Nature Class 2 & 3

Daniel had is last nature class of the winter session this week. I didn't know what to expect when I signed him up, but I am thrilled with the quality of the class. Ms. Brenda is great with the kids and there are always a variety of activities planned so the kids are never sitting in one place for very long.

Last week's class was all about hibernation. The kids were able to wear their jammies to this class. Ms. Brenda explained that some animals, like bears and groundhogs, sleep all winter long. Ms. Brenda showed the kids a hibernating (stuffed) groundhog, sleeping in a hallowed out log. They listened to some stories about animals in the winter while laying down on a comfy bed (blankets and pillows on the floor). For the craft project, they made a groundhog that could hide and then pop out to see his shadow using a popsicle stick and a paper cup. Then Ms. Brenda turned the lights off and made some shadow shapes and the kids had to guess what was making the shadow. The kids got to meet a hibernating bat that is temporarily staying at the nature center. Finally, Ms. Brenda made a cute snack of sleeping teddy grahams in a bread bed for all the kids to take home. (I didn't get any photos class this time.)

This week's class was all about migration. Ms. Brenda explained that some animals, like butterflies and birds, can't find food during the winter and must travel to a warm place where there is food to eat. To explain it in a fun way, Ms. Brenda spread out some plastic bugs and gave each child a paper cup to be their pretend bird tummy. She said it was summer time and there were lots of bugs to eat. So all the "birds" were able to find 3 bugs to put in their tummies. The next time, she said it was fall and only put out a few bugs. The "birds" were not able to find many or any bugs for their tummies. Then the "birds" flew to the other end of the nature center where it was warm and sunny. There they found lots of bugs to fill up their tummies. I really love how they use activities like this to help explain the concepts they are talking about. The kids did another similar activity, pretending to be herons and using "beaks" to get plastic frogs out of buckets of water (see photos below). Then Ms. Brenda brought out another bucket of frogs, but this time they were in ice because it was winter. Once again, the kids flew away and were rewarded with little cups of goldfish crackers. For their craft, the kids made flying herons (paper plane-like) and took turns trying to fly them across the room. Daniel really enjoyed this class and wanted to stay for another one!

I was debating whether to sign Daniel up for the spring session, mostly because I like having my Wednesday's free. But both Daniel and I liked the class so much, and swim lessons don't start until the end of March, so I signed him up.