I couldn't decide if I wanted to make Friday art day or field trip day so we made it both!
We started our morning painting fall leaves. I cut leaf shapes out of white paper and set out yellow, red and orange paint. The boys dotted paint onto the leaf shapes and then we used cling wrap to mix the colors together and make interesting patterns on the leaves.
They enjoyed the project immensely and ended up making a lot of colorful leaves.
I can't wait for them to dry so I can put them up in the windows. I miss all the decorations we had in our windows last fall and winter when we were avidly crafting each week. I already have some pretty fall apples planned for next week.
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| Evan adds paint |
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Alec blends the colors together, testing to
see what will happen if he puts all the dots in
a pattern on his leaf. |
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| some of our completed leaves |
Once we were done art I had all the boys get ready for the day while I packed lunches for our field trip. We decided to head to the Ecotarium once again.
They have a new exhibit we haven't seen yet and in September everything is 1/2 off (admission, the train ride, the planetarium shows) so I was planning on taking the boys on the train and to a planetarium show.
We listened to the Key to the Indian on the way there and almost finished the book on the way home. We are so invested in these characters by now and it's quite a gripping story. We can't wait to see what will happen next!
We arrived shortly after the Ecotarium opened and headed right for the pond they have at the entrance. As we were driving in we saw a Blue Heron standing in the water with a fish or frog in it's mouth and we wanted a closer look. Not all that surprisingly, the heron flew to the other side of the pond as we approached. We see them all the time at home but it's still amazing to see then fly. Their wings are enormous.
We continued on to the boys favorite exhibit-- the otters. They were out playing in the water, climbing, diving, chasing one another, it was so much fun to see. The boys enjoyed them and I swear they could have stood there all day, but it was a bit overcast and cool so I convinced them to head toward the building and see what else we could find.
We stopped to play at the bubble station (several times during our trip actually).
There were very few people around today so there wasn't any need to stand around and wait for turns. We saw so much! Everything, in fact.
The boys had a wonderful time and it was cute to see them teaching and talking to much younger kids who were around us and playing. They were gentle and careful and kind.
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| Playing with fog |
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| playing with wind and patterns |
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| Making a dinosaur puzzle |
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Making dinosaur tracks and trying to
interpret the meaning of the patterns |
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| "being a scientist" |
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| Sorting shapes like scientists do |
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| all sorted! |
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| This time Ian sorts magnetically |
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Cooking up a healthy meal using the food groups.
The burner turns red when you've done a good job. |
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| checking out materials under a microscope |
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Another type of microscope with plants, insects
and seeds to look at. |
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| watching the turtles |
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| The opossum |
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| Learning the different names of the orange and brown butterflies |
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| A mini class on magnets |
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| making dinosaur track bookmarks |
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| Playground fun |
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| Great Horned Owl |
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| More bubble fun! |
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| They can get them so high! |
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| Red tailed hawk |
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A talk on the bearded dragon vs. a corn snake;
my boys totally took over the class and most
of the moms' commented on their knowledge! |
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| Feeding the plants our carbon dioxide; the boys filled the entire thing! |
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Learning about a balanced lifestyle; rest,
exercise, proper nutrition, etc. The body lights
up when you have everything right. |
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| Just like scientists-- using glove boxes for work |
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Alec pretended that if he didn't get exactly 100ml in each beaker
that it would explode. |
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They all experimented, measured, compared containers, and
talked in "real" scientific terms. It was a huge hit! |
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| Making summary boards of all we learned |
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| One last stop at the otters |
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| Bald Eagles |
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| Giant bubbles |
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| And even more giant bubbles. |
On the way home we needed to stop at the library again.
We had gotten a few e-mails last night as soon as we got home that many of the books we had requested had come in. I was going to wait until Monday to pick them up but Alec had already read almost half of the books he had checked out yesterday and I wanted to make sure he'd have enough to last him through the weekend.
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| The book Alec already needs to return. He recommends them ALL! |
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