Monday, October 7

Today's Habitat trip was all about the POND!

 

Though the weather kept changing on us-Cold, sunny, rainy, hot, no, wait, rainy, no, sunny-the intrepid 4 day kids tromped off to the pond to make some new animal acquaintances. 

We were offered a choices of 3 tools with which to search: nets, scoops and sieves. Ask your child which worked best for him/her. 

Reaching into the mud and muck at the pond's edge was a challenge while retaining one's boots, and then we looked into our vessels to see if we'd found any critters. Sarah gave us a great clue: "If your mud is moving, you've probably found an animal! " 

A spoon was a handy tool for excavating our muddy discoveries.

We collected several Isopods, a water boatman, a number of dragonfly larvae (kids were intrigued to see how different these "babies" look from their parents!)

Aislinn found a scud ( a tiny shrimp-like creature), so small we had to dig out a microscope to see it well.

Truman found the largest of the leeches!

The great blue heron we saw so briefly last week was our companion for most of our pond experience, allowing everyone a good view.

If you did not happen to see it, there was a very interesting article in Sunday's Globe magazine on outdoor education for young children.  Today alone 4 day kids developed their stamina, learned more about camouflage and reveled in autumn in New England.