All this time outdoors makes us feel like explorers. We explore Irvine’s trails and streams, ponds and wetlands- sometimes hiking until we are bushed! Wouldn’t it be nice to hunker down in a nice warm tent, tell stories and have a cup of tea? We think so! This week we pretended to camp out and… Read more »
Happy Howl-o-ween from your Forest Friends! This week we talked about all things nocturnal and eerie. Halloween time is a great time to learn about some of the creatures we may see portrayed around the holiday such as owls, spiders, snakes and foxes. These animals aren’t as spooky as they are interesting. The more we… Read more »
10/31/2017 Happy Halloween! Today was our mid-semester campfire which we got to celebrate with the other homeschool classes and our families and friends. Some of us even came in costumes! Before heading down to the campfire we passed out the silicone molds. Last week we were learning about spider silk and how people use learning… Read more »
10/24/2017 Today we got stuck in a web as we learned about how scientists are using the engineering of spider webs to save the lives of birds and teach us more about the materials we use for building structures, like steel. Before we traveled into the world of spider webs we finished our discussion from… Read more »
The Harvest Moon By Rose Brusaferro “For the child… it is not half so important to know as to feel.” – Rachel Carson We used September to get settled in; Fireflies, Ferns, Luna Moths, Mayapples, Wooly Bears, and Snails are now inaugurated into a close-knit Nature Preschool family. We’ve played away the jitters of starting… Read more »
10/6/2017 Hello! This was a wonderful day exploring and learning about animal adaptations. All of the animals here at Irvine are specially equipped to survive in their natural environment; as well as defend themselves when they feel threatened outside of their habitat. We started the day by viewing and learning about a pygmy hedgehog. They… Read more »
Today we looked at plants, plants and more plants. We explored plants in the meadow, in the forest and by the stream. The theme for the day was comparing two different meadow plots to see if one had more species than the other, one plot was more disturbed by humans and the other was less… Read more »
This week was all about transforming the things around us. We already learned that natural objects decompose and form things that are good for the soil and ultimately give way to new life! We’ve seen this a lot with fallen, decomposing ‘nurse’ logs alongside the trails. This week, our Monday/ Wednesday class, after our exciting ‘trimming… Read more »
October 10th, 2017 Today was all about using our nature engineering skills to build a dam and discover the best materials for dam building and put ourselves in the mind of a beaver. We started our afternoon by revealing our chlorophyll experiment from the previous week. We had collected leaves of different colors, torn them… Read more »
As the air slightly cooled and the rain gently fell this week, the Forest Dreamers had their first taste of Irvine on a rainy day! Its always nice to see the places you visit in a different way! We also had the chance to use some indoor space on Monday and Tuesday and we took… Read more »
