BURRRRRRRR! Wow today was a wet and rainy day which made us all feel very cold. We realized that the temperature outside was the same as inside of a refrigerator! In the morning Kyra led us in an activity to make a leaf decomposition timeline. We talked about what decomposition is, breaking down of materials, and we related it to compost. Many of us made some very long timelines, consisting for 30 leaves, while others made shorter one. It was very interesting seeing what details we picked out to show a leaf breaking down and decomposing.
During morning meeting we were talking about the rain and one of our students had a great idea for an experiment. First, they proposed setting our something to track how much rain was falling, but then this experiment transformed into see who could collect the most water in their cup. We discussed what could make for good placements, what we should avoid, etc. And then everyone went out to find a spot. Once they located their spot, they got a cup to place down and start collecting water. We started the experiment at 9:30 and it rain until 2:30 when we brought in our cup(s) and measured the water. Our center tracks rain patterns with a rain gauge too! We record and send in our rain data online using Community Collaborative Rain, Hail, and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS). You too at home could put up a rain gauge and record and submit your rain data to help us track weather patterns!
We then went on a hike; we went back to the same places as last week (but reversed it). When we got to each place (peeper pond, beaver pond, the brook, and the river) we first made an observation about how the location is different from last week. Next, we took 1 quiet minute to look and listen, then shared our 1 word to describe what we observed. At Beaver Pond we also spent time and counted how many eastern newts we could find and reported out, the most anyone found was 25!
After lunch to warm up we colored by the fire in the clubhouse. We journaled about something that we saw during our hike! Once the rain stopped we played a few field games and then went back to the clubhouse to record our water collection amounts. First, we made a prediction about how much water we thought we collected, we discussed how we would be measuring the water height using a ruler. Then, everyone was handed a strip of paper that they would stick into the water and track how much water was in our cup. Then we measured it and recorded our results! Some of us got .5cm while one friend got up to 14cm of water collected!
Even though today was rainy and wet, we definitely made the most of it! This was an important reminder that it is getting to be a cold and wet season and layers are very important!
