June 27 - July 1 Day 1

Today was Antarctica day. We started with a game of Belgica Antarctica Freeze tag (based on the insect native to Antarctica). Then at the art studio, we discussed the different type penguins that live in Antarctica and the explorers picked their favorite to make a clay version. We will add markings tomorrow since they needed to dry today. After snack and a discussion of characters for their original play, we went to the obstacle course for awhile. Then we looked at a model of Earth rotating around the Sun to understand why Antarctica has 6 months of darkness and 6 months of sunlight. We also looked at a model of the greenhouse effect to discuss what greenhouse gases are, where they come from and their affect on Earth's atmosphere. Then we looked at and talked about the symmetry in snowflakes, how snowflakes form and worked on a snowflake watercolor symmetry art project. While waiting for the watercolor part to dry we discussed what causes the colors of light in an aurora (charged particles from solar winds excite oxygen or nitrogen in our atmosphere causing red/green light or blue/purple light). We also played Ancient Moss (one person gets 3 guesses to find out who Winter is as they point to others in the circle to "put into hibernation"). Then we ate lunch and went to explore the creek. We saw frogs, fish, a crawfish, little salamander and water beetles! Lastly, some did archery for a little while during dismissal.