Observing Habitats in Nature

Yesterday I took the boys to Julian, Ca to pan for gold and gems/rocks. We had a great time and Mr A flu lots of treasures. Afterwards we stopped for some of Mom's famous pie and ice cream. We finished our treat and walks around the hard path nearby.

From the corner of my eye I spotted a little frog. We stopped to watch it for awhile. Mr A wouldnt try to catch it with his hands. I attempted but it hopped away into some bushes. We tried to figure out if it was a frog or toad. I guessed toad since we didn't spy much water for it to be a frog.

There were too many bees on the walk. Lavender plants were chalked full of them and the plants covered 90% of the garden. Amongst all the bees, Mr Z was distracted by the butterflies though.
It was time to go, but as we were walking out of the garden to the car, I saw a little pond. In it were fish. The boys played iSpy with the fish and picked out their favorites. They watched the fish hide under the lily pads, dart around the plants, eat the algae and chase each other from side to side. Above the fish pond was a calm tiny pool and it was filled with tadpoles. We scared the tadpoles around with the shadows of our hands. They nestled into the sand at the bottom to hide or in the sides with algae. I talked a little bit about how their legs would grow and the tails would disappear in a few weeks. After finding all these tadpoles, I realized that the little frog we found earlier had a better place to live than I thought.
We loved observing this little habitat. Mother Goose Time's Nature Detectives, has really helped me appreciate nature and let the boys explore it, no matter what the time restraints are. We spent a good 30-45 minutes watching the fish and tadpoles and talking about them. I am much more 'in the  moment' when the boys get excited about something like this. I let them enjoy it instead of rushing them around and in turn, I have a fantastic time watching them enjoy something out of the ordinary.

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SD Zoo Safari Park: Exploring Trees

The boys and I desperately needed a day out of the house. So, we agreed on the animal park and investigating the trees... and other parts of nature.
Mr A brought his magnifying glass to inspect the leaves of various trees and plants. He said several of them were very interesting as we took the walk up to the Tiger Trail area since that's where all of the garden walks are.

On our way, Mr A noticed a long fence made of wood from trees... and also remembered that he had forgotten his Spy hat (safari hat that he uses for detective work)

We came across a pond that Mr A likes and stopped to observe the fish and mini tadpoles. I liked the flowers popping up from the lily pads. We spotted 3 colors: white, yellow and pink.

The Bonsai Pavilion was our favorite to observe trees... since they are smaller versions of the real things. I explained that bonsai trees are trimmed very carefully and precisely so that they remain small and shaped to look like their larger versions.

Mr A had the great idea of taping the foam manipulative shapes provided by MGT to sticks. He figured it would be easier to carry them around to find the different mystery shapes. We found a heart shaped leaf in the Bonsai Pavilion.

Looking closely at nature helped us spy tons of ants on this little bush. It was grossing me out, so I could not watch long enough to figure out what they were doing. The ants were not on any of the other plants like this.

I liked this little bonsai forest the best.

Mr A liked the cave that was forming at the base of this tree.

The boys watched the stream and found tons of water snails clinging to the rocks.

There was a mini version of the trees that giraffes eat. We admired there long sharp thorns and talked about how they have tough tongues to endure these prickly trees.

Advancing on our walk into the Baja Gardens and California Native area we came across several cactus plants that were as large as trees.

We observed bees working on the budding cacti.

Mr A spotted several heart shaped prongs on the cactus too.

Mr A also found this little flower that he said resembled his star mystery shape. He found circles all over the place too.

We had a great adventure day!

Building with Trees

I set out our container of blocks. Without saying anything Mr A started pulling out pieces and building a home for the wooden animals that are in the box too. It got bigger and more elaborate as they played.

We talked about where wooden blocks come from. Trees!

We made our own trees using the blocks too.

We added more blocks and played even longer with building and knocking down. All Mr Z wants to do lately is destroy stuff.

The shape poster below was included in the daily packet from Mother Goose Time. The boys matched the foam shapes to the blanks on the poster. Mr A thought it was funny that some of the animals were sitting on top of the shapes.

Where the tree trunk makes a 'v' into two branches Mr A noticed that the shapes looked like a rabbit: the circle and two rectangles. He was excited when he noticed that.

I asked Mr A how many of the mystery shape appeared on the shape poster. He was sure it was still diamonds, from the other day. When he checked the secret folder, he was surprised to find a different shape. From the poster, he found 4 rectangles... then continued to count the extra rectangles still in the bowl. He found 8 all together.

The craft provided by MGT for today was to make a Pine Cone Birdfeeder. We discussed what materials can be used from a tree to make different things. Mr A said that birds can use small branches to make nests and humans use wood to build. I explained that trees are cut down to make wood planks to build houses like ours. He wondered what happens to all the trees. I'm not sure what he meant, but I guessed and answered with something about having to replant trees so more can grow. He was satisfied with that.

The boys spread peanut butter onto the pinecones... sort of. They didn't like getting their hands all messy. So I helped.

Mr Z just wanted to put a couple of seeds on his knife with the peanut butter. Then he held it into the air and near the ground. Here birdie. Eat seeds. Here birdie. He wanted to feed the birds right from his knife. It was pretty funny.

The boys sprinkled the seeds all over the pine cone and I helped tie it to some yarn. They picked a spot on a tree and I tied it up for them. I'm not sure if birds will be able to eat the seeds in the spot they chose, but I set out the extra seeds that we didn't use. So at least they'll get something to eat.

Mr A needed a double pine cone feeder since we had one extra cone. (p.s. I am so grateful that MGT provides materials for the crafts. It saves so much time and money to have everything already together.)

Climbing Trees

Introducing our detective kit provided by Mother Goose Time was a lot of fun. I chose a letter and number that Mr A needed to work on. The small bag with the number 13 on it had that many keys inside that needed to be verified. The letter K, I chose since that's what Koala starts with and they climb trees. I also set out some of our sight word flowers for the boys to find the letter K in. The secret shape of the day was triangle. Mr A showed it to Mr Z and explained that no one else was allowed to know what it was.

Mr Z investigated some tree figurines.

Mr A counted and recounted the keys inside the bag to make sure it was the right number.

Mr A used his magnifying glass to investigate the yard while looking for the mystery shape.

The boys played with tree figurines for awhile.

Of course, when you're learning about things that climb trees, you need to explore them up close. The boys climbed around for awhile looking at the bark and leaves.

We talked about what animals climb in trees, why animals climb in trees and how trees are helpful. To camouflage and hide, to sleep and because pandas eat bamboo was Mr A's answer.

Hanging like a sloth.

Mr A found a leaf that he said looked like our mystery shape of the day.

The boys had craft time: a Koala Bear Puppet.
Mr Z just cut his paper to pieces. After some debate and meltdowns from Mr A, he finally set to work. Somehow I interfered and he got upset. But, his little koala turned pretty cute and was proud of it when he completed. His koala has teeth and claws. Mr A even helped his brother finish his so that they would have koala twins. I loved how Mr A wanted to add arms and legs. They played with them for quite some time and even had to take them to Grandma's house (though I think they got left there by accident.)

Investigate, Explore, Discover with Nature Detectives!

While playing outside we stopped to investigate nature. There was a huge mushroom that I was asked to kick over. We watched a pincher bug crawl out from the bottom and looked at the underside.

The boys like snails and these two were mating.

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