Friday, December 13, 2013

Monday, December 2, 2013

Our friends the worms





Exploring Farming

Throughout the fall the BUGS gardeners have been learning about farming across Baltimore city/county by visiting different urban, peri-urban and rural farms in the surrounding area. We have helped stack pallets, spread straw to insulate seeds, explored worm bins, planted cover crop and garlic and tasted a variety of delicious crops. A big thanks to Calvert's Gift Farm, Real Food Farm, Whitelock Community Farm, the Filbert St. Garden, Great Kids Farm and the Pearlstone Center for welcoming us into their beautiful growing spaces! 

Great Kids Farm:






Pearlstone Center




 Real Food Farm




Whitelock Community Farm










Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Fall cooking with BUGS


The BUGS have been hard at work learning how to make salad dressings and practicing their knife skills. The BUGS learned to make ranch dressing and blue cheese dressing.








 The BUGS also learned how to make deviled eggs, a very messy and tasty project. 



For Halloween the BUG students made creepy fruit faces and worms and compost. The Halloween snacks were enjoyed by all. 


Thursday, November 21, 2013

A Season of Caterpillars

The beginning of autumn saw the arrival of many caterpillars. The BUGS gardeners have been catching, identifying, and building habitats for wooly bears and swallowtail caterpillars. They were even able to observe their caterpillars building chrysalises! 






Fun at the Castle Park!


Friday, November 15, 2013

More Spiders in Space!

My second week with the Spiders consisted of building and using a simple telescope and learning about visible and invisible light.  The Spiders learned to center and focus their telescopes.  They also found out that the lens of the telescope turns images upside down!  Very curious.... 

Also, if you are interested in telescopes, the Maryland Science Center offers FREE STARGAZING  on Friday nights from 5:30pm to 9:00pm on their rooftop Observatory.  Call 410-545-2999 before your visit to check on viewing conditions.

During our experiments with visible and invisible light, the Spiders used different materials
to see which blocks a certain type of light and which lets it through.  The record of their experiments is shown below.  A job well-done, Spiders!






Friday, November 8, 2013

Famous Chickens

The BUGS chickens were featured on Maryland Public Television! Check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEtkqNKyvmA&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Yoga Wednesdays

In our movement and dance class we have been taking Wednesdays to do some yoga and mindfulness training. Here, the fourth grade girls are taking a moment to focus on their breath and relax after our yoga session.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Spiders in Space!!

This week was the start of the Spiders' rotation in STEM.  This year, along with the Ladybugs, the Spiders are exploring Space and the James Webb Space Telescope.  This week we started things off with Balloon Rockets!  (See the entry on the Ladybugs for how to do this fun, fun activity at home.)  Then, we modeled the Universe.  It was very interesting to see how much the Spiders know about what is out in the great beyond.  Finally, we ended the week trying to answer the question "Is there anyone else out there?!" by discussing characteristics of life and what planets need to support life.