Let's go!: Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

Before the hurricane winds blew our way, last week we loaded our wagons and enjoyed a long fall walk through the trees to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Inspired by our extended fall study which included the many colors of  falling leaves, our interest has peaked with the color RED. 



We entered the Discovery Garden with much excitement! Our friends, always keen observers, noticed a sign near the entrance that offered a great opportunity to chat about how we can use gentle hands to explore the plants. With this in mind and much to see, our young explorers were ready for action!

A mirrored sculpture offers reflective fun as we gaze up high!














Our friends look high and low at plant life, identifying colors, textures and even smells.

Red flower sighting! Our featured color makes a bold appearance in the lush garden.












Remember our duckweed discovery in Prospect Park just a few short weeks ago? Our friends do, and they delight in spying it again at the Discovery Garden. Let's dig in to explore a bit further!

Prospect Park always holds a new and exciting discovery for our class. We stumbled upon an old, yet sturdy carriage wagon parked on the grounds of Lefferts Historic House which proved a great platform for jumping, stomping, and general merriment! 

Standing close by was another historic artifact--a barrel water pump that gave us the chance to explore cause and effect in a fun, satisfying way. Many questions were raised amidst the giggles, "Where is the water?" "How do I do it?". It was truly a moment of scientific research disguised as great fun. We even observed a great moment of progress when one student suggested, "We can do it together!" Great sharing guys!

To conclude our great week of fun, adventure, and hard work,  we shared a carousel ride just for the fun of it.  Away we go!

This week: Pumpkins!

Autumn offers much opportunity for exciting color and texture exploration at Play by the Park. This week we   got elbow deep in pumpkins and used our hands to explore its smooth surface and seed filled, gooey innards.

Our study extended to the color of pumpkins ("ORANGE!" offered enthusiastically by the class) and inspired an Orange Scavenger walk through the neighborhood. Afterward we brought back photos of our orange neighborhood finds and created our own masterpieces with bright orange paint!

Practicing our cutting with orange paper strips illuminated by our classroom light table, we observe the many shapes and sizes we can create with our scissors.

Finally, we celebrated our fun pumpkin study with a hands-on session of Cooking with Ms. Gilly, creating amazing pumpkin bread that proved a delectable autumn treat!

Yum Yum! Autumn continues with wonders for all of our senses!

Fall Discoveries

We loaded our wagon and began our journey on this week’s Discovery Hike. Looking high and low in search of wildlife, plants and the seasons first fallen leaves and fruit: acorns, ginkgo fruit, and sweet gum fruit became the focus of the day. We observed the strong, pungent smell of the ginkgo fruit and the prickly texture of the sweet gum tree’s harvest.

Floating on the surface of the lake was the day's most intriguing discovery--Duckweed! Throwing rocks on the surface of the water disturbed the algae and opened the concepts of float and sink for exploration

Back in the classroom we dug through rich soil feeling its cool, gritty texture and found a white worm burrowing through! “It’s very tiny!” one student observed. With our magnifying glasses we took a closer look at our forest finds, using rocks and our fingers to “open” acorns and study their many layers. Our fall study has inspired many avenues and is introducing exciting new concepts!