I wish Nature Class wasn't over for the summer. We always have a great time.
Fun at the playground with friends after class...
After that, Mikro and I went exploring on our own...
Showing posts with label nature class. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nature class. Show all posts
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Homeschool Nature Class
Animal Detectives on the lookout for clues as to what critters have been by... Lots of birds at the meadow, and bugs and butterflies, but no coyote sign sighted... Did see several yellow warblers, a new addition to my life list! Also had an American Kestrel fly right over our heads (See the video below, which also has a bit of robin song.) Mikro is in love with kestrels...
I wish Nature Class wasn't over for the summer. We always have a great time.
Fun at the playground with friends after class...
After that, Mikro and I went exploring on our own...
I wish Nature Class wasn't over for the summer. We always have a great time.
Fun at the playground with friends after class...
After that, Mikro and I went exploring on our own...
Friday, March 19, 2010
Crazy Busy Week
Monday: Into the city for a play. Lots of fun on the playground with our homeschooled friends from HSNY afterwards.
Then home for bird watching and a nature hike at the local wetlands.
Tuesday: Science Class in Queens; math at the library. (See separate post below.)
Wednesday: Mom has a seminar with the NYS DEC on Project WET: aquatic education, at the Van Cortlandt Museum House in Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx. Mikro gets to play at the Adventure Playground in Central Park with Dad until mom's done.
Thursday:
A.M.: Homeschool Nature Class at the Croton Nature Center.
The kids learn about heat and cold, and do experiments on the insulating and buoyancy effects of fat or blubber. They also determine that light colors absorb less heat, and darker colors more, by leaving ice cubes out on top of variously colored natural materials, and seeing how fast they melt on different colored backgrounds. Then they hiked down to the beach and learned about water temperature, and hiked in the woods looking for insect signs of spring, and found a very cool yellow and black pill bug. I humg out at the bird feeders, trying to get photos of some of the spring returnees as well as the year round residents.
PM: Afterwards, it's time to hit the playground with our TCHS friends for the first time this spring. It was an incredibly beautiful day! It was very hard to pry Mikro out of the park 2.5 hours later, in order to barely catch our NYC-bound train and meet up with our friends from HSNY for a performance of 46 Circus Acts in 45 Minutes at the New Victory Theater. Mikro loved the show!
Friday: Today, we're home, and will do some history, hang out in the yard, and play with the neighbor kids. Tomorrow we have a program at the library, and then we're free till Monday...
I am exhausted!
Then home for bird watching and a nature hike at the local wetlands.
Tuesday: Science Class in Queens; math at the library. (See separate post below.)
Wednesday: Mom has a seminar with the NYS DEC on Project WET: aquatic education, at the Van Cortlandt Museum House in Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx. Mikro gets to play at the Adventure Playground in Central Park with Dad until mom's done.
Thursday:
A.M.: Homeschool Nature Class at the Croton Nature Center.
The kids learn about heat and cold, and do experiments on the insulating and buoyancy effects of fat or blubber. They also determine that light colors absorb less heat, and darker colors more, by leaving ice cubes out on top of variously colored natural materials, and seeing how fast they melt on different colored backgrounds. Then they hiked down to the beach and learned about water temperature, and hiked in the woods looking for insect signs of spring, and found a very cool yellow and black pill bug. I humg out at the bird feeders, trying to get photos of some of the spring returnees as well as the year round residents.
PM: Afterwards, it's time to hit the playground with our TCHS friends for the first time this spring. It was an incredibly beautiful day! It was very hard to pry Mikro out of the park 2.5 hours later, in order to barely catch our NYC-bound train and meet up with our friends from HSNY for a performance of 46 Circus Acts in 45 Minutes at the New Victory Theater. Mikro loved the show!
Friday: Today, we're home, and will do some history, hang out in the yard, and play with the neighbor kids. Tomorrow we have a program at the library, and then we're free till Monday...
I am exhausted!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Homeschool Nature Class and Some Math
Homeschool Nature Class kicked off for the season with a splash. The kids first learned about fish anatomy, then went seining. It was cold and rainy, but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm.
Afterwards, Mikro collected acorns, which became math manipulatives for doing basic addition and subtraction, and which sparked a discussion of sets and venn diagrams (acorns, acorn caps, acorns with caps). He had huge fun with this. His usual found math manipulative is sugar packets at a restaurant. This week I gave him a little shaker with two number dice and a "+ or -" operations die, which, if I remember correctly, I got from Rainbow Resource.
He thinks it's a fun toy.
Afterwards, Mikro collected acorns, which became math manipulatives for doing basic addition and subtraction, and which sparked a discussion of sets and venn diagrams (acorns, acorn caps, acorns with caps). He had huge fun with this. His usual found math manipulative is sugar packets at a restaurant. This week I gave him a little shaker with two number dice and a "+ or -" operations die, which, if I remember correctly, I got from Rainbow Resource.
He thinks it's a fun toy.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Homeschool Nature Classes -- Erosion and Chemistry
I'm so horribly behind in blogging, that I'm just going to do one entry combining our last 2 homeschool nature classes at Croton Point Nature Center...
The first class (Feb. 19th) was about erosion. We watched construction work on the park's bulkhead replacement project, which is designed to help minimize erosion.
Then the kids built models of "Mother's Lap", the small point on which the Nature Center sits, perched over the Hudson River.
When they were done, we tested out how their designs withstood the "tides" by pouring water in and agitating gently.
Before:
After:
(And yes, Mikro had help from mama in building his model... but he gleefully eroded it all by himself.)
Our most recent nature class, on March 5th, was about the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions. The kids mixed a variety of substances and took temprature readings to see whether heat was released or absorbed in the reaction.
After class we did some feeder watching, then headed to the playground. We saw this cooper's hawk as we drove up to the Nature Center:
There were huge flocks of redwinged blackbirds.
A pretty little goldfinch also came for a visit.
Other birds we saw included a white throated sparrow, a house finch and some cardinals.
The first class (Feb. 19th) was about erosion. We watched construction work on the park's bulkhead replacement project, which is designed to help minimize erosion.
Then the kids built models of "Mother's Lap", the small point on which the Nature Center sits, perched over the Hudson River.
When they were done, we tested out how their designs withstood the "tides" by pouring water in and agitating gently.
Before:
After:
(And yes, Mikro had help from mama in building his model... but he gleefully eroded it all by himself.)
Our most recent nature class, on March 5th, was about the difference between exothermic and endothermic reactions. The kids mixed a variety of substances and took temprature readings to see whether heat was released or absorbed in the reaction.
After class we did some feeder watching, then headed to the playground. We saw this cooper's hawk as we drove up to the Nature Center:
There were huge flocks of redwinged blackbirds.
A pretty little goldfinch also came for a visit.
Other birds we saw included a white throated sparrow, a house finch and some cardinals.
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