Besides the pride of being able to grow your own food (we would love to have our own little Kitchen farm one day), we love teaching our son where his food comes from. Apples are not just bought at the store. They grow on trees …
Lichens are a truly a unique organism. They are a symbiotic relationship between fungus and algae. The fungus grows on the tree (or rock, wall, etc) and traps moisture which the algae need to survive. The algae photosynthesize and create food which feeds the fungus. …
Locryn’s biology/nature adventure today was on clouds!! For those who are new to this blog, Locryn is our near three year old. While the Kitchen family remains quarantined at home for the COVID19 pandemic, we are enjoying the time and space to slow down and teach our son some of the amazing things in the world around us. Most importantly how everything in nature has a job to do and how that job influences everything else.
We discussed how clouds turn black when they are full with moisture and ready to rain. The rain helps water the plants around us which helps them grow. As the plants grow, they help produce clean air for us to breathe and fruits and vegetables to eat.
Supplies needed to build your packing peanut clouds: Packing peanuts, pipe cleaners, push pins, clear fishing line, scissors.
How to build your own packing peanut clouds:
1. String packing peanuts on the pipe cleaners. We put about 10 peanuts on each pipe cleaner.
2. Bend the peanut filled pipe cleaner into a circle and twist the ends together to hold it in place.
3. Take a second peanut filled pipe cleaner and bend it into a circle around another circular peanut pipe cleaner. Use the ends to hold it together and to the other circle. You have a cloud!
4. Tie a piece of clear fishing line to a push pin, tie the other end to your cloud.
5. Hang your clouds from the ceiling! We hung Locryn’s clouds over his bedroom reading chair! (A special shout out to Locryn’s Nini for the idea of hanging the clouds from his bedroom ceiling!)
ENJOY!
For Locryn’s biology/ecological lesson today (and to satisfy Mom’s desire to decorate her Sunroom), we built a fairy garden terrarium! We learned how a terrarium or ecosystem needs certain things to survive! Light, Water, and Nutrients! Steps To Create A Happy Terrarium: 1. Choose and …
To continue with Locryn’s daily biology lessons on our COVID19 quarantine adventure, we played with Roly-Poly Bugs (sometimes called Pill Bugs)! For those who don’t know, Locryn is our almost three year old who is enjoying learning about the natural world around him. As a …
Locryn is my husband and my amazing son (we are slightly biased of course). He will be turning three this summer and has a passion for the outdoors just like his parents. We have always tried to spend at least an hour outside each afternoon since he was born, but sometimes life (doctor appointments, grocery store runs, end of day exhaustion from work and daycare, and other seemingly important errands) got in the way. When the COVID19 quarantine started, we had no more excuses. We are outside EVERYDAY- rain or shine.
When you have the freedom to just be in the moment, you are able to notice all of the amazing things around you. No matter where you live, how big your yard is, there is life to observe. Granted I have a background in biology, but I also just have a love of nature. This time of pure play with our son in the yard has allowed us to all slow down and teach him some of the amazing creatures, plants, and phenomenons in the world. It has allowed our toddler to see how everything in nature has it’s job and is connected to everything else.
I started posting these lessons on my personal Facebook page, so I am going to use this post to bring you a bit up to speed on our lessons thus far. After this post, they will posted more regularly. I hope you ENJOY!
March 30, 2020: Identifying animal tracks! It is fun to see what animals have been wandering around even when you don’t see them!
March 30, 2020: Can you find the frog hiding in a tiny hole?
April 2, 2020: Keeping an eye on water quality and the invertebrates that live in that water source is very important for understanding the health of the ecosystem.
April 4, 2020: Sometimes nature comes to you, sometimes you go to find it in the form of a Scavenger Hunt!
April 9, 2020: Occasionally, when you have a bird feeder out, you attract larger birds too 🙂 I believe this is a Cooper’s Hawk.
April 13, 2020: It is important to know your shapes and colors! Shapes and colors can be found all over nature! I will be the first to admit that my geometry (and artistic) skills are horrible, but here is my attempt at a rainy inside game. We made a “cube” out of leftover cardboard and drew different color shapes on each side of the “cube”. We then drew the same color shapes on pieces of paper before attaching them to the floor with masking tape. When you roll the cube, you call out the shape, color in English, or color in Spanish on the top side of the cube and then quickly jump or run to that corresponding shape or color on the floor!
April 13, 2020: Have you ever noticed that dragonflies seem to come out more when it is about to rain? Maybe that is just me?
April 14, 2020: Eastern Box Turtle!! Today we talked about the differences between turtles and tortoises. The major difference between the two is that tortoises live on land, while turtles live in the water (either some or all of their life).
April 15, 2020: Today we met a Garter Snake. We learned that they keep the rodent population down and are not to be touched!
April 16, 2020: Today we identified slugs along with their slime trails. We also counted a spider’s 8 legs.
April 17, 2020: Can you move like an inchworm?
April 19, 2020: Stinkhorn Fungus! Crazy looking aren’t they! The brown slime is “stinky” to us, but it attracts bugs which fall into the center of the pant. The plant then absorbs the bug’s nutrients.
April 20, 2020: We have 8 new baby chicks. This one is a Bantam Cochin. It is Locryn’s job to care for them (with Mommy and Daddy’s help of course).
April 21, 2020: We discussed the difference between a carpenter bee versus a honey bee. Carpenter bees can’t hurt you (maybe your house!) and are solitary bees; while honey bees live in a colony and can sting you if they get scared!
April 23, 2020: A rabbit came to visit today! We discussed all the plants in mommy’s garden that he likes to eat.
April 24, 2020: We had a fun experiment of collecting items around the house and testing to see which ones would float or sink in the bathtub!
April 24, 2020: Ant’s can carry 5,000x their body weight! They are really strong! We also saw a male cricket. The male cricket has 2 prongs on his little bottom (abdomen); while the female has 3. The third middle prong on the female cricket allows her to bury her eggs underground.
April 25, 2020: Baby beans! Our vegetable garden is starting to produce! Locryn planted the seeds in containers in the house earlier this spring and transplanted them into the veggie garden in early April!
April 26, 2020: Locryn found a green tree frog while helping mom weed a flower bed. He also cleaned and prepared the hummingbird feeder for our visitors this season. He learned that the frogs help keep our mosquito population down and hummingbirds can fly really fast!
April 27, 2020: Locryn turned a milk jug into a bird feeder. We placed it in front of our big bay window so we can learn more of the birds which visit our property!
April 28, 2020: Skink! These are great to have in your garden as they eat grubs, flies, caterpillars, and other small insects!
Life is all around you! You just have to take the time to look! I hope you enjoyed Locryn’s biology lessons thus far and will be joining us for more as they progress!
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