The Four Seasons

This week Grant had an introduction to environmental science through the four seasons.  On Monday, we talked about Spring.  We talked about what was going on all around us this time of the year, including the months that fall into Spring.

I read the kids a story called, "Treasure Chests" from the book Nature Stories by Margaret Peckham.  It is about a boy who finds treasure chests in the most unexpected places including, the seed children, bird eggs, and a cocoon.  They really do hold beautiful treasures!  We also drew a picture with block crayons, and Grant copied a verse in his main lesson book.

After that, we made some simple butterflies out of tissue paper and pipe cleaners that I tied a string on.  The kids had a lot of fun "flying" them around.

On Tuesday, we continued to do a bean bag toss at the beginning of school to review math and spanish.  After that, I told a Peublo story called, "The Battle of Summer and Winter" from the book Circle Round.  The weather was so nice again today that I told the story outside and we had our snack outside, too.  After I read the story we talked about summer, including the three months that make up summer.  Grant and I drew a picture and then Grant copied a summer verse into his lesson book.

On Wednesday, we talked about, you guessed it, Autumn! 

I read the kids a story called, "Mother Earth's Children" from Autumn Tales by Suzanne Down.  We talked about all that is going on in Autumn and had an apple for a snack.  We were enjoying the weather once again and I read the story outside.

I am wondering where Spring went, though.  We went from 60's to 90's.  It has been hot!  Where are those mild 70 degree days?

Here are our Autumn pictures:

After Grant was done with his copy work, we combined summer and autumn into the fun activity of making walnut shell boats. 

The kids liked eating the walnuts from the inside, and playing with them in the water, but Johanna's kept tipping over for some reason.  She didn't seem to mind to much, though.

On our Thursday morning walk we saw a snake swimming in the water and the girls enjoyed spreading some dandelion seeds for Dad. 

We finished out the week by talking about Winter on Thursday.

I read a story called, "The Little Fir Tree" from Winter by Wynstones Press.  Once again, we spent a lot of our school morning outside enjoying the weather and soaking up the sun.  The kids also did snow glitter painting.

We really enjoyed our new patio and play area last week.  It is still a work in progress, and I want to add a few more things for the kids over the course of Spring and Summer.