Outdoor Classroom Explorations
/On Friday our student scientists went on a quest to discover what species of plants and animals could be found in our outdoor classroom. To begin we examined a chunk of soil that Mr. Mark dug out of our meadow area. We couldn’t believe how many plants and animals we discovered on that one piece of meadow area! Next students used their digital cameras to capture photos of other plants and animals they found. They used our Outdoor Classroom Bingo sheet to inspire ideas. Together we read parts of the plant field guide that last year’s Otter class created. Throughout our explorations we learned to identify the following plants: horsetail, sword fern, salal, big leaf lupine, large leaf maple, western red cedar, great camas, and Oregon grape. We used a digital microscope to examine milkweed and Kincaid’s lupine seeds. Then we planted those two types of plants in our meadow area. After our explorations, we enjoyed a picnic lunch together in our outdoor classroom. During our inside classroom centers students worked on their honeybee art projects, finished making mason bee houses, built woodworking projects, and engineered structures with Rigamajig and Magnatiles.
