Hello to one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! We celebrated the arrival of the solar eclipse and warmer weather with sunny, funny play—put on your eclipse safety glasses and get ready to be dazzled by our day!
Gone were our puffy boots, snow pants and hats, Spring is here and we love that! Instead of our usual spot under the trees, we played with chalk where everyone walks—buds are blooming and green is showing, we don’t want to disturb plants as they keep growing. We drew fire trucks and rainbows, big lines that curved to and fro, enjoying the sun before it was time to roll. We sang our Good Morning song in unison today, it sounded so nice and we didn’t have to sing it twice!
We eagerly sat down to learn about planets and how they orbit around. We learned that there are eight planets in our solar system and they orbit around the sun. The farther you get from the sun, the colder the plants become! We also learned that an eclipse is when the moon moves into the perfect position between the Earth and the Sun and blocks the Sun, partially or fully. We became planets and orbited around our “Sun” ten times and it was so much fun!
When our learning and weather were done, we washed our hands and snack time begun. We nibbled and we munched until we had the sneaking hunch that we should play outside in the warm weather rather than finishing our early lunch! Every week our boundaries get bigger and our cones move out farther, our responsibilities are getting larger. We shoveled and we dug, we climbed and found bugs! One of these creatures was a green stink bug, one of the first to wake in Spring—we also found a dandelion, these are wonderful, warm things! Soon, we all gathered our favorite artifacts from nature, leaves, sticks, berries, grasses, flowers and anything that may have grown with recent rain showers. We put these cool objects on cyanotype paper that reacts with sun light and waited to see what it what reveal!
The sun too nice for us to want to go far, we stuck close by and enjoyed the warmth from our super sized star. Ms. Aspen and and few friends went down to the river while Ms. Miranda stayed up top where others were digging and couldn’t stop. We all sat back in the grass, feeling the warmth on our face and enjoying a wonderful day of class. Before too long, it was time for us to go, we packed up our bags and were ready to roll. Our families were eagerly waiting for us to arrive, some even had plans to watch the Eclipse live!
We want to thank you all for a stellar day in the life of your Knee High Naturalists, we had so much fun learning about the solar system and special solar events. We look forward to actually learning about wiggling worms and other incredible insects next week!
