A few months ago, we bought this used telescope from a friend for $50. It was some of the best money we could have spent! It has been awesome to have a telescope handy. From time to time, we take it out front and find, the moon, the stars. We have even watched a few planets. Our neighbors often join us. We had everyone out last month for the Super Moon! What a fun way to spend time with the family and friends!
We have been doing science on and off all year but we have not gotten into a groove, so to say. Animal classification is one thing I have been looking forward too all year but, never got around to planning it all out. We are finally doing it this summer and so far, we are having fun with it. We are using a mix of R.E.A.L. Science – Life, and Exploring God’s Creation. Taking what we need from each. We should have a nice animal notebook filled with fun stuff when we are done with this 15 week unit. I’m hoping to do it in more like 7-8 weeks.
One of the first lessons is learning how to classify animals. Here they are taking animals that look quite different and put them into pairs. Sometimes the males and females of the same species look completely different. The kids had to look at their feet, tales, eyes, spots, etc. to see similarities and pair them up. We discovered this in real life while visiting grandparents a couple weeks ago. While eating our meals on their back porch, we noticed a bird nest. Before we knew it, the baby birds hatched and mama birds was coming back and forth feeding her babies. Then we noticed another bird type of bird caring for the babies (or so we thought). After a long while, and after looking in birding books we discovered that we were watching Orchard Orioles. During breeding time, the male Orchard Oriole turns a deep rust color while the female reminds a bright yellow. THE BIRD PHOTO CREDIT: http://birdsbybaranoff.com/
Male Orchard Oriole while breeding
Female Orchard Oriole
You learn something new every day! Or, you should! ;-)
