Today we went to the Shipley Nature Center.  We saw animal skins, skulls and half-eatened buffalo gourds.  We learned about beetles' life cycles, animal skulls and how to identify them.  We also learned about animal scat (or pooh).  We learned about habitats, snakes and snake's eggs.  The eggs felt like card stock.  They showed us snakes, beetles and some other really cool stuff.  I like the Shipley Nature Center.  I like their pond with ducks, fish, turtles and maybe frogs.  When it rained it even flooded a path through the park.  Everything was really pretty.  I think it is really cool and I would recommend it if your family likes the out doors and nature.

We got to touch animal skins.

We made animal foot prints on paper.

We looked at animal poop.

Today we went to the Shipley Nature Center to learn about animals.  We got to look for animal evidence.  On the way in we saw cat tracks and raccoon tracks.  They showed us lots of cool stuff like wolf, badger, raccoon, skunk and rabbit fur.  They even had a snake brought out.  We had to take a detour because it rained and the path flooded.  They showed us how you can see if the animal is healthy by their poop.  It's real cool especially if your family likes nature.

We got to feel animal skins.

We got to hold a stink bug.

We got to look at scat.  Scat is a word for animal droppings.

We planned to go to Sky High and enjoy the home school jumping price they have every Monday.  Pete took the day off of work to join us.  When we got there, they were sold out.  Then our friends, the Rizio's, arrived and we decided to go to the beach for a little while.

We parked by the Newport Pier and spent 75 cents (as opposed to $36 to go to Sky High) in the meter.  We saw the lowest tide I have ever seen.  The water barely reached the end of the jetty.  That left many things exposed.  Starfish, sea anemones, crabs and mussels.

Who knew it would turn into a science field trip?

During the first week of school, which started on August 23rd, the kids were assigned some science/literature assignments on the topic of Dudley.  All of the kids drew a tobacco hornworm.  Elijah and Luke were asked to write in their journal as if they were Dudley.  This was an opportunity to be creative, pretend to be a worm, pretend that worms have feelings and emotions, and write in the first person.

Dudley, drawn by Elijah

Dudley, drawn by Luke

When we went to the pumpkin farm we got five pumpkins for $20.  And we also went in a corn maze.

We sat on a tractor and mom took pictures of us.

John got a little pumpkin.  We got to see our cousins at the pumpkin farm and the pumpkin patch was really big.  We built a big pile of pumpkins and then dad took pictures of us lying down on them.  And we were faking that we were sleeping.

The next morning, after breakfast, mom said I could clean out the jar with the dead bug in it.  I put my hand in the jar to take Dudley out and all of the sudden I felt legs crawling on my hand.  Then I said, "Mom he's alive.  Dudley's alive."  So then I put my hand in the jar and pulled him out.  Then he started crawling all over my arm.  He did not fly away because his wings were curled around him.  My mom realized that butterflies and moths need to crawl on something and unfurl their wings when they get out of the chrysallis.  Dudley wasn't able to crawl on anything in the jar because we didn't have anything in the jar for him to crawl on.  So we knew that Dudley wasn't going to fly.  But we tried to put water on his wings to see if his wings could still work.  Dad put sticks in the jar and Dudley crawled on them.  Dudley never did actually unfurl his wings.

We learned that the next time we have a tomato worm, when he goes in the dirt we need to put something in the jar so he can climb on it and unfurl his wings.