Desert Winds

This week we had a special treat - Maria Waller (a geology professor at Wellesley and former 1-2 parent) did a demonstration of how winds can shape deserts. Using a hairdryer to supply the wind, she showed how in rocky deserts smaller grains of sand  and particles are blown away leaving a rocky "desert pavement" behind. In sandy deserts, blowing winds create hills of sands called dunes. Over time, these dunes are pushed by the same winds, moving slowly across the desert.

Students had two learning experiences connected to this presentation. In the first, small groups were given two rocks to examine: one which had been weathered by wind and another which had been worn by water. The goal was to determine which stone had been exposed to which type of erosion. Our conclusions were that the smoother of the stones had been evenly worked over by flowing water like that of a stream or river. The other stone had been shaped by winds over time showing the same spiny ridge we observed on the tops of the sand dunes.

In our other exploration, pairs of students were given a cup of wet sand, a cup of dry sand, and a pair of straws. Our students provided the "wind" on the sand and observed its effects on both types of sand.

January Town Forest Walk

Our winter walk felt more like fall today - no snow and warm temperatures. We set out to investigate what animals are active in our Town Forest in the winter and we uncovered a lot of clues! Groups found three different kinds of scat: rabbit, deer and coyote, which let us know there is a lot of mammal activity in the woods. Other groups found and dissected owl pellets that revealed the undigested bones and teeth of their small animal prey. There were numerous birds in flight to observe as well. Other signs we found include various squirrel "snack bars" where the little creatures had left behind their acorn "wrappers".  It was a fun walk with our enthusiastic young explorers! Check out pictures of our finds below.

Special Guest!

On Monday, we had a special visit from Julia Carpenter, an artist friend of Mrs. A.'s.  Julia has recently written a children's book about the emotional capacity and intelligence of animals through stories of unlikely animal friendships which she has paired with her own paintings.  She showed us her paintings and talked to us about the research she had done to learn more about these amazing animals stories.

As we embark on our nonfiction work this year, the kids will choose an animal they want to research and write about. They will even do a painting on a piece of gesso board to pair with their writing. We will send pictures of their work to Julia and some may find their way onto her website.

Below, see pictures of Julia presenting to the 1-2s and some of her artwork, on loan, which are displayed in the classrooms. We will post pictures of student paintings when we complete this project later this year.