
The rain was pouring as we arrived at the Harrington Hall but that didn’t stop the Turtles from making the most of the day!
We opened up our nature notebooks, returning to the brainstorming we had completed last week. After talking about seeds the conversation turned to the word ‘nuts’ which are seeds. We put our brains together and came up with an acrostic poem for the letters NUTS: NUTRITIOUS, UNDER THE TREES, TRAIL AND SNACK. This week we wrote those words in our nature notebooks and illustrated them, adding details such as the weather, trees, pumpkins, chestnuts and acorns. Water Strider wrote four sentences to describe his illustrations and it just may be the start of a story. Catfish added a drawing of our rainy day and shared about how much he loves going out when it is wet. What would you like to write about next in your nature notebook? Did you like sharing your nature notebook entry with your friends?
Farmers have a really big job and need to know a lot about nature, how plants grow and when they are ready to harvest. They are always busy fixing machinery so they can plow the fields, deciding what crops to grow and looking after their animals. When we played ‘On The Fence’, did you notice how many things farmers have to do in a day? After deciding whether to plant wheat or corn, whether to raise pigs or cows or whether to fix machinery or plow the fields, there was barely time to sleep and eat breakfast! Did you find you had to move fast to get everything done? If you were a farmer, what kind would you be? What do you thank the farmers for? We learned that they certainly work hard!
We challenged the Turtles to make a farm out of Legos (thanks to Ladybug for bringing in her big bin) and/or blocks. The farms were creative and there were even some tractors made out of Lego.
What a fun scavenger hunt, spider craft and gift Grey Squirrel had organized for us in the library! After our book exchange and our story about looking for things in the forest, we painted our hands and made a hand spider with sticker eyes. Did you hang up your spider when you got home? Did you find all the things on the scavenger hunt? Thanks to Grey Wolf for helping some of our friends finish finding their items!
After lunch we were off to explore the trails, we were thankful for the change in the weather and the drier conditions! On the trail, Catfish spotted a couple of odd looking mushrooms (one was an Ink Cap) and then Snapping Turtle spotted another Ink Cap. Catfish also saw a woodpecker and heard the sound of a bug which we decided was probably not a cicada but maybe a katydid or tree cricket. From week to week, the forest is always changing, I wonder what we will find next week? In Mystery Forest, we gathered on the stumps while everyone (Dragonfly held the book) read "Not A Stick" by Antoinette Portis. Then the search began for their "Not-a-stick"! After finding our special sticks, we used beads, yarn, wood, pipe cleaners and ribbons to decorate! Grey Wolf made a scanner, Catfish made a person, and Black Bear made a magic wand. Fishing rods were a popular creation and there was fishing going on all over the forest! Just like the book said, a stick is not just a stick. Was it fun to use your imagination? What other things could you make with a stick?
Happy Trails Turtles! Dragonfly, Cardinal and Ladybug
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