Lunch For a Bear & Fairy Houses

Today we learned about the kinds of food black bears eat. Black bears are omnivores, which means they will eat both plants and animal matter. We went on a hunt to see if our environment would provide a black bear with enough of a variety of foods. We found plants, grasses, insects, nuts, fruits and meat like chipmunks etc .

We created a Venn Diagram to compare a black bear's diet to our diet. We were surprised to see how many foods we had in common.

We also had some fun building fairy houses and cooling off in the sprinklers!

What's Wild?

Today's activity was designed to help children distinguish between animals that are wild and animals that are not wild (or tame). A wild animal can take care of itself and survive on its own without depending on people as long as it has a suitable habitat in which to live. It gets all the food, water and shelter it needs from its habitat. In contrast, animals that are not wild depend on people for food, water, shelter, and other needs.

On our hunt today we found more wild animal signs than domestic animals. We heard (or saw) eight different birds, one duck, four frogs, water bugs, a chipmunk and came back to camp to find a fawn in our backyard! We also came across chickens horses and pigs. 

 
 




For our wild snack today we made cookies from scratch! Everyone helped measure and mix the ingredients. Before we put them into the oven we formed the dough into wild creatures.

  

Wiggling Worms

Welcome Emily, our new explorer! She dove right into our natural learning and started digging for worms this morning. 

In today's lesson we learned how beneficial worms can be for our gardens. We began our hunt in the vegetable garden but didn't find one until we reached the water's edge. We found 3 worms under a hiding rock. 

After quite a bit of  observation, we used our worms for a "worm tail painting" where we covered our papers with dirt, mud and muck and let them wiggle all around to create neat designs. Then we finished our painting with pictures of our hike.

                                  

Speaking of our hike...you wouldn't believe what we found! Our self-proclaimed animal trackers saw doe and fawn tracks and opossums tracks all over the place! We also uncovered a small toad, a slug and heard two birds- a northern cardinal and a piloted woodpecker!

     

Once we got back to our cool camp, we ate mud, dirt and worms for snack...okay not really, but we did have pudding, crushed Oreos and gummy worms. 

Tidepooling

Today we took a little field trip to Odiorne Point to do some tidepooling! Cole was able to find an oyster, shrimp, periwinkles, LOTS of crab, mussels, barnacles, a sea urchin, 2 hermit crabs and 4 LOBSTERS!!!!!! 

Of course we stopped and discovered a little ice cream stand on the way home too! 

Mmmm...what a fun day, Cole

Ants On Parade

Testing our hypothesis-ants prefer to eat sweeter foods...not always the case!

Another great day learning about NATURE! Lots of tics out today! We did tic checks, but didn't find many until about an hour later. Be sure to check your child throughout the day and before they go to bed. I had 3 on me!

 

 

 We began our day by discussing ant behavior and characteristics. We read a wonderful book called Those Amazing Ants by Patricia Brennan Demuth. In this detailed and informative picture book, the author describes the ant's colonies and various chambers they build underground-used for things like a nursery or food storage and even a place for sick and injured ants.

 

Did you know that all the ants you see walking around are female? These are called female workers. Some females take care of the eggs and larva. Other ants are busy finding food and others are like soldiers, capturing enemies and making them slaves.

 

The male ants have wings, mate with the queen and then die. They are not around for very long.

 

As scientists, we conducted an experiment to see which foods ants would most likely eat? We placed banana, bread, chicken and sugar water on paper plates and placed them in the garden, by the mailbox, in the walkway and out back in a sand pile. The 2 popular ant locations proved to be the walkway and the sand pile and the ants were eating all food items equally!

 

 

After reading If You Find a Rock by Peggy Christian, we were on the hunt for rocks. Today's adventure led us down to the river and out Stowe Road. We found hiding rocks, skipping rocks, resting rocks and splashing rocks. This is a great book about all the fun things to do with different types of rocks.

 

 

Wednesday's explorers made Big Ant Eyes with egg cartons and pipe cleaners

 

First Impressions

What a great first day! Today, children discussed how they think and feel about various New Hampshire animals. Our focus was to discuss different people's responses to different animals and to provide accurate information to promote more positive feelings.

One misunderstood creature we learned about today was a snake. Did you know the benefits of a Garter Snake? They are quite welcomed by many gardeners (often mistakenly called a Gardener Snake). They eat insects, frogs, toads and small rodents that may be destructive to your garden, landscape or household. Although we looked real hard, we were unable to find a live snake.

We spent most of the day exploring our back yard trail called "Deer Highway" to find the perfect deer habitat. We found sufficient food, water, shelter and space.

We also spent our day catching moths, dragonflies, crickets and grasshoppers. We were wondering why we only saw two butterflies, but saw hundreds of white moths.

Once inside, we made a misunderstood creatures using pizza dough and used raisins for eyes. Children's creatures included snakes, turtles and salamanders.

Thank you to all my explorers today! I had a great time discovering with you all!