This week my plan was to attempt to introduce story telling with some games I had at home “Tell Tale,” “Tell me a story,” and “Story Cubes-Harry Potter.” They are all very similar giving kids some prompts through pictures or
We began with “I’m Trying to Love Rocks” by Bethany Barton. It was a really cute book, and it gave us a little more information about how we can identify rocks. Then we broke up into 3 groups and each
The forecast said it’d be clear, so we took the opportunity to discuss sunlight! We tracked the energy in our bodies first to our food, then to plants, then to sunlight, and finally all the way to the sun. I
The previous week we talked about natural selection, and this past week we discussed a strategy that often arises out of natural selection: cooperation! First I lined them up on a clothesline and asked them to — while keeping their
On Thursday we talked over camouflage and natural selection from the perspective of both predator and prey. For the first exercise, everyone got a paper bag and stuffed it with leaves, then we threw them in a pile and sorted
Today we dove into rivers! We opened with an activity drawn from here, adapted for the younger crowd… We joined hands and made ourselves into a simple, winding river. We talked about the ways in which rivers move (and some silly
This week we got into the trees of Thatcher Woods. We talked about forest surveys, and how we can analyze trees and forests from a few different perspectives. While we waited for everyone to arrive, we philosophized: if I have
This week, we discussed clouds. We talked about the 4 main types of clouds and what information they can give us about the weather. We did an experiment making a cloud in a ball jar using hot water, food coloring,
This year we are exploring nature journaling. My plan is to weekly have a different element that we learn and focus on for that week. However, our overarching theme is being nature scientists and taking advantage of our beautiful Thatcher
In our first lesson of the year, we tried to answer the tricky question of why there are seasons. We started by modeling the solar system using this nifty NASA activity. I showed them the Sun and asked them to guess how big the Earth
