Fall Science Project ~ Erosion

"What are we making today Ms. Angela?"  I am lucky to often answer this question.  Lucky because my job is to play with little kids and create fun things!  The answer this time was "an erosion bundle."

Logically the next question quickly followed the first, "What is erosion?"

I first found this neat idea on Art Club Blog and I thought it looked like a great project for introducing kids to concepts of weather, change and decay, and of course erosion.  

To get the kids engaged in our project we started out talking about weather.

• What kinds of weather are there?
• What happens to things that are outside when it rains?
• When it snows and freezes?

We had a light-hearted chat about this; about how things change and wear away, or erode, when they are exposed to weather.

To give the kiddos a tangible hands on example of erosion and the effects of weather, we made our own "rain puddle".

 I put warm water in a glass bowl in the center of our table.  Then we started adding things to it.  We started with paper. I gave each kid a scrap of paper to rip up and add to the water.  We stirred them around for a bit and then pulled the paper out.  The kids were surprised by the change, it was floppy and really easy to tear!  I asked them if they would be able to write on the paper now.

That was the start of our fun experiment.  Then we added other things like hibiscus flowers which changed the color of the water.  And we added these starchy noodle shaped things that dissolve in water.  I got them long ago at Hobby Lobby and can't remember what they are called, ah well...  The kids did really enjoy watching these dissolve and squeezing the noodle things as they changed shape.  We watched and stirred and exclaimed as our puddle eroded away all the things we had put in it, this experiment was a huge hit with the kids.

Next we went outside and created our erosion bundle.  I spread a cloth spread in the center of our circle and had each child add one unique thing to the center of the cloth.  We added rocks,  paper streamers, paper cards and broken crocs jibits among other things.

Then we wrapped it all up inside a mesh corn bag and buried it in the ground.  We plan to unearth it in the spring to discover what Mother Nature has done to the objects within.

Shared on: Science Sparks, The Kid's Co-op

Tree Gazing

Trees speak to me.  A soothing rustle of leaves creates calming dappled sunshine.  Simply laying beneath a tree listening and feeling always centers and soothes me.

Listening to the peaceful sound of leaves whispering in the wind.

Feeling profound strong comfort of the Earth.

All is well here.  All is how it should be.

What a gift to simply take a moment and breathe while watching patterns of the sky and sun shifting between the leaves.  Feeling the steady love of Mother Earth cradling and nourishing every cell while letting go into the ground.

My family is truly blessed to live in Colorado where we have easy access to rich beautiful forests.  On a recent hike we found a lovely aspen grove.  Into it we climbed to find a forest floor strewn with soft plants and leaves.  Here we nestled down together for a bit of tree gazing and centering.  The wind blowing high above in the tree tops provided a lovely show as we watched the trees dancing and swaying.  We let go of the craziness of the school year.  We let go of schedules and stress.  We let go of concerns.

Pretty soon we found ourselves taking about the beauty of nature and how we can help to preserve it.  My six-year-old decided that we should have a "nature day" at least once a week.

"What would you do?" I asked.

"Give nature love and water!" came a vigorous happy reply.

Wonderful...

At the edge of the aspen grove was a very amazing tree growing in an interesting shape.  What does it look like to you?

We thought maybe a headless warrior...

As summer moves along and eventually transforms into autumn, I hope we have many more family moments, many more simple pleasantly easy afternoons tree gazing.

Fun Fact ~ Aspens are one of the (if not the) largest organism living on Earth.  They grow connected under the Earth.  So when you see a grove of many aspens, you may only be seeing one living organism!