News from the Outdoors

This week the Detectives continued our wintry exploration of Woodend! The chilly weather brought more frost and ice to investigate. At the pond, we experimented with shovels, sticks and logs, noticing which parts of the ice would break and which tools helped expedite the process! In the creek beds, we gathered pieces of broken ice as well as experimented with what natural items would and wouldn’t break the ice.

On our hike with Alex, we continued our nocturnal animal investigation by learning more about raccoons! She lead us through the forest, looking for frozen raccoon tracks at the pond, looking for spots where the raccoons might be spending these chilly days snuggled up, as well as finding possible raccoon scat right next to our safe spot!

 

News from the Classroom

The Detectives uncovered more nocturnal animals this week, learning about skunks, bats and moths! On Tuesday, the detectives learned about the skunk dance, a series of “dance” moves a skunk does before it would spray when it felt scared. Since skunks use that sense of smell to protect themselves, the Detectives also created new, scented play dough, as well as created art with scented paint!

With bats, the detectives began exploring their super sense of hearing! During our meeting, we experimented with different instruments, with the detectives using their sense of hearing to make guesses on the different noises they were hearing!

At the art center, we used marbles and paint in shoe boxes to shake and create noisy bat art. Our weekly block challenge was also to create bat caves!

On Thursday, the PM class discussed how bats use echolocation to locate moths to munch on during the night time.  We used the bug parts to create moths out of play dough, and opened the light table to talk about how moths are attracted to light!

 

Books we Read

Whoo Goes There? by Jennifer A. Ericsson

Oscar and the Bat by Geoff Waring

Oscar and the Moth by Geoff Waring

Weekly Top Hits

I am Nocturnal- Skunk Verse (Tune: You are my Sunshine)

I love the nighttime, the dark black nighttime

and that is when I dance around

I am nocturnal

I love the nighttime

‘cuz I’m an skunk, I spray and dance around!

 

I’m a Little Bat (Tune: I’m a Little Teapot)

I’m a little bat I hide in caves,

I hang upside down and sleep during days,

When the bright sunshine disappears,

I listen for echoes and use my ears to hear

 

Upcoming Events:

Jan. 28th: Pajama Party!

February 11th: Sugar Maple Field Trip -sign up to chaperon below!

AM Class

PM Class

 

Spoiler Alert:

Next week we will be concluding our nocturnal animal unit by learning about worms, possums and having a nocturnal PJ party on Thursday!