Everyone was excited to have beautiful weather today in Harrington for the Turtles Program. We spent the whole day outside learning and exploring. Thanks to Mrs. Eastman (Grey Squirrel) for supplying a lovely story book called “Rosy the Bumblebee” to start our day off. This book was full of fun information and ways to help bees. What does your child remember about this book? After the book we pretended to be bumblebees and went from flower to flower to collect pollen.
Turtles explored a full range of movement today. Climbing, bending, rolling, walking, running and balancing to name a few. Did you child try moving in a different way today? The Turtles Program had some new faces join the program for the next few weeks. Laynee (Badger) and Molly (Mourning Dove) lent a hand when needed and also kept careful watch over turtles as we did activities together. These aspiring teachers are coming out to learn with us at nature school.
One of the ways to help bees is to make them a home/hotel or a place to rest when the weather is cold or wet. You can put a lot of different natural things in a tube and then set it somewhere for the bees to find. Rose stuffed some ‘tickles and hugs’ inside her bee home. A couple of the hotels were left for the bees in Mystery Forest and a few were taken home. What other ways can you help bees in your backyard?
In another activity, we collected some ‘green nectar’ to help feed the eggs in the hive (small ice cube tray). Using the water dropper was fun to suck up the ‘nectar’, carry it to the hive and then squeeze it out again. It didn’t take long for the Turtles to fill all 60 cells with ‘green nectar’. Filling all the cells meant that all the baby bees will survive because they will have enough food to grow. Great job, Turtles!
We were able to find bugs and other living things, using our eyes, a net and sometimes gently using our fingers. Dandelion flowers were everywhere with bugs in them and the Turtles loved picking and observing. Near the end of the day, Butterfly found a tiny toad and shared her interesting find with everyone. Where was the toad released? Why was that a good spot?
What fun adventures today! What did you child like best about today’s adventure?
Happy trails Turtles!