My oh my! Spring has
sprung for sure this week! We had a 75+
degree day yesterday for our second homeschool class of the session, and signs
of spring were everywhere!
We began with a good healthy dose of Fishy Fishy Cross
My Ocean, then we came inside for morning circle. Seal LaMadeleine joined us
for the day as a helper, which was great because Diana is off on spring break
this week! We shared our names and then greeted each other with the roll the
ball greeting.
We shared home projects next. Kids did a wonderful job
thinking at home about how plants and animals look and WHY. For example, a
dragonfly has a long abdomen that could help it balance. And flowers have
leaves that extend past their petals so they can still absorb sunlight.
We sang a silly song about an animal who was
most definitely NOT camouflaged: an “elegant” elephant, riding a bike in the
air!
We read the schedule and morning message and began a
discussion about the daily theme: camouflage. Turns out there is a lot more to
camouflage than just blending in with your surroundings. We learned some other
ways animals use coloration to survive, including our password of the day,
warning coloration. Then for our morning activity kids went around the room and
found examples of the different kinds of camouflage. I was so impressed with
their creativity!
Matching color is the
traditional meaning of camouflage: blending in with your
habitat to not be seen by a predator.
Warning coloration is pretty much the opposite of
camouflage: standing out with bright patterns or colors to let a predator know
that you are poisonous or taste bad.
Mimicry is when one non-poisonous animal mimics a poisonous
one to send the same message to predators.
Countershading is when an animal is darkly colored on top or
back and lightly colored on the bottom or belly. This keeps them from being seen
from above because the dark blends in with the ground. And it keeps them from
being seen from below because the light blends in with the bright sky. Lots of
underwater animals use this technique but many birds do as well.
Masking is when an animal “decorates” its body
with objects from its surroundings to blend in.
After snack we embarked on our outdoor adventure – many of
us in t-shirts and shorts! First, kids walked the “un-nature trail” a series of
objects I had placed on the trail in the morning. They spotted many of them,
but some blended in well with the woods!
We got lots of practice hiding from each other
too. Kids had worn their best camouflage clothing and everyone got turns hiding
and blending in with their surroundings. Check out the photos below: yes, there
are children in them!
After playing camouflage, we went to the hibernaculum to
find garter snakes. Sure enough, there were many of them, at least seven! Most
homeschoolers who wanted to got a chance to hold them!
We checked out the praying mantis egg cases, but they didn’t
seem to have hatched yet. Kids did find frogs though and we spotted some snails
and insects swimming around in the pond. Funny – wasn’t there a snowstorm just
two weeks ago?
At journal time, kids brainstormed about how
camouflage could help humans or the Earth. Each class we will be returning to
this idea of how humans can learn from animal adaptations to make the world a
better place.
Last of all, Seal and I put on a play about animals
camouflaging themselves for a surprise birthday party. It was a hoot!
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