We had a very fun time at Frog Song for bird week! One of the children’s favorite things was to go on a nature walk in search of birds, marking down how many birds we see and what they are doing!

One day we read a book about all different kinds of birds nests. We learned that birds make nests everywhere, in trees, on the ground, in bushes, etc. We also learned that birds use all different materials that they find in nature to make them, including dirt, grass, sticks, rocks, feathers, etc.

Then we got to hands on explore a birds nest that the monks found on our property!

Then we went outside and many of the children made birds nests of their own!!

One bird nest was made in the middle of a walkway and got destroyed from children running up and down the path. We learned why birds pick spots that are hidden away to build their nests!

We also learned about the parts of a bird, and some children made books!

We learned the names of all sorts of birds from around the world, and then got to touch a real life peacock feather!

Lastly, we sang a lot of songs about birds. Their favorite was the Little Birdie Song where, starting with one bird, we sing:

There was [one] little bird
Living in a tree
They were all alone
And did not want to be
So they flew far away
Far across the sea
And brought back a friend
To live in the tree

…while the bird(s) fly over and pick a friend to bring with them back to the bird nest. Once everyone is in the birds nest we sing:

They were [15] little birds
Living in a tree
They were all together
And as happy as can be!

Thank you everyone for bringing such enthusiasm to our nature camps! We look forward to next summer, but for now we gear up for fall!!

During plant week we learned about different types of plants. We went on a long nature walk and identified all of the different kinds of plants we could see, including flowers, trees, bushes, vegetables, grass, etc. Then we brought a plant into the classroom and learned about the different parts…

We then focused on flowers, and learned about the different parts of a flower- some children made books and labeled the different parts of a flower!

One day we did a special activity where we planted cilantro seeds in the top of a mason jar so we could watch the roots grow down to the water, and then harvest and feed rainbow dash after the cilantro grows tall enough!

We read a book that talked about all the different things that we eat and how they are different parts of a plant! For example, when we eat asparagus we are eating the flower, when we eat carrots we are eating the roots, and when we eat spinach we are eating the leaves!

And then we harvested and ate some veggies from our garden!

Some activities on the shelves that the children got to do throughout the week were planting a seed- where they got to create a pot out of newspaper, fill it with dirt and then plant a seed inside!

And plant collage- where they got to gather shapes and create flowers and other plants out of them!

On Friday we had a special guest. Ellen’s mom Bethany came in and taught us about different plants on our property!!

She told us the name of the plant with the blue flowers on our property, Chickory! She also shared that before people knew how to make coffee they would take roots from the Chickory plant and grind it up to make tea as a way to wake up. The children thought that we should gather some Chickory and use our coffee grinder and french press to make our own Chickory tea!

We also learned about Queen Annes Lace, otherwise know was Wild Carrot! We noticed the similarity between carrot roots and the roots of Queen Annes Lace.

Bethany taught us about the two different kinds of roots; fibrous roots that reach out side to side and tap roots that grow really far down so they can drink more water. We pulled up a Queen Annes Lace, noted the similarity between it and a carrot…

And discovered that it is a tap root!

Lastly we learned about Yellow Dock. We learned that when the seeds turn brown that means that they are ready to be spread around by pollinators like wind, bees and humans. We pretended to be bees and grabbed a handful of seeds and spread them around so that maybe next year there will be more Yellow Dock growing on our property!

Stay tuned next week for our last week of nature camp, all about birds!

The first day of dirt and rocks we learned about bugs that live in dirt!!

Then we went outside to find them!

Then we learned about different types of soil, including sandy soil, silty soil, chalky soil, clay soil, etc.

We went outside to explore what kind of soil we have on our property and discovered that most of the soil is chalky or sandy soil!

The next day we learned about the three different types of rocks; Sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous. We learned about how each of them are formed and what characteristics they have!

And went outside to find and identify rocks!

We also collected rocks and did some rock painting!

Lastly, we did an science experiment where we poured water into dirt from outside to see what would happen… MUD!

Stay tuned for next week when we learn all about Plants!!!