kids did not have raincoats or jackets with them, we had to stay in. We read our two pond books that we didn't have time for last time. We fingerpainted ponds and then made fish prints to go in the pond. We had a great time and everyone agreed they love Nature Nuts class. Thanks to all the parents who believe in nature education!!
Note: I was originally a little disappointed that the fish prints didn't look "fishier", but as I see them in the blog, well, that's exactly how fish underwater look to those of us looking down on them!

Nature Nuts on May 13

Nature Nuts met on May 13. We stayed inside today mostly because of the weather, but also because I borrowed a microscope from Mrs. Harvey, the science teacher. We looked at slides of pond water, hoping to see something alive and wiggly. One or two of the kids saw a live creature, but most of us did not. I feel that it has been a very cool spring and maybe all the tiny creatures haven't really gotten going. We also created turtles to take home and used pond creature stampers to make pictures.

Nature Club for May 10,11,12

The Nature Clubs on Tuesday, May 10, were able to go outside and look for living things. We looked for plants and animals. We talked about how to treat any animals we found (gently) and when it was okay to pick flowers and other plants. We found a lot of anthills that we observed carefully without disturbing the ants.
On Wednesday and Thursday, May 11 and 12, it rained so we stayed inside and talked about how we should treat the animals we find. I read Under One Rock by Anthony J. Fredericks and reminded everyone to "Watch for Nature!"

Nature Nuts

Nature Nuts met on Friday, May 6, to start their study of Pond Life. We had lunch, then walked to Wakefield Lake to check out the wildlife. I reminded the kids to use their eyes and ears, not their voices, because we didn't want to scare away any animals. We saw an amazing variety of creatures: great blue herons, red-winged blackbirds, a pair of mallard ducks, dragonflies and a downy woodpecker! The boys and girls had very sharp eyes and saw the dragonflies and woodpecker before I did! It was lots of fun and we can't wait to go again next Friday.