This week the Nature Preschool at Irvine was imagining the sounds of swooping wings in the night and the tickling touch of our favorite 8 legged, creepy crawly friends. The children helped us list what they know about spiders – which was a whole lot! We did more research through stories, games and hands-on activities! We encountered so many interesting animals in the classroom and out on the trails! We were lucky enough to spot marbled orb weaver spiders, katydids, grasshoppers and a barred owl! We explored one animal we knew would not be out and about because this nocturnal creature would be sleeping! Can you guess what it may be? It is the only flying mammal, sleeps hanging by its toes and use echolocation to hunt for food in the night! That’s right! A bat! We hiked on the wetlands trail and observed the bat box! We noticed it was a tight, dark spot. We started to notice areas in nature that were similar. Maybe a bat would enjoy sleeping in a dark hollow tree, or maybe in the area underneath an uprooted tree!
Some highlights from this week were:
-Making spider webs in the woods
-Playing Bat and Moth- A game that touches on echolocation
-Making Apple Cider with Mr. Brooks and the apple cider press
-Making scarecrows in the Chipmunk class
Take a look at all the fun we had this week in our picture gallery!
Wild in webs,
The Nature Preschool at Irvine
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- Spider Slime – Borax, Water, Elmer’s Glue
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- The Foxes are loving the spider slime!
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- Button Spiders! Writing letters and counting legs!
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- Miss Swati helps a friend write her letters!
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- Spider Web Weaving Invitation To Play
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- Miss Kierra and some fox friends weaving webs!
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- Several classes spotted this marbled orb weaver in the outdoor classroom!
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- The flying squirrels are making a birthday cake for Miss Emily!
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- The Flying squirrels and foxes spotted this katydid!
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- Check him out!
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- Miss Kierra is excited to make bats!
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- An invitation to play!
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- B is for bark rubbings!
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- Pumpkin oobleck with Miss Samantha!
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- These little bats are hanging by their toes in our cave underneath the loft!
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- Mr. Brooks makes cider with the Foxes!
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- Mr. Brooks is chatting it up with a little fox!
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- Holding hands with Miss Kierra on the trail!
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- I see you!
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- Sharing this lichen discovery with a friend!
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- Making spider webs in the woods!
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- Writing in shaving cream!
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- Someone spots a katydid!
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- Collecting nuts in the outdoor classroom!
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- Stuffing scarecrows in the chipmunk class!
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- The chipmunks visit the stream!
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- Sticks at the stream!
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- Miss Laura visits with the barred owl!
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- Miss Emily and the chipmunks are enjoying the visit from the barred owl!
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- Look at these cute bat creations!
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- Stuffing scarecrows!
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- Scarecrow friends!
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- Straw head!
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- Miss Erica being silly!
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- The bears are in the meadow using sweepnets! So much fun!
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- Catching the bugs before they retreat for winter!
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- What did you find?
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- Miss Emily knows where to find the good grasshoppers!
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- Hanging in the outdoor classroom!
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- She spots something while she cooks up some nature stew! What could it be>?
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- Dirt Digging!
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- Mud Kitchen fun!
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- Cooking up some hot nature stew!
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- Spider webs in the classroom!
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- This coyote caught a moth!
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- Spraying to better identify spider webs!
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- She found a “Y” stick!
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- The coyotes saw this spider
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- The coyotes are in their sit spots!
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- Sit spots in the meadow!
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- Rolling experiments during imagination stations!
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- Chopping apples to make an autumn snack!
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- Spider slime in the rabbit class!
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- Sticky hands!
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- How does it feel?
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- Spider webs with glue bottles and glitter!
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- The rabbits are wrapping their insects in spider silk!
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- The rabbit class headed down their hill to start their hike!
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- The rabbit class pretend to be spiders weaving their webs in the woods!
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- Smiling Spiders
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- Spider silk is reaching across the the woods!
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- She is wrapping her silk around this tree!
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- Stringing Webs
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- Teamwork makes the dream work!
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- Mr. Brooks makes cider with the rabbit class!
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- Excited about cider making!
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- Fungus among us!
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- This flying squirrel is inventing with tinker toys!
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- Slime with the flying squirrels!
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- Slimey smiles between friends!
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- This flying squirrel is working hard on his spider web!
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- Webs in the woods!
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- The flying squirrels and making spider webs in the wetlands!
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- Watch out insects! You may get caught!
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- A spider slinking on his web!
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- Spider smiles!
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- Swooping down the hill like bats!
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- That looks like a place a bat may call home!
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- Bird calls in the bird blind.
