Bird Lecture

We attended a lecture called "Birds are amazing" at the university. The children haven't been to a university before so it was a great experience. The lecturer was very good. A great mixture of information, a mix of media and props, and good interaction.
The children got a feather to investigate while it's properties were described.
And even a real golden eagle!!
After the lecture, we got a have a private Q & A with the lecturer :)

After which we went to go and say hello to the eagle.
The kids were so impressed :)
The exhibits that were put up were excellent.
Look at the holes in the bones




Once most of the other children had gone (yes, we were the last to leave) we got to see the eagle without its headgear, and have it's snack.
B then took the camera and went off to take these next pictures. I stayed with K, who wanted to stay and question the eagle's handler.

owl pellets








A great day learning with friends :)

Natural instruments

So it's almost mid January and we've had no snow at all this winter so far! We'll have to see what February brings ... in the meantime, it is still warm enough for us to get outside quite a bit.

At forest school the children made natural instruments.

Googs made drums, of course :)

K's stick/bag creation
Kiki with her brick drum

B with his drum set
And this was K's favourite. She made a tambourine/rattle with her branch of dried leaves
To warm up, the kids went into the energy centre

Recycled paper!

We had a lot of orangy financial newspapers left over from lighting fires, we decided to recycle some and make our own paper.
The boys got stuck into ripping the newspaper into small pieces
while K measure out the water
in went the pieces of newspaper
and everyone had a turn blending them
into the wooden frame went the brown sludge

removing the frame 'lid'
and drying the 'paper' with a sponge

squeezing the water out some more with the rolling pin. There is actually a mesh on top of the paper in this pic.
K using blotting paper to eek out some more water
and ta da! one small, beige-ish piece of paper. K has plans to write out the runes on it, which is a perfect use for it. Next time, I think we will go for more colourful paper, and perhaps even some glitter :)