Wonderful Water July Day 4

After more archery practice, we played "Oh Deer". Then we hiked to the schoolhouse and looked at lakes around the world that are strange colors like Lake Natron. We talked about why lakes are certain colors (due to minerals, algae, glaciers). Then we made a solar still for collecting fresh water. We will see how much water collected over night tomorrow. Then we made our own water play titled "The Kingdom of Glory". You can ask them to retell it to you. Everyone picked a character and we all gave suggestions to create the plot together. After snack, we did Suminagashi painting (Japanese technique of floating ink on top of water and capturing the image with rice paper). We also talked about oil spills and how they affect ecosystems. We even discussed why oil and water do not mix. Then we created oil pastel and watercolor art. After lunch, we talked about where our water in Oconee comes from (Bear Creek Reservoir or personal wells) and how it gets to our house. Then we learned how the Romans used aqueducts to move water long distances. We created our own aqueduct while at the creek. Then we did more exploring, playing, creating with clay and minnow catching. Melissa found and showed the kids a piece of Native American pottery from the creek. We also saw fish nests! The female fish were laying eggs into the piles of rocks to protect them. Baby fish will emerge from the rocks in a few weeks. On our hike back to the schoolhouse, we saw a box turtle only a few feet from the trail. We made sure to silently sneak past it so it wouldn't hide in it's shell and we could see it's head.