Outdoor Challenge 2

February 25th; I sent the boys out to the front stoop to be quiet and listen and watch. Noah saw a ground squirrel, and heard chirping. David saw a triangular spiderweb, and heard blowing (wind). Joshua saw a dead bird, and heard screeching (a hawk).
They came in and reported what they saw/heard, and then I sent them outside to find something to touch.
Noah felt a rough spiky pinecone. David felt dry, old dirt. Joshua felt a soft,thick plant.

The dead bird got them to wondering how it died. It was a house sparrow sitting upright with all its feathers intact, but was obviously dead. (We showed it to jeff's dad the next day, and he said it was probably injured and when it was really cold a few nights before, he said it probably froze... very sad.)


Actually, they were supposed to do this with jeff when they went out on Saturday but jeff forgot to do the assignment. Here are pictures from that outing:

Outdoor Challenge #1

The boys went to the Botanical Gardens, and had Jeff take pictures of things that interested them. Then we followed up on the pictures, trying to figure out what they were. Following are the pictures.



the first picture is what jeff calls cypress knees. It is behind the japanese gardens and the bamboo- what our boys call "their hideout". The second picture was of new growth on what I think was one of the oak leaf hydrangeas. The last looks alot like an eastern hemlock pine cone.

these are leaves from last years hydrangeas.