SL Week 18 "A" "Field Trip Week" Sept 5-9th 2011

Dd holding hands with the little girl in the red jacket - McCloud Park maze

Monday was Labor Day.  We had a good day - DH was off work so we did a lot of things around the house that needed to be done...grilling is a need; right?!


Tuesday-Field Trip to Eagle Creek Park for the "Discovery Earth" class.  What a fantastic event this was!  We arrived about 30 minutes early so we could investigate the Nature Center before the crowd got there.  They had the best Nature Center I think I have ever seen.  They had a big building that went from tank to tank with different Indiana specimens in each; quite a large variety of everything plant, animal, and insect related.  They had lots of "identification" wall selections-like a big plaque of butterflies, moths, beetles, bees, etc- all clearly identified.  They had another plaque of about 20 different 3-5 inch sections of tree branches--each identified.  They had another of tree limbs with Spring buds coming out--identified.   Another of just leaves--20 specimens--identified.  They had a section for rock identification; maybe 30 different rocks labeled.  Their walls were totally covered with all sorts of real life examples of different things you would want to labeled--all right there!  Amazing.

Then the tanks--a large tank for a Black Snake (the farmer's friend)-which was alive.  There were tanks full of fish with turtles and bullfrogs-all sharing the space.  There were tadpoles, frogs, toads, bugs, aquatic specimens of plant life. There was a living bee colony that lived 1/2 inside 1/2 outside the building.  I could go on and on about all the details...The examples of animal hides from a full deer hide, to a full coyote hide with it's toes and feet pads - head to tail- all in perfect condition.  Turtle, snake, raccoon, squirrel, skunk hides...on and on!

What we did- first we all went on a Nature Hike and did tree identification.  I knew each tree the guide showed us; even the Paw-Paw!  Then after the hike we went to a class held by a Naturalist on Amphibians & Reptiles.  We all got to hear about and touch serial animals; my favorite was the big, male bullfrog.  Then we went to another class-the "Wet Lab" to 6 different stations where we could look at various examples of things (plant & animal) found in the Eagle Creek Lake.  My favorite were the Water Scorpion, algae, dragonfly larvae, and frogs.  Then we looked around for another 20 minutes at the outside gardens (butterfly gardens with water feature and bird feeders) and took a few pictures.  I wish  would have taken photo's of the specific things, but there were too many kids to try to focus on just my dd and not include other kids that probably didn't want me taking pictures of them!


Wednesday's: "How To Be A Graphic Artist" class was a FLOP.  It was 2 hours of a poor man trying to teach art to 3-5th graders and he had no idea where to start or what to focus on; so he had the children draw erasers....YUP....he had put no thought into this before walking into the classroom.
Then one of the kids was having trouble drawing the rectangle shape of the eraser and asked me for help...so I helped because I had seen the teacher walking around the room drawing on the kids pages helping them get the general idea he was trying to get them to see.  So, the woman who headed up this class asked me if I had been helping my child just then, which I said 'no' and so she asked me to 'step outside' so she could explain to me how she teaches art classes and she NEVER, EVER draws on the kids paper b/c one time she had a little girl cry about it.  She went on and on...as I stood there staring at her in disbelief.  I was very glad I handed it well; I didn't fuss or argue with her or tell her how I totally disagreed with her from every fiber of my being.  I just nodded and smiled and took a few deep breaths.  This class was the actual worst class we have ever had; and not just for me being pulled out--it actually was mystifying as to what he was aiming on teaching.

Thursday-McCloud Nature Park-Nature Hike
Ahhh, back to our normal great excursions!  This was a really nice day.  We had a great guide for our nature hike--Steve.  As we went on a hike he stopped to tell us all sorts of nature data and the parks history.   He pointed out all the different types of terrain in the park-prairie, wetlands, woods,  etc.  He had interesting bits of information--like how they have discovered how the deer will make their walking paths beside poison ivy patches and they seem to really like to eat it.  They also burn off their prairie grasses every 3 or so years and have surprisingly found a coyote den located very close to a trail.  They were hidden in plain sight!

I also had the opportunity to ask another ranger at the hummingbird/bird station about how to pronounce "Pileated" woodpecker and come to find out I had been right all along.  I had noticed my Uncle Bruce said he pronounced it differently and this guide said how different regions say it differently and many argue about which is correct; in fact both ways are correct.

After the nature hike the children got to check out all the cool exhibits in the Nature Center.  The back wall was glass looking at the bird sanctuary with 4 hummingbird feeders and 4 regular bird feeders.  There were perhaps 10 hummingbirds flying all around at once, which I have never seen that many hummingbirds all at once and they were behaving un-territoriality too for the most part.  They had one clear glass case with a milkweed inside it with 2 monarch butterfly caterpillars, 1 chrysalis, and one 1/2 way toward the chrysalis stage.

We had lunch outside in a shelter house with other families.  Then we joined 2 other families to walk through their annual maze that they mow through a prairie; this year it was in the shape of a pumpkin head.  My husband, Dd, and I walked through the maze last year too; which was mowed to the shape of a spider.

Our 4H meetings have also restarted again for the year.  This meeting was especially fun b/c we got to pick up a friend and bring her with us; which made the ride especially fun.  The 4H'ers made wind generated propellers--or should I say-"wind turbines"?   At the end of the meeting they all ran around the huge building playing soccer.