October Nature Study Club ~ A Seed Search!
October 24, 2008
I don't have a lot of time to post this morning, but I wanted to share these photos I took yesterday at our October Nature Club meeting. It was my turn to lead the group, and I chose the timely topic of seed dispersal. So, after lunch, I gathered my supplies, some snacks and my kids, and we headed up to a local wildlife reservation where there were sure to be lots of examples of seeds in action. (Or so I hoped!)
It was a gorgeous day - sunny, cool and crisp - and I was pleased with a great turn-out (about 10 families for this outing). I gave each family a handout about seed dispersal (pages photocopied from this book), and talked with the children for a few minutes about seeds in general. Each child received a small ziploc bag with the instructions to gather as many varieties of seeds as he (or she) could. Then we started off on our journey through the autumn woods ...
(The snack of the day: cold cider and maple leaf cookies.)
After we ate and caught our collected breath (it was a rather hilly walk!) I gathered our group to "show and tell" (a few bags shown above). Most of the kids found similar items - pinecones, acorns, butternuts, berries and random "weedy" seeds. The most unique find was certainly the bird excrement one boy found (and was brave enough to bag up) which clearly showed seeds in its midst. Of course this garnered a fair amount of snickers from the group, but it definitely showed Nature in action!
As par for the course, once we were officially "done" with the Nature meeting, the kids launched right into their favorite pastime - a rousing round of pop-up tag:
It was such a great day to be outside! Next month's meeting will surely be colder, and it could even be snowy! We'll take these warm, sunny days while we can.
Speaking of next month, here's a rundown of the upcoming Nature Club themes:
- November: Shorebirds at the beach
- December: Birdfeeding and a Bird Walk
- January: Wolves (we'll visit a local sanctuary)
- February: Owl Pellets
- March: Maple Sugaring
- April: Theme and Leader, TBA
- May: Flower Gardens
- June: Theme, TBA
You can be sure I'll be reporting in here after each of our meetings. In fact, I still owe you all pictures from the September meeting - a visit and tour of a local Ironworks site. We spent two hours with a well-informed ranger learning about the geology and history of New England. Very cool.
Well, this was going to be a short morning post, but here it is now well past lunchtime and it's taken me this long to get all my thoughts out! I'd best wrap up now, and be on my way ... I've promised a chocolate cake for tonight's dessert (we celebrate our "family birthday" this evening) and it's not going to bake itself. ;)
As always, thanks for stopping by - I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!