Learning Inside and Outside
We got better acquainted in room 8 to start our second Outdoor Education class. We learned a lot about wasps and skunks - like how both of them get a bad wrap for stinging or stinking! Ms. Kathleen shared how they feel threatened and a lot of those behaviours stem from fear. For the wasp, it's fear of not having enough food for it's colony. For the skunk, it's the danger it feels when others are around - they generally like to be alone searching for grubs to eat. Both animals give us warnings with how they look! Ms. Kathleen passed around pieces of an old wasp nest that we all got to hold. We also remembered that the monarch butterflies from last week are bright orange to 'warn' predators that they taste bad!
We ended our time outside by going to check out the Red Side Dace art installation at the school - Red Side Dace are so neat! We will keep learning more about them. Then, the best score of all - we discovered the crabapple trees. Some of us were even brave enough to take a bite!
Some questions to ask your child:
- what is the 'furniture' in the Learning Garden we do not stand on? (sitting logs, trees)
- what does a skunk do to 'warn' before it sprays? (stomp, tail up ... then spray)
- did you taste the crabapple? What did you think?
- what do you remember about the redside dace?
- what is the only food that monarch butterflies eat? (milkweed)