The new aquarium at our Wildlife World Zoo was lots of fun. We were able to pet the sting rays, starfish, sea urchins and horseshoe crabs. The penguins too, were great fun to watch ~ and the fish were beautiful!
There was of course much more but these fish were my favorite.
We have a pet desert tortoise ~ did you know?
She is hibernating now (tortoise on the left). Our friends care for her since we were renting for a while and couldn't keep her with us.
This is her home.
We are hoping for baby tortoises this year.
I'm curiously in love with giraffes right now.
Over here it is all about mammals.
I am loving these giraffes! New to our mammal collection. The mother giraffe actually has mammary glands.
On our most recent trip out and about to our Desert Botanical Garden we were introduced to our local Pinacate Beetle ~ known also as the 'stink bug' and 'clown of the beetle world' for it's funny way of standing on his head when threatened and emitting a stinky spray from it's rear. This beetle stays active in cooler weather because of their black bodies which act as a solar collector, absorbing 25% more solar radiation than white beetles, warming them on cold days. Pretty interesting stuff!
The snack above was a mini bagel (cut side down) with cream cheese, blueberries and a grape for the head and black licorice for the antennae ~ very cute.
My favorite part of the day was when the 'Pinacate Beetle' sock puppet read us a poem about himself ~ chock full of lots of fun facts! Here he is . . .
She took him off her hand for this part of the show where she was demonstrating how the mice held the Pinacate when they wanted to eat one up. Rear down so they wouldn't encounter his stinky spray and then eating just the head and thorax of the beetle, leaving the abdomen behind. Pretty smart mice, don't you think?
A beetle booklist:
Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming
Beetle Boy by Lawrence David
The Boll Weevil Ball by Kelly Murphy
The Buggliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields
The Very Clumsy Click Beetle by Eric Carle
The Beetle Alphabet Book by Jerry Pallotta
Bugs are Insects by Anne Rockwell
Bugs, Beetles, and Butterflies by Harriet Ziefert
The Beautiful Beetle Book by Sue Unstead
Beetles: The Most Common Insects by Sara Swan Miller
Mr. Beetle by Satoshi Tada
Bettle Bedlam by Vlasta Van Kampen
We had breakfast with the Giraffes this morning at the zoo. Gorgeous creatures. We learned many interesting things about these graceful animals too. The most exciting part was being invited to their barn to feed them carrots (through the gate). The experience of coming so close to them within close quarters was breathtaking ~ everyone including the wee ones were in silent awe.
Giant floor puzzle ~ we discovered that each giraffe has unique spots just as we have unique fingerprints!
Pretending to be zoo keeper ( I think the leaves were actually supposed to be the stuff in the bucket). Did you know that giraffes are the tallest mammal?
Creating texture rubbings.
Creating a habitat mural (grassy savannah).
We discovered that giraffes gather their food with their long sticky tongues (18 inches long!) ~ and that their tongues are purple!
The purple color helps protect their tongue from sunburn while gathering leaves from the tall acacia tree tops. Rose Red's favorite activity was creating a purple tongue for herself with dry purple jello and then looking at herself in the mirror.
Our breakfasts at the zoo have been great! So far we have come to know our reptile and amphibian friends and now we'll be moving on to mammals. Picking up where our zoo lets off and running with it ~ through books and stories and toys and jokes and songs.
My friends, these are amphibians ~ frogs and tadpoles. She is quite sure about it and taped this important work on the refrigerator.
Life has been less than quiet here at Quiet Hollow. Finding a moment or a thought to blog a post has been hard to come by! We are having a great time with many exciting things. We've finally begun our fall Botanical Garden class which is wonderful. Our first week looked at the Monarch butterfly through stories, crafts, snack, and wonderful activity centers. Best of all though was the trip to the butterfly pavillion!
peering through a magnifying glass
This week's class was all about seeds. This was great fun as our nature walks have been all about seeds (and animal homes) lately. We planted seeds, discovered seeds and their plants throughout the garden, snacked on seeds (this was lots of fun! skewered fruit and veggies all filled with seeds ~ cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, kiwi, strawberries, etc., etc.). There were books and learning centers and storytime with the feltboard.
We continue on with our monthly breakfast at the zoo with the animals. Last month we visited the amphibians and learned about our frog friends and saw many different types of frogs, toads, some salamanders and newts!
Our nature walks continue but the camera never seems to make it with us for one reason or another but we have been discovering many animal homes and seeds, seeds, seeds and coming to know our desert foilage a bit. We are very aware of fall this year and notice signs of it everywhere (even in our desert climate!).
After our Big Red Hen study we tried to move onto something else but Rose Red keeps pulling us into Cinderella instead (which she is passionate about just as she was with the Little Red Hen). I'm following her lead instead ~ but sticking to my guns about avoiding the Disney~fied Cinderella and reading her an older version of the story where we can pick up on the virtues Cinderella exhibits of kindness, humility, gentleness and forgiveness. All of which are in sore need over here ~ so perhaps we have been properly lead!
Our alphabet studies continue but not with any true enthusiasm due to mommy's distractions. We have an alphabet shelf which we keep the weekly (or so) letter (tactile letter, letter puzzle, picture books of the alphabet; Metropolitan Museum of Art and a Waldorf. I have yet to incorporate our chalk letters (for walking the shape of each letter) or some of the other things I had in mind ~ but soon, soon, soon.
There is more we are doing ~ patterning, counting, music, etc. as our whims dictate ~ and of course we are reading, reading, reading. The library is our great friend. Nature and the seasons, our animal friends, counting, and more are all coming alive for us through our books!
Back to mommy's distractions ~ we are moving again! This time we purchased a home of our own. We hope to move in by Thanksgiving. My dh's company just had their grand opening this past week so he has been busier than ever even into the evenings and weekends lately. Between revonating the new house and getting his company up and running and boy scouts with our nephew and bible study at the church the poor guy has not come up for air in several months. Oh ~ and his father has moved in with us as of September (I think temporarily). He is sleeping in the loft. All fun and crazy stuff.
Hope all is well with all of you!
Rose Red discovered another reptile in her stuffed animal collection and brought it out to add to the rest.
The Crocodile
How doth the little crocodile
Improve his shining tail,
And pour the waters of the Nile
On every golden scale!
How cheerfully he seems to grin,
How neatly spreads his claws,
And welcomes little fishes in,
With gently smiling jaws!
~Lewis Carroll
While the rest of the family is hard at work painting and fixing up our new home so we can move in before Thanksgiving, Rose Red is thinking reptiles and created for herself a snake out of stones. This, of course, thrilled me and I pulled out my camera.
We've brought out our reptiles and will be spending the next few weeks learning more about them.
We had our first 'breakfast at the zoo' today. Our date was with the tortoises. Rose Red was able to pet and feed these giant reptiles. She was a bit slow to warm up to the idea and a bit frightened of them but came around and petted them at the end. She had lots of fun after in the activity zone pretending to be a tortoise and asking for carrots.
