March 23, 2007
A Day at the Nature Center
Today, in anticipation of mid fifties and sunshine, I decided we'd go to the local Nature Center for school.
Not only did we get to cash in on the field trip groups, by sneaking into the sugar house between BIG groups, we got a small private explanation of the syrup evaporation and we also got to wander and do our own things. The best of both worlds.
Here's the 1870's Sugarhouse:
And inside, learning about the evaporation process:
We also saw both the modern metal collection buckets, and the recreation of the Native American methods with a wood spigot (they have some other name, though ... I can't recall at the moment) and birch bark collection bucket.
We walked along the river trail to get to the Sugar House, which at one point was literally both river and trail. Fortunately it was right near a path to the road, and we circumvented the underwater part.
We also took notebooks, in which the children wrote down the things they saw, sketched pictures, and took notes.
Even Buzz got in on the notebook action:
Whooops! I almost forgot my favorite picture from the day ~ a lucky shot macro of a teeny tiny spider. It was only 3-4 mm and I wasn't even sure it WAS a spider until it moved! I spent the latter part of the afternoon trying to identify him.
If you click on his photo, it'll take you to my flickr photostream, which have a few more nature-y pictures of our trip today (I didn't want to overwhelm my dialup friends), if you like that stuff.
All in all, it was a very nice day.
Posted by Kim at March 23, 2007 8:00 PMWay to go!! They have the notebooks ready - we had none and they were requested and the Sugar House was locked in afternoon....I am still working on the spider love the pic!
Moog
Sounds like fun! We have a Sugar Shack just around the corner from us, but it's so expensive to get in that I haven't taken the boys to it in several years.
Posted by: Rosanne at March 24, 2007 8:44 AMKim,
Looks like a great day of school! We took advantage of the weather also and learned how to earn money by doing a bunch of chores my dh gave them. Nathan dumped the last of the sugar beets that Joe didn't use for the hunting season on the garden and the chickens found them and ate them. I didn't know that chickens would like sugar beets.
Karen
Posted by: karen at March 24, 2007 10:24 AMLove them. Super job with the macro. I shall return to see if you classify him. He looks like a crustacean! Why are his legs over the top of his head???
Posted by: Liliana at March 24, 2007 12:53 PMi love it when you post photos! field trips are so much fun... :D
Posted by: staci at March 24, 2007 3:31 PMThat is one cute spider! Nice photos! I'm glad you had a great day.
Posted by: Eowyn at March 24, 2007 8:33 PMGreat field trip! And the kids look so cute with their notebooks. :-) The spider pic is amazing for it being so small. What kind of camera do you have?
Posted by: Shari at March 24, 2007 9:01 PMBy the way, I think the other name for a spigot for maple tapping is a spyle (spile?).
looks like a very nice day! What fun!
Posted by: Chris at March 25, 2007 6:43 PMLoved 'traveling along' with you on your day here. :)
Love Mr. Spider there. He looks like a Trekkie to me...
(((hugs)))
Posted by: Robin at March 26, 2007 12:31 AMThat looks like so much fun! Great spider picture.
Posted by: Karen W at March 26, 2007 9:28 AMcool trip.
you know, when i first saw the photo of the spider, i thought it was a jewel encrusted broach! i'm not kidding!
Posted by: Linda at March 26, 2007 3:51 PMI LOVE field trips! When I taught ps I was always the field trip coordinator. I so want to go there, so after breakfast I am going to pack up the kids. We should be there in three days give or take a day or two days (in case I get sidetracked)!
(Just so you don't think I am actually going to show up, I would except for one thing - I am married to the picture of reason and sanity!)
