This week we took a Dive into all things wet and wonderful! We cooled off on a summer's day engineering dams and boats at the pond, river, and brook. We discovered the creatures that live below the surface and found our place in the watershed during this week of watery worlds.
Monday’s theme was all about understanding our watershed. We made mini watersheds at beaver pond in bins and then explored the habitat of the pond. We then journeyed to the brook and explored the route it takes to get to the river and the habitat there. In the afternoon we had 3 stations, one was a food color and celery experiment, the next was a game focused on the water cycle, and the third station was a water droplet obstacle course.
Tuesday’s theme was focusing on biology. We started off our day turning a CIT isn’t a beaver and learned about beavers and their participation in the watersheds they live in. Then we went to Beaver pond where we took some looky no touchy bins and recorded all of the critters we were catching and seeing at the pond. Later we learned about some animal tracking and played a print matching games along with Who am I? In the afternoon we ventured to the brook to catch and record what critters we caught and did a macroinvertebrate matching game.
Wednesday’s theme was Bodies of Water. Today we explored and compared all the different bodies of water at Audubon. First we went to the River, then the Brook and lastly the Pond. We made a list of the critters we caught, but also tested the pH of the water and the temperature. AS a group we compared them and discussed why they were different and what those differences were caused by. It was super fun!
Thursday’s theme was architecture. Nothing to do with water but something awesome was we got to start our morning off watching Bird Banding with Mark LaBarr! First we went to a different part of the River and worked together to build a dam that stretched the length of the river. We used rocks, sticks, leaves, etc. And worked together to build something amazing. We also made paper boats and got to see if they would float in the Brook, they did. Then at the brook we also got to build boats out of natural materials and see if they would float too.
Friday’s theme was Wet and Wild! We started off our day with a vote to pick which water spot we would visit, the group majority landed on the Brook. We had one final visit and time catching critters, explore the space and the wonders of the brook. We then played Capture the Gold in the fields and got to pretend to be pirates! The day ended with Life and Death in the Lake!
