Fish Hatchery Tour

   Oh we had a fantastic day at the fish hatchery. 
          Today was egg intake day.
                         Yay!
 
                     So many fish to see. 
              Painted on the ground to follow
      
             and in the holding tanks to watch.

  
The fish have come back up the river to the place where they were born. 
They are excited and we saw many of them jumping out of the water.

  
We watched the works herd the fish into smaller compartments closer
                                         to a lift.
 
Once the salmon were brought up with the lift, they were dumped
into a tray.  The workers sorted the fish looking for female salmon.


      
The next step was to slit the fish and remove all the eggs.  The eggs are
tiny and bright orange.   The eggs came out so quickly and so many that
                       we couldn’t count them.

     
 
A favourite part of the tour is going down below the tanks to get a face to fish
view.  Watching the fish up close really allows us to understand their size, body
parts (fin, eyes, teeth) and colours.

That led to our art project…
   
              Painting a salmon and lifting a print. 
We had only one fish so the children worked in teams of two taking turns
                     painting the fish
 
     then helping each other rub the paper and lifting it off.
        
     They each had a print to take home as a keepsake.

We finished with songs, snack and a story.

I found a book called Ebbie and Flo by Irene Kelly. 
It was great for telling the life of two salmon siblings.
      
Ebbie is a smart little salmon who wants to stay in his nest in the
small stream where he was born. Flo is Ebbie's twin sister. She
wants to explore the whole river, the estuary and the deep blue sea.

 
    
Today was a wonderful experience to learn more about the salmon that we have been pretending to catch in our dramatic play area at school.  I wonder how we can incorporate salmon eggs at school?

Fishing for Salmon

    
The local rivers and creeks are full of salmon so we’ve brought the same idea into the classroom.  We are fortunate to be able to see lots of eagles here too.  And if we’re really lucky to be in the right place at the right time we’ll see one swoop down to catch a fish.
   
    If you visit one of the rivers you will find lots of people fishing. 
    
                        
It became apparent watching some of the children that they have
              experienced fishing before.
      
     We added a big nest on top of our tree for the eagle to live. 
              We would fly him down to catch a fish.

                     Or help him by delivering fish.
            
Tomorrow we are going on a field trip to the fish hatchery then to a park at the river.  Maybe we’ll see an eagle.  We’ll definitely see sea gulls because they feast on the dead salmon.

Fairy Lane Continues

Every time I walk through Fairy Lane I’m hopeful. 
I’m hoping to see evidence that others have been visiting.
I’m hoping that others still enjoy the magic of Fairy Lane
as much as I do.  

Several months ago my spirit was dampened when, while
walking through the Lane, I discovered that someone had
swept away half of the doors and all the treasures that the
children and their families had left behind.  I found it heart
breaking but realized that others, that have not been involved
in establishing Fairy Lane, might not understand its value.
           
But this morning my spirit was lifted.  Someone left a message.
  
They still believe in the power of Fairy Lane. 
The power it has to draw us into the forest. 
To enjoy nature together.
 
They have taken the time to leave their treasures
without disturbing what is growing naturally there.

They took time to paint rocks and existing doors
to brighten up Fairy Lane on these foggy days
of October.
     
          They have left us a message. 
     We are all invited to play in these woods.  

Thank you to the family or families that have taken the time to inspire. 
My heart and mind is full of ideas of how we can continue to explore and
of ideas of ways to show others what Fairy Lane represents. 

Searching for Webs

Eric Carle’s The Very Busy Spider is a great story for exploring how
a spider builds its web.  It’s also a great interactive book with the many
animals involved and the sounds they make, encouraging the children
to say the sounds as you read along.

I saw a great idea from Miss Tara and Friends website to extend this story.

Each child is given a piece of yarn to add to a frame (I used a mesh screen).
I also stuck double sided tape to the frame to help build a web.


When the web was finished we sang, “The spider caught a flea, 
the spider caught a flea, hi ho the derry-o, the spider caught a flea”,
or moth, or mosquito, or bee, or fly.

Then it was time to head outside to see if we could find any spiders
and their webs.
 
It was a foggy day, lots of moisture in the air, which made it easy
to find webs covered with dew drops.

  
We used loupes, a high powered magnifying glass, to get a very
close look at the webs.

  
       Then made quick sketches of the one we liked.

     
    We found some busy spiders and crawling bugs.


      
Lastly we made our own spider web.  I brought out a paper frame
and contact paper.  As the families found materials for the web
they pressed it on to the sticky contact paper.  It’s now hanging
in our classroom window.