Pond Field Trips

As I mentioned earlier, everyone seems to be going on field trips now, and we are definitely not the exception. Last week went to the local natural history museum. They happened to have a new display on pond life and how scientists go about researching it. The research part was way over Jack's head, but he liked the light-up fish jars!

We found another pond life display upstairs.

The Discovery Room had plenty of real live pond animals! Jack was a little nervous about the snake. It had just shed its skin and it looked a little creepy.

This week we went to the zoo and saw many examples of Oklahoma pond and river animals!

We enjoyed watching the otter swim around and around. I mentioned to Jack that one time Jay and I had spent a long time watching the otters at the Omaha zoo and he wanted to know what he had thought of it. When I said that he wasn't born yet he gave me a funny look and asked what we were doing at the zoo if we didn't have a kid.

A few fish from the big tank

We finished up our trip by feeding the ducks, geese, and catfish in the zoo pond!

Pond Life

We have been learning about pond life for the last two weeks. Above are just a few of the books we used.

I found the board book version of Little White Duck at the museum for a lot cheaper than I had seen it on Amazon. I found the felt board patterns at Making Learning Fun.

I just happened upon this book at the library. It had an easy idea for making dragonfly prints.

We also added this cute dragonfly puppet (from Let's Explore) to our collection.

We made some pond books of our own (from Mailbox magazine). Jack really got into the "Let's Peek in the Pond" one and added some of his own ideas.

We read about beavers and used this page about building dams from the Evan-Moor Giant Science Resource Book.

We also made our own beaver dam snack!

Left: A fish page from the Evan-Moor book
Right: A duck print made with potatoes and carrots

I got the idea for this pond collage from Mailbox. Jack wasn't too sure about getting his fingers covered with glue so he worked really slowly, but he eventually got it all covered!

Left: Turtle life cycle page from Evan-Moor
Right: Sink or Float experiment page

Checking to see if the Larrymobile sinks or floats

We used stickers to make a booklet about the life cycle of a frog (from Mailbox). We also played with the cool life cycle models I ordered from Oriental Trading Company.

The Mailbox also had this idea for making a tadpole...

...that changes into a frog.

We are working on counting to one hundred. Jack has the pattern down between the 10s, so now we're working on those numbers.

Next up: Some pond life pictures from the zoo and the museum!

Touch a Truck

Where can you hug a giant cow? Touch a Truck!

We got to see the medi-flight helicopter land...

...and later Jack got to get inside.

Jack loved honking the horns on the big trucks.

His absolute favorite thing, though, was the fire safety house. We had to go back to this one several times.

Most of the kids seemed to be using this one as a dance stage.

The boat was new this year!

Although the UPS truck comes to our house almost every day, Jack said he "never knew how cool it was inside."

Jack and Ms. Susan, our storytime librarian.

Field Trip Season

It's that time of year again: Field trip season. Wherever you go, trillions of elementary students are there, too, screaming and pushing and supposedly making some kind of educational gains. Whatever. I usually try not to go too many places in April and May, but this year I am trying to get in lots of outings before we're possibly stuck at home with a newborn. I am just not sure how mobile we'll be for a while. Friday we went to the children's museum, along with half of the 6 to 10 year olds in Oklahoma.

Jack wanted to start outside since it was less crowded. He played on the ship for quite a while and then relaxed on the big playground.

Doing a little shopping at the grocery store.

Working on a bone puzzle.

Jack got a big kick out of the different mirrors.

Since the weather was nice, we took a ride on the train!

We ended up staying just a couple of hours since it was so busy, but we had a good time. Hopefully some of the places we go in the next few weeks will be a little less crowded!

Dinosaurs Unearthed

Jack and I went to the zoo this morning to see the Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit. It was very much like the one we saw at the Omaha Children's Museum last August, except that this one was free (yay, OKC!) and that one was air-conditioned (yay, Omaha!). The t-rex was so big I couldn't get it all in the picture! Also, a warning for any other 7.5 months pregnant women in flip-flops planning on going to this exhibit: It is at the very back of the zoo, so buy a tram ticket. I wish I had thought of that!


Jack was very excited that the misters have been turned on again. He ran to the first one that he saw, only to find that it wasn't working. His response? "What does a kid have to do to get cooled off around here?"--said very indignantly, of course. It was 93 degrees, so we were glad to eventually find one that was working!

We had to stop for a sno cone, too. It took him a very long time to finish which gave me a very long time to sit and rest!

There will be more zoo pics soon along with other pictures from our pond unit that we will be finishing tomorrow!

Footing and Pipes

We have a green sticker, which is good!

Last week they poured (I think that's the right word, but maybe not) the footing for our house. It looks like it will be smaller than our current house, but our builder assures us this is not the case.

This is where the front porch will be.

This seems to be some kind of plumbing. I think that may be close to the hot water heaters since I was by the garage when I took this picture. You can also see the bay window for the kitchen and the back porch.

We got rain last weekend and we are supposed to get more in the next couple of days, so this may be all of the progress for a while. I am not going to be going home after the end of April, so by the time I get to see it all again it should look really different!

It's Blast Time Again!

It's that time of year again! Homeschool Share will be accepting entries for the annual Blast contest beginning May 1. I participated last year and I even won a gift certificate, but this year I am recognizing my limitations and sitting it out (other than this part).

This year things are set up a little bit differently, so click on the button on the right for all the details. I am especially excited about the workbox category! The moms who run this site and submit ideas are all so talented that I know there are going to be some great submissions. Now get to work! : )