We had a pleasant drizzly day Tuesday learning about
pollinators and flowers. The rain mostly held off for us as we played a game of
frost and sun in the morning. Then we came inside and had an art critique of
our animal projects. Kids did a wonderful job critiquing their classmates’ work
in a kind yet constructive way.
We read our somewhat scrambled schedule and the morning
message.
Then
we embarked on our morning activity, which was dissecting flowers and sticking
them into our journals. The flowers came from Old Friends Farm, the flower farm
next door. Kids took apart the flowers using tweezers, then arranged the parts
in the journals.
After
snack we went to Bramble Hill to meet Farmer Hans, who was ready with some old
bee hives to show us. Honeybees are important pollinators in this area and it
was great to get a close look at bee hives. Hans had three bee hives but two
died of natural causes over the winter when the queens died of old age.
When
the queen bee dies, the worker bees die shortly after and the hive comes to an
end. So there were many dead worker bees in the hive. (We looked for the queen
but didn’t find her.) We got to hold them and see their fuzzy bodies up close,
which are great for collecting pollen.
We
also got a close look at the honeycombs, which are made out of wax. So many
perfect hexagons! We all got to take a piece from the hive.
Hans showed us ground ivy, which is one of honeybees’
favorite flowers.
We found a johnny jump-up, which has “landing strips” to
show pollinators where the nectar is!
We also got to taste honey – mmm!
We
worked hard on our animal adaptation art after lunch.
Then we finished the day with a game of frogs and flies. See you next week!
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