Adventure Club: Birds 11/4/2009

Wednesday, November 4th 10:00

I AM I Learning Center at Weaver's Bottom: This is located on Robin's property in Kingsland. Directions can be found by clicking on the link that says "Directions To Adventure Club Meetings".

Activities: Join us as we learn about various bird species, their anatomy and behaviors with a special focus on the local birds found on Robin's property. We will also learn what it takes to become a bird watcher, dissect an owl pellet to learn about how and what they eat and make a bird feeder. Please be aware that our discussion will involve the evolution of birds from dinosaurs, as it relates to our previous lesson about reptiles.

Bring: We will be outside for much of this meeting so bring along hats or sunscreen if needed, and wear closed shoes. If you suffer from outdoor allergies please be aware that Robin's property is full of beautiful plants and trees- a good day to take any preventative allergy medicines that you use. Wear your LAHAC shirts if you have them. Bring $2 per participating child to cover the cost of meeting supplies. A small snack and water will be provided, but if you would like to pack a lunch for your family Robin welcomes you to picnic at her place after the meeting is over. If you have any great bird books, projects, pictures, etc. to share with us bring them along.

Share With Us: Our children will be working on bird projects over the next month to share with the group or display in the classroom. Please feel free to work on your own bird projects to share/display at the meeting- we would love to see a wide variety of projects! They can be simple collages, crafts, drawings, bird stories or poetry, reports, experiments, photos of birds or anything else you can think of. There are some helpful bird links on the blog, if you have others to recommend please add them to the comments section of that blog post.

RSVP: Please RSVP or send questions to Robin & Jennifer at lahac1@gmail.com by October 21st. Include your name, contact information and the names and ages of children who will be attending. **If this is your first time attending an Adventure Club meeting at I AM I Learning Center you will be asked to sign a release upon arrival for each person attending. If you would like a copy of the release sent to you ahead of time please let us know in your RSVP.

Reptile Meeting Summary

Another great Adventure club meeting- the weather was beautiful for an outside day so we didn't use the classroom this time, but we were able to display some projects in there for other kids/parents to check out. Thanks again to Stephanie and her family for bringing so many great reptiles to share with us at our meeting. We also learned several reptile yoga poses from the Weaver and Jones kids, ate some snake breadsticks and decorated some really cool wooden snakes to take home. Not to mention that the kids all had a great time running around the property and having stick fights! Here is a list of the animals we saw/learned about, you can check out the slideshow of pictures from the meeting to see them:

Snakes: Red tail boa , ball python, Kenyan sand boa

Lizards: leopard gecko, blue tongue skink, red iguana

Tortoise and Turtles: pancake tortoise, redfoot tortoise, elongated tortoise, russian tortoise, sulcata tortoise, bell's hingeback tortoise, 3 lined mud turtle

Reptile Meeting Comments/Suggestions

Thank you to everyone who came and participated in the Reptile Adventure Club meeting. We had a great time, and learned a lot from Stephanie about her amazing reptile pets. We are hoping some of you did too. If you have comments on how the meeting went or suggestions for things you would like us to add/change to the classes or the environment to make it a more enjoyable and educational experience for your family please let us know by commenting to this post. Kids comments/suggestions are welcome too!

Hey folks!

Just a reminder for you regarding the meeting today. For those of you suffering from allergies, you may want to take/bring any medication with you to deal with that issue. Mold is really high right now and I am suffering myself although managing without meds. There are some mosquito's about but fewer in the area that class will be - if that is a problem, you may want to wear long sleeves and pants or bring repellent. Closed in shoes are always a good idea at my place, especially for kids that enjoy exploring a bit. Class today will take place inside the school building and outside on the lawn if the weather cooperates. Due to the rain, the tanks are full of water. So...if you have kids that like to get wet and muddy, you may want to prepare with a set of dry clothes for the trip home. Most of the fields have been mown, so there is less chance of seeing snakes, especially because the temperature is falling below their comfort level but...there are plenty of turtles and frogs in the tank!

We are really excited to have Stephanie come as she always has neat critters and great information. I am looking forward to seeing you all. See you later.

Robin

Helpful Reptile Links

Texas Reptiles- Details on a reptile show happening in San Antonio in November. There is also a link to many other sites about Texas reptiles.

Herps of Texas- A listing of Texas reptiles and where they are found. Includes a link to other Texas reptile sites.

Wildlife Fact Sheets- Many fact sheets on Texas reptiles (and other native animals) from the Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Venomous Texas Snakes- Information on venomous Texas snakes from the Texas Junior Naturalists. A great site to check out in general.

Research, Lesson Plans and Online Activities

Austin Reptile Expo- Another reptile show happening in Austin in October.

Pre-K Reptile Activities and Crafts

National Geographic Reptiles- Reptile facts, pictures and videos.

Adventure Club: Reptiles 10/7/2009

Wednesday, October 7th 1:00: Please note the time change for this meeting. It will be later in the day in order to accommodate Stephanie who will be driving several hours to do our presentation for the day.

I AM I Learning Center at Weaver's Bottom: This is located on Robin's property in Kingsland. Directions can be found by clicking on the link to the right that says "Directions To Adventure Club Meetings".

Activities: Join us for a special presentation given by wildlife expert and homeschool mom Stephanie Wagner. At past meetings she did wonderful presentations on tortoises and spiders, this time she will be teaching us all about reptiles. Stephanie will be bringing many reptiles along with her- including ones that are native to South America, Australia, Africa and Asia. In addition to teaching us all about her particular reptiles she will answer any questions you might have and be available to go over pet care for anyone who owns a reptile or is considering purchasing one. After her presentation, Robin and Jennifer will be leading the group in activities that focus on reptiles that are native to Texas. In addition, our kids will be teaching some fun reptile yoga poses to the group. There will also be time set aside for the kids to share any reptile projects that they bring to the meeting.

Bring: Stephanie has asked that we please DO NOT BRING REPTILES (pets or wild) to this class as there is a slight chance of spreading disease to her reptiles- she will have plenty to share with us. The one exception is that if anyone has a pet reptile they need to rehome she would be happy to take it. We will be outside for much of this meeting so bring along hats or sunscreen of needed, and wear closed shoes. If you suffer from outdoor allergies please be aware that Robin's property is full of beautiful plants and trees- a good day to take any preventative allergy medicines that you use. Wear your LAHAC shirts if you have them. Bring $2 per participating child to cover the cost of meeting supplies.

Share With Us: Our children will be working on Texas reptile projects over the next month to share with the group or display in the classroom. Please feel free to work on your own reptiles projects to share/display at the meeting- we would love to see a wide variety of projects! They can be simple collages, crafts, drawings, reptile stories or poetry, reports, experiments, photos of reptiles or anything else you can think of. There are some helpful reptile links on the blog, if you have others to recommend please add them to the comments section of that blog post.

RSVP: Please RSVP or send questions to Robin & Jennifer at lahac1@gmail.com by September 23rd. Include your name, contact information and the names and ages of children who will be attending. **If this is your first time attending an Adventure Club meeting at I AM I Learning Center you will be asked to sign a release upon arrival for each person attending. If you would like a copy of the release sent to you ahead of time please let us know in your RSVP.

Bug Meeting Summary

We had a great Adventure Club meeting today all about bugs. It was our first "official" Adventure Club class in Robin's new classroom at IAMI Learning Center. There were a total of 10 families attending and 27 kids- a great turnout for the first meeting and a wonderful group of kids from infant up to teenager. Robin will be compiling all the information that we covered (and some that we didn't) into a binder that will be kept in her classroom for public use. If you, or others, are ever researching bugs with your kids and would like to borrow that resource you will be able to check it out there. Here's a short summary of what we did at today's meeting:

• Greeting With Robin- Robin talked a bit about her property and the learning center, explaining her vision for her family and the community. (Robin--you should definitely post here and on your blog about that sometime!)
• Bug Anatomy With Robin- Robin handed out information packets and talked the kids through the common body parts of a bug.
• Wings With Jennifer- Jennifer explained how bug wings work and gave the kids a model to test out and take home.
• Mouthparts With Jennifer- Jennifer used a demonstration (fun!) to show the kids five different types of insect mouthparts.
• A Little Free Time Outside
• Bug Hunts and Observation- The kids were split into two groups (older and younger). Robin took a group on a bug hunt around her property using nets she made and jars. The kids found and captured quite a few bugs. Inside the classroom Jennifer helped the kids observe all the dead bugs we have collected over the summer, look at some microscope slides and have a snack of cricket cookies.