Nature Center

Just when I thought I was warming up from the weekend, Riley had a study trip to the Nature Center, mostly outside, and of course, another frozen day and I will never get over this cold this way! But, it was a great trip, they had an inflatable planetarium, where they learned about different constellations and where they are in the sky, and how to find them, and some of the Greek mythology about them. They learned about the planets, the sizes, and used different size balls to show how big they are in relation to one another. Riley had a yellow softball which I believe was Jupiter, and his "girlfriend" Annie had Pluto which was a tiny BB.

Then they walked off steps to see how far the planets would be from the sun if the sun was a yellow balloon. There were beads or nuts in various sizes to represent the different planets. We only got a few planets in before we were almost off the Nature Center property! It was a pretty neat lesson that the kids really enjoyed and seeing how small some of the planets were really blew them away.

They got to learn how a star is made, and our "guide" was really good, he made it fun, and made it easy to understand, even for a non-science person like me! Then we got to walk around the Nature Center and see the animals outside, the coyotes are Riley's favorite, and have snack before heading back to school for King Cake.

Since we're heading to New Orleans next month, we had King Cake parties in both the kids classes to share with them some of the culture of Mardi Gras! Riley's friend George, and Regan's friend Frankie got the baby in the cake, and they all enjoyed it, and can't wait till next month when we come back with TONS of Mardi Gras beads!