Berry Farm Tour
This month we got out early to try and beat the heat for our berrying adventure. A huge thank you to Barber Berry Farm for giving us a tour of their fields and teaching us about hydroponics. We also enjoyed picking and eating their delicious berries!
Gardening Day!
One of our members was nice enough to invite us to her home for a day of gardening. We enjoyed learning about all the fruits and vegetables growing in her garden, and the kids each created their own terrariums to take home.
Spotty Dog Fun
This month, we all read The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. Many of the kids had never read the book, and were more familiar with the Disney version, so we enjoyed comparing the original story to the movies. We also brought some stuffed Dalmatians and the kids pretended to be the characters from the book, with Cruella and the Badduns stealing and hiding the puppies and Pongo and Missis leading the search and rescue mission.
Watching the Big Cats
Today’s highlight was seeing the big cats up and around! The jaguars were playing, the cougars were pacing, and even the elusive lynx left his hiding place in the rocks and came down to watch us.
Tie Dye Fun
We had so much fun with our last tie-dying experiment, we decided to do it again! The kids had a fabulous time, and ended up with some great looking shirts!
Chocolate Factories
For this month’s meeting, the younger kids read Curious George Goes to the Chocolate Factory and the older ones read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. We had so much fun discussing both books, and afterwards created labels for our own candy bar ideas.
Science Friday at McWane Center
The drive to Birmingham was well worth it! We arrived early and spent most of the day exploring all the fascinating interactive exhibits at the McWane Center. A few favorites were the bed of nails, the dino dig and tug-of-war with the giant lever. Can’t wait to go back again soon!
Chicks!
We borrowed an incubator from the 4-H office this month, hoping to have hatching chicks to watch for our meeting. We discussed eggs and chickens, cracked some grocery store eggs to identify the different parts, and everyone had a chance to see the incubating eggs and learn about the process. Unfortunately, the eggs didn’t actually start hatching until almost everyone had left, but several families were able to come back and see the emerging chicks over the next 24 hrs, and we updated everyone else with pictures and videos online.
Fun Family Picnic
Weekend activities are a great way for more dads to be involved in PEAK! We enjoyed a fabulous lakeside potluck picnic and enjoyed playing some fun games to get to know each other better. The kids jumped rope, ran races and had a friendly cricket match with some of the dads.
Looking forward to Spring
The kids shared their favorite books with a spring theme this month, as we’re all enjoying the warmer weather. We had several great reports, including a particularly informative one about Mantids. Great work, kids!
