Outdoor Education Challenge - Shelter and Nests

Our first day outside was a complete success. Our theme was shelter, so our first goal was to build a shelter from the sun and heat.

After that, we read a story about birds' nests and went on a nature walk to collect odds and ends to build our own nests.

Next, we ate our snacks outside and did a little drawing activity.

Celebration of Learning

Here are the videos and photos from our special day:

Butterfly Release

We released our butterflies last week.  Some of stayed to visit us before soaring away.  As per an aboriginal legend, we whispered wishes onto their wings before we set them free.

Hatching Chicks

Did you know we are hatching chicks in kindergarten?  We bought some eggs from Morning Sound Farm and placed them in an incubator for three weeks.  We used a process called 'candling' to look inside the egg and watch as the babies developed.  Late last week, thins little guy popped out! We look forward to playing with the chicks for a week before taking them back to the farm.  Here is a picture of an egg being candled and a video of our first chick shortly after hatching:

Making Paper

Last Thursday, we performed at our Volunteer Tea.

We've been studying different types of paper and their uses.  On Friday made our own paper!  It is a messy and fun project that takes a couple of days and many steps:

We shredded and ripped up recycled paper scraps to make them small enough. 

We added water and stirred, stirred, stirred.  The soaking paper had to be left overnight.

With our hands, we ripped up the paper even more before putting small amounts 

into the blender and pushing the button (with supervision) to make our pulp. 

We poured the pulp onto screens, sprinkled in our butterfly garden seeds, 

and squished all of the water out with a rolling pin. We had to set them out 

in the sun so that they would dry.