Nature Club- January 11,12 & 13

It took me a long, long time to get this posted because I left my camera at school and couldn't download the pictures from last week's Nature Club until today. I read a favorite book of mine: "In the Snow: Who's Been Here?" by Lindsay Barrett George. We talked about looking for traces of the animals that are awake and moving around in the winter when the ground is covered with snow.
Then we made animal footprints and nature prints with stampers. Okay, so some of the animals and plants are not around when there is snow and ice! We didn't care- it was fun anyway!
I was really impressed with the knowledge that many of the kids had about animals in winter. They are very excited about watching for nature!

Critter Watch

A beautiful clear winter day in Minnesota. The temperature is about 12 degree, but the sun is shining, the sky is blue and the snow sparkles white. I just saw a bald eagle in a tree, sitting and watching the world. Lucky to see it and lucky to live here!

Critter Watch

The road to my house is not very busy and I'm glad because for the last three weeks, someone has put corn by the side of the road. I see deer there frequently, but the squirrels are having a corn party every time I drive by. Today there were 4 adults and 1 young squirrel stuffing their faces. I hope this helps them get through a very snowy winter!

Nature Club- December 7,8,9

Our lesson last week was "Snow is part of Nature". We began by looking at how some animals adapt to living where it gets cold and snows. I showed them articles in Your Big Backyard magazine: one showed birds finding food in winter, some from bird feeders, and one showed snow monkeys in Japan. We had a nice discussion about how other animals handle snow. The kids learned that there are three ways to deal with it: sleep through it (hibernation), go south where it's warm (migration) or stay and try to find enough food.
Then we had a very lively discussion of what they liked to play in the snow. They drew pictures of themselves playing their favorite games. These ranged from sliding to sledding to building snowmen (snowwomen, etc.) and snow forts to making snow angels and throwing snowballs. Lots of choices out there and lots of snow, too!

Nature Club, November 22 and 23

We began Thanksgiving week with a Nature Club theme of Endangered Animals. We had to talk about what those words meant, as only a few kids knew already. We discussed the dinosaurs and the word extinct and then I pointed out that we didn't want our endangered animals to go extinct, so some people try to protect them. We put together a large jigsaw puzzle of endangered animals. After that, I let each preschooler pick from a selection of endangered animal coloring pages. I reminded them to have a great weekend and to "Watch for nature!"

Nature Club- November 9,10,11

We had lots of fun in Nature Club this week with a project I did last year that was very successful. The kids loved it this year, too! First I read Nature Spies, a book about watching things in nature closely. Then we put on jackets, I gave each kid a paper bag that said "Nature in a Bag" and we went outside.
Everyone was very excited to find a funny-shaped twig, a sparkly rock or a pinecone. Other things we found were red and yellow leaves, dandelion flowers, sand and tiny berries from an evergreen.
We had decided before going out NOT to pick up anything gooey or stinky, and no animals, alive or dead.
It was fun to see how enthusiastic everyone was and I hope they took that home with them and added to their nature collections at home!

Critter Watch

I was surprised to see two Sandhill cranes still in our pasture on Sunday! They were clacking away just as if it were July. Why haven't they gone South yet?
It was fun to see the cranes, seven wild turkeys and our three horses all sharing the same space!