Exploring in Nature

After a full day of staying inside and studying, we wanted to do something fun! We opened up our Nature Guide and picked a page at random and then picked a date. We ended up with a hunt for wild mushrooms! We packed into the van and headed off to the nature center in search of some mushrooms.

On my last trip to the science store in town, I picked up these specimen dishes, which were perfect for this up close look into the different types of mushrooms we found! I used the green coasters to add a little color to the background, so the mushrooms were not the same color as the tray! (Coasters from Ikea .49).

Placing mushrooms in a variety of containers, allowed each child to explore on their own time and not have to wait for their turn. This definitely helped the project last longer.

I set up the station on a 'tray' which is really just an old wooden puzzle frame that had lost all it's pieces! We also used large magnifying glasses and tweezers from the Teacher Store. Everything had it's own place where it belonged and this was perfect for the kids to realize that everything had to go back where it came from.

The kids easily played in this Science Station for over an hour. They traded samples, broke off pieces and even looked up information! It was an AWESOME learning experience.

Afterwards, I handed this worksheet and had them fill it out (I helped the youngest one!) and it was AWESOME reading what each child thought of the day we had! Hands On makes such a difference, than just seeing pictures of mushrooms in a book!

What do you like to do out in nature??

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Headed to the Zoo!

Headed to the Zoo and I got their gear ready the night before, so they can investigate things on the nature trails that are all around! There is so much more to look at than just the animals!

We are members of the Zoo, and we know how much the kids loooove their maps! We decided to have the maps laminated (1 for each child), so that they could use a dry erase marker to mark off what we have seen, our path walked and what they want to see. This is a way of keeping GREEN and not wasting every time we go.

Their to-go kit is all tucked away into our re-usable Zoo bag along with some snacks and a water bottle to tide them over between meals. They have their laminated maps, dry erase markers, magnifying glasses on a lanyard for them to keep at hand whenever they want to check something out up-close! There is also tissues and wipes for allergies and messes and the much needed hand sanitizer! The final item is just a reusable container that they use to store any specimens they may find along the way that would fit into their nature table. Let's hope we get some good weather! By the time you read this post on Tuesday, we will have already gone (we are going Sunday), so I will hopefully be able to post photos and an update on my Friday WEEK IN PHOTOS post!

The weather was definitely rainy, but you know what? We had a BLAST! Dance in the rain is what we did! We had our umbrellas, a wagon and smiles galore! The kids still managed to find some things on our nature walk through the trails at the zoo and we all came home exhausted!
They found this twig from a tree, but the kids insist it is a birds foot, so it got PRIME placement in the specimen box on our Nature Table!
All in all a wonderful day that left us feeling blessed and happy!