Week 5 started out with a big harvest from the garden, as peppers, cucumbers, and mouse melons were abundant and we had some squash remaining. The goats were happy to have visitors and we discovered that one very mouthy goat likes to have her muzzle rubbed. The chickens, as usual, were very grateful for our lunch leftovers and looked forward to treats from the children each day.
Water was the theme for week 5, and we had lots of fun with relay races, rain, and we continued our kickball games!
We started the week by talking about the water cycle, and Ms. Fina demonstrated making a cloud in a jar. The kids made their own water cycle water colors and they were beautiful!
Next we did a hydroponic growing exercise with Ms Jazmine, and we all “planted” sprouts in hydroponic growing containers and set them in the greenhouse for an optimal mix of sun and moisture. Sure enough, the seeds sent up shoots within a couple of days, and it was great to see everyone’s success!
On Wednesday we talked about pond ecology with Julia and took a walk to our pond to collect samples for observation of producers, consumers and decomposers. We took a look at some through the microscope and discovered the pond snails have a bright streak of purple on their backs, which was not visible to the naked eye! We also got to visit our favorite bullfrog, doing his best to blend.
On Thursday we started work on a group mural demonstrating the connectivity of all the living and non-living elements of the pond. Each group worked on a specific part of the ecosystem. The results were amazing and we are so proud to have the mural for future sessions! Ms. Lucy also took us through some fascinating information about habitats and we collected some stream insects for more macro-invertebrate studies. Caddisflies always make great curiosity igniters, and did not disappoint this week! And even though we can see them with the naked eye, they really look cool in the microscope!
And… the finished mural!
On Friday we had some FUN with math as we each did a personal water audit, and thought about our own personal water footprint! The mathitutde (math attitude) of the group was amazing! Your kids were super psyched to give it their best and try to multiply gallons used per minute by how many minutes per day they utilized water, with different equations for each water source. We’ve had some proud moments here at camp, and this one was surely up there. Some kids used bean counters, and some did the math abstractly, but each was very excited to share their own personal calculations!
Here are a few more pictures from this busy week, including the work of our older group gathering stream insects, our very tall corn, a special birthday celebration, and plain old fun on the farm!
