Chicks to the Farm

Our chicks are a week old so time to move them to the farm.

This year we were able to take them ourselves.

We are fortunate to have a very supportive Parent Advisory Council that paid for a bus

for us to travel on.

The chicks rode in the front seat all the way to Clea's place

where Clea explained that the chicks would still live inside 

for a while longer.

We started with a tour of two chicken coops,

first was the summer coop that had fresh plants growing.

The big chickens will move into that coop soon.

Meantime they are still in the winter coop.

These chickens are the ones that we hatched last year.

Seeing them gave us an idea of what this year's chicks will grow up to look like.

Next we went and visited the cows.

They were across the field so Clea told us to call them.

We yelled 'Cow, cow, here cow' and they came running.

They are very friendly and like to eat grass.

Next we met Clea's mom who is a Master Beekeeper.

She was outfitted to open a hive.

First she explained that the bottom two boxes are the bees home so they don't 

take the honey from them.

 

She lifted out one of the frames and we could see the bees on it.

She picked one that the honey was capped and brushed the bees off.

We got to taste it.  Yum!

Clea also taught us the difference between honey bees and wasps,

as well as mason bees.

Finally we settled on the grass for a snack and story

before climbing back on the bus for the ride back to school.

Boat Building

Last week for Earth Day we did our annual boat building

at Brooklyn Creek.

We are so grateful to Grandpa Ben who made all these boats for us.

He even drilled a small hole and included doweling for a mast.

Awesome!

Other materials we used was sandpaper, tape, hammer, nails, screws, screwdrivers,

 markers, fabric for a sail and yarn.

The families got busy gathering their materials to build.

Some started with sanding their boat,

others decorated their sail,

and others started with hammering.

Once they had it decorated and the sail attached they had to do one more thing before launching.

They needed to tie a string to their boat and the other end to a stick.

Time to launch.

And launch again and again.

A few boats had issues staying upright so some modifications had to be made.

"Oh, oh my boat is sailing away!"

Grandma to the rescue.

After playing in the creek for over an hour we walked to the beach

for snack and story.

I read "One-Dog Canoe" by Mary Casanova.

It's a cumulative tale that includes lots of animals.

We then attempted to sail our boats at the beach but it was quite windy

and the waves kept pushing our boats back in.

This picture sums up our Earth Day.

We love the earth and love spending time outside.

Visiting a Garden Centre

This week we visited one of our local garden centres.

I visited last week and took some pictures so I could create a scavenger hunt.

As the children arrived they picked up a clip board and started touring

the green houses looking for the items that matched the images.

By providing a do it yourself scavenger hunt the families

didn't have to worry to show up at the same time.

Many of the children stopped to enjoy this water feature.

It made a nice sound.

After they finished the hunt they headed to the hedge maze.

There they found some instructions and a basket with blank booklets.

Throughout the maze I hung pictures, ink pad and a stamp.

They were meant to help the families find their way through.

I put them at intersections like arrows.

 

When they found a picture they took out the stamp and ink pad

and stamped their booklet.

When their booklet was full then they made it to the middle of the maze.

It was an achievement to make it through and then climb the platform 

to look at the whole maze.

Once everyone made it through the maze we enjoyed a snack and story.

I set up the snack area under the platform because the weather

was uncertain if it was going to rain or not.

But as we finished our story and started to sing some songs the sun came out.

If you have a chance to visit Paradise Garden Plant Centre, take

some time to go through the maze

it is a lot of fun.