Science Club

Our local science center has fun program for homeschoolers. The first Wednesday of each month, we go and participate in a science class led by their instructors. Andrew is in a group with about nine other preK and Kindergarten students. This week was our first meeting, and it was a blast. I am so glad to have a fun science field trip for him each month where I know he will receive great instruction, and get to do things that I just could not replicate at home.

For instance, the center has a large animal room. Here is the group looking closely at the Gopher Tortoise, the reptile for Georgia.

And here they are examining some lizards and talking about camoflague.

The center has a lot of outdoor hiking and nature trails. I think we will do one trail each month, and the instructor said we'll be observing how the trails change throughout the seasons. It was H-O-T yesterday, so we hiked a very short trail.

Then we went inside to the classroom and talked about all the wildlife we might encounter on the Georgia coast. The theme for the day was ocean life. The tables were full of specimens the students could touch without fear of breaking anything. As they moved down the tables, Ms. Angela told them interesting facts about the wildlife.


And this was very cool. In the courtyard, there was an inflated life size whale. The students got to walk inside and see for themselves just how big these animals are. Here's a picture from the balcony above.
Heading inside. . .
I heard more than one parent/child combo discussing what Jonah must have felt like.

After the whale experience, they headed inside and made an ocean in a bottle. I felt a little conspicuous taking more pictures, so I'll post one of him and his bottle in our week 1 wrap up tomorrow. It was a great afternoon. We are looking forward to next month!