Nature Club

Ms. Pat's Nature Club met on December 13 and 14 to make Christmas presents for the birds. Although we are having a mild winter (so far) with little snow, the weather will very likely get colder and snowier and we want to help our little feathery friends.
We used little milk cartons for the feeders, and added twigs for a resting place, as well as yarn to hang it all from the tree. We took home wild bird seeds and planned to place the bird feeders in a tree or bush at home.
It was lots of fun and the kids were all excited to help out Nature!

Nature Club

The Nature Club had a lot of fun this week looking for changes. We went out and checked our pumpkin experiment to see if it had changed at all (it had rotted more). Then we looked around at the grass and trees to see how they had changed since school started. We collected sticks for a project in December and then took advantage of the continuing nice weather by pretending to be trees swaying in the wind, and birds flying south. Some of us just ended up rolling down the hill because it was fun! See our pictures in the following post!

Nature Club

Nature Club

The Nature Club met on November 1st and 2nd. Our topic this week was how nature recycles everything natural, and what happens to pumpkins if you leave them out all winter. We began our experiment by taking a jack-o-lantern and a very small pumpkin out to the edge of some woods near our playground. We marked the spot and left a sign that a science experiment was in progress. We also left a plastic bucket beside the pumpkins. Next spring, when the snow is gone, we will check and see what has happened to the pumpkins and the bucket.

Nature Club

This week in Nature Club, we wanted to find Living Things. They could be plants or animals (including people-we are part of nature, too!). The challenge was that only two out of five classes could go outside, due to intermittent rain showers. We met that challenge by discussing what was alive and drawing pictures of some form of life. The two classes that went out had no trouble finding plants:trees, bushes, flowers, weeds and grass. Animals were harder because it was cold enough that all the insects and worms were in hiding. We looked for squirrels, but they hid, too! We FINALLY saw some birds. An interesting exploration and lots of fun!

Nature Club

We had a wonderful time in Nature Club this week! The weather in Minnesota has been too dry, but it makes for spectacular nature watching! Everyone got a paper bag to collect some nature in (nothing gooey or stinky -or alive!). We found lots of sticks, pine cones, rocks, and leaves. A few lucky kids even found feathers. We love collecting nature!

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.