Incredible Creeks

We are using Shining Dawn books Incredible Creeks this week and probably next week. So far we've enjoyed the exploration of our own creek, although there aren't many places that are easily accessible to the water. However, we are hoping to explore a local river this weekend when we go camping. We like these nature studies because we can pick and choose what fits best for our family. So far, here are the things we have done:

-Read The Raft by Jim Lamarche
-Discussed other words for "creek" including brook, stream, and river.
- We talked about how all creeks flow to larger creeks or rivers and they all eventually flow into the ocean. We looked at a local map to see where our creek flows - it eventually gets to the Wabash River, which flows to the Ohio River which flows to the Mississippi, which flows to the Gulf of Mexico!
- Drew pictures of the water cycle to help us understand the process. Isn't it amazing to understand that some of the water flowing in our creek was here hundreds of years ago?
- We made underwater viewfinders to use at the creek, although our creek is so clear and shallow right now that we really didn't need the viewfinders.


- While at the creek yesterday, we took a water sample and brought it home to look at it under the microscope. Unfortunately, we didn't see any microscopic animals. We'll try again at another creek.
- We observed the rocks and the smoothness of them from the water's current.

- We observed the things floating in the water and the vegetation growing on the banks of the creek.


- We observed the living things in the creek - leeches, crawdads and small fish.


Today it's raining, so we won't be down at the creek, but we will look at some paintings by Monet of rivers and read a poem by Emily Dickinson, "The Sea Said 'Come' To the Brook".