Pond Adventures

Amber passed along this super unit study by NaturEd on tadpoles and frogs. I am going to pick out a few of the activities and let the kids enjoy some light hearted learning about frogs. I wanted to post a couple of pictures from our second trip to the pond last week. The kids tromped and romped around the ponds for a few hours collecting turtles, frogs, tadpoles, and all kinds of slimy pond fun. Unfortunately, most of the critters did not survive the weekend, but the 3 turtles that Dante found did. Rich told him he could keep one if he researched what of turtle it was and what was needed to keep it healthy.

Our Nature Studies

What a fabulous time of year to embark on a Nature Study. No more textbooks, but some good ole fashioned, hands-on, nitty, gritty Science. I am sure this is my children's favorite way to "do school." At Dante's request, we took an adventure to the pond behind our local Walmart last week and filled up a huge bucket full of tadpoles. Lots and lots of tadpoles. What a great opportunity to complete a unit study on pond life. We are teaming together with some friends who also have access to pond life and are going to spend the rest of this school year celebrating ponds. Dante and Elijah took some pictures of a few of the different things that have shown up in their aquarium. Many many tadpoles, a dragonfly larvae, and some sort of disgusting slug looking thing that we need to research.
Dante also caught a beautiful butterfly that we will enjoy for a few days and then let go.
We have the kid's pond sitting in the middle of the picnic table outside so that they have access to it whenever they wish. I am looking forward to some fun schooling to end the year.

Green house experiment

We just finished up a study on the rain forest in Brazil and decided to conclude this unit with a greenhouse experiment. We planted birdseed in 2 different cups, watered both, and covered only one with plastic wrap. After about 3 days, the greenhouse cup had sprouted. WOW. Unfortunately, we made the mistake of giving very sensitive Elijah the cup that didn't grow. SOOOO, we started 2 more cups (now Justus needed to participate, too) and wound up with 3 full cups of uuuummm, BIRDSEED. It was quite a great way to show the beneficial effects of the canopy of rain forest trees has on all of the plants growing on the ground.

Science notebooking on Wood

Just to spice things up a bit, we decided to do our Science Journal entry on a piece of wood with our new woodburner. We are studying the desert and Dante and I are both surprised by how many animals actually do live in the Desert. You would think with as dry as they are...God is so creative in that He has provided such variety, even in a dry and dusty desert. There is no way to ever get bored studying all of His Creation.

Dante burned a Red-Tailed Hawk, which is often mistaken for an eagle. This bird has a rufous-red coloring on the upper tail , broad wings, and a rounded tail.

I think he did a super job. Now, if we could only find some cheap wood to burn, we'd be in business.

Love,

Amy