In the class, everyone welcomed Olivia...she was timid at first but warmed up fairly quickly. The kids were handed a laminated picture of something that happens in Spring. Livy received a picture of grass. Each child went in the middle of the circle and shared their picture. When it was her turn, Livy ran right into the middle and said with a big smile on her face, "Grass!". We discussed the signs and changes of Spring.
Next, we dissected a bean seed that had been soaked in water to be more pliable. We removed the outer coat and looked at the two halves of the seed and located the sprout.
Afterwards, we went outside in search of the signs of Spring. We noticed the sun shining bright. (It was supposed to be rainy...we were lucky!) We saw some bees, grass growing, water collected on the ground. We walked through the woods following the path and saw buds on tree limbs, where new leaves were starting to form. We saw holes in trees from woodpeckers. We saw bugs and creepy crawlies under a log. We saw some onion grass, moss, and ivy starting to sprout up from the ground. And we saw some holes in the ground from burrowing animals.
When we went back in the Nature Center, Georgia joined us for some painting fun. The girls used flowers as stamps and brushes to paint a picture of Spring.
Olivia's picture
When class was over, the girls looked at the bee display and watched the bees busily at work. There is an opening in the side of the building for the bees to come and go. When they enter the hole, they are in a display case that sandwiches honeycombed beeswax. We are able to see what it is like inside a hive without having to get stung! It was interesting.
We also looked at the fish, frogs, turtles, and snakes they have. The naturalist took a snake out of its cage and the kids had fun touching and petting it. Georgia and Olivia each held it for a bit.
(I was able to take pictures of Livy in her class and woods walk, but wouldn't you know it....when the girls are holding a snake the darn memory card gives me an error message....I'm still trying to figure it out so that I can get the pictures from it.)
We also studied the life cycle of a frog, and played a frog identification game before leaving the nature center.
Once home, Georgia worked on some division in her math workbook. She also reviewed the Spring Spanish words she learned the day before. Then she learned about Greenland. She did a map study, and reviewed two websites that told about Greenland, the Vikings, and Denmark. (Greenland is a territory of Denmark)
Olivia made some words with Boggle Jr, practiced writing her name, worked on the PowerTouch, and learned the word "the". I took two simple books that were printed off the computer and gave her a yellow marker. She needed to highlight the word "the" whenever she saw it in the two books. She did really well recognizing the word. Afterwards we read the two stories together. I read one, and Olivia read the other!!!!
The girls each had a turn to play Petz, a computer game that teaches what it takes to be a good pet owner. They can adopt a cat or dog....and there are several breeds of each to choose from. They are in charge of feeding, bathing, exercising, and playing with their pets. They even have a spray bottle to discipline the pets when needed as well. They can win prizes if they teach their pets to do tricks, too. They have had a couple runaways....from not being taken care of. The problem with that was that they like to adopt a ton of pets!!!! Too many to take care of them all. But they have a lot of fun with the game.
They are sculpting with play dough now...
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