Happy Earth Day 2016

We had an awesome day building boats at a local creek.

The families were so ready to explore and create.

We started with a book, which I like to do, called Captain Duck by Jez Alborough.

It got us thinking about boats and what kind we would make with the materials

I brought.

One of our grandfathers made us wonderful wooden boats,

including dowels for a mast.

I brought a variety of tools and materials and 

the families got busy putting their boats together.

Hammering, colouring, adding the mast and string to pull it

through the water.

Time to launch in the creek.

My favourite moment was when I finished making my own boat

and turned to see the children IN the creek.

It's not always easy for grown ups to allow their child to take risks

but today they did.

They didn't worry about the children getting dirty or wet.

They let them experience and explore.

Big smile to them all.

Our boat makers are ready to take their creations down to the ocean.

Wonderfully sea worthy.

Love our little piece of Earth.

Math and Art with Milk Jug Lids

Parents have been saving milk jugs lids for me for over a year.

I wanted some more so I made a trip to the bottle depot centre where I 

could take as many as I wanted.

After they were all washed I set some out on a table with pans for sorting.

We spent over a week sorting the colours.

I kept refilling the tray in the middle of the table.

Some children loved this activity.

They would pick a lid then run around the table to find the colour match.

We finally got them all sorted.  It took a week because there were

days that the pans were dumped back onto the centre tray.

The trays were moved to the art table for the following week.

Don't they look beautiful.

The first couple of days the children weren't quite sure what to do

so I put the coloured markers on the table.

That helped

but it really took just one enthusiastic child and parent to inspire others.

I encouraged them to use other materials from the art shelves.

Wonderful images were created.

As well as toys were created like this bi-plane.

We still have a lot of lids left.

What to do next?

Magnetic Sand

One of our families was walking on a local beach when they found

black sand.

The dad realized that it was magnetite and would work 

with magnets.

So he brought me a coffee can full.

When we used magnet wands the magnetite covered them.

It is quite heavy when it is wet.

It is so cool.

The children enjoyed lifting the magnetite on the wands then brushing (pushing) it off.

It feels silky smooth.

I put dry magnetite between two clear, plastic plates and

sealed it shut.

It sat on two blocks so the children could slip the magnet wand

underneath.

It reminded me of the Wooly Willy Magnetic toys when I was young.

Monday at the Pond

This week's visit to the Pond had us searching for bugs.

I started with a book.

Some Bugs by Angela DiTerlizzi and Brendan Wenzel is full of descriptive words

and helped us think about where we might find bugs.

The families were enthusiastic to look all over.

They looked through the grasses, lifting rocks and

under logs.  As well as in the water and trees.

They found worms, spiders, slugs and lots of roly poly wood bugs.

We also saw a white moth and a few other flying insects

but they were too quick to catch on film.

One parent spotted this wood bug that had shed it's outer skeleton.