A Day in the Life: Friday Pond Day

Visiting:
The pond. This time with the pond dipping back pack. A pond visit is the perfect way to end our school year and kick off the summer. The fine young gents waded and splashed and dipped for minnows. The weather was perfect, warm with a light breeze. We spent four hours at the park in the glorious sunshine, dipping in the pond, then across the bridge to wade in the canal and feed the ducks.

Finding:
Silvery minnows. A few water bugs. Snail eggs. A water skipper. A live dragonfly nymph. An intact exoskeleton, which we brought home in a tiny vial of water so that we could see it under the microscope.








Eating:
A Poohsticks-style picnic under the weeping willow. (Poor gents had to listen to this for an hour: "I stopped to see a weeping willow, Crying on his pillow, maybe he's crying for me...." Name that tune.) A typical picnic lunch--I fill the water bottles and throw everything I can find into a reusable grocery bag and a lunch cooler, and off we go. We ended up with hard-boiled eggs, ham, cheese, leftover bagels with sunflower butter, dried apricots, and a dish of strawberries from the front yard.

Watching:
Dragonflies. Giant red and blue ones, and smaller dragonflies with striped wings. Damselflies, too, like tiny flying jewels.

Birds. The tree swallows are fascinating, the way they swoop and dive over the pond.

We remembered a container of grains for the ducks, and were rewarded by a visit from Mama Duck and four fluffy ducklings. The gents were fascinated, and managed to sit still for quite some time so that the babies would come close to the bank. The water was clear enough that we could watch the ducklings diving and swimming under the water.

The great blue heron that has circled the pond a few times on previous visits finally decided that we're not too scary--or that he was too hungry to wait for us to go away. Herons are such stately birds, lovely when they fly, slow and regal wading in the water. They nest in a tall tree near the pond, and we see them often at the pond and around the canal. This bird watched us cautiously as he stalked the opposite edge of the pond, but the gents were still and quiet so he decided to stay.

Playing:
Poohsticks, of course.

We came home tired and warm, inside and out. It was a lovely afternoon.

Life is good.

Wordless Wednesday: Frosty Pond and Poohsticks

What's that bug?

It's time for a new round of What's That Bug? I'll take Pond Bugs for $100, please!

We believe that the large green bug in the lower left corner of the photo is a Giant Water Bug. It's about as big around as my thumbnail, and a little longer. He and his brown water bug friend, upper right (you see both water bug and his or her reflection), either a younger bug or a slightly different variety, were captured on a pond outing with friends. Also known as "toe-biters," these predaceous bugs have been fascinating to watch. Discovering their name has motivated me to buy four-year-old gent some closed-toe pond shoes. They're called toe-biters for a reason.

We went pond-dipping with friends from swim lessons. The oldest boy is fascinated by bugs and a couple years older than six-year-old gent, making him a delightful new friend. Their mom is relaxed, funny, likes being outdoors and doesn't mind bugs, making her a delightful new friend as well.

Did I call them "predaceous?" It's fascinating to watch. Between the two giant water bugs and our new water scorpion, pictured below, the surface of our pond jar was littered with floating backswimmer carcasses. You can see a teeny water bug, bottom right. He's in grave grave danger. He doesn't seem to realize that over by the sticks his buddies have been disappearing one by one.

It looks as though both giant water bugs and water scorpions feast on their prey in a way that's very similar to spiders, injecting them with paralyzing venom that turns the bug insides into a delicious bug-bug soup.

Mmmmmmmmmm.

The water scorpion:
He's sticking his bottom up to the pond surface to get some air.

I'd give him a name, but he's as long as my finger and has really long poky-looking legs, and he kind of gives me the creeps.

Kind of makes me not want to go wading. Ever again.

Pond In a Jar

We've got a mini pond in our living room. All it takes is large clean glass jar, some pond water and bottom scoopings, and some pond critters. We've got tiny pond snails, water boatmen, a water scorpion, a snail leech, and a minnow.

Pond Dipping

We went pond dipping again today. The weather was glorious, hot and bright, perfect for splashing in the cool water.We caught more water bugs and minnows, and a couple pond snails. Our pond guide arrived in the mail yesterday, part of a pond activity kit (more on this in a future post), so we were able to identify some of the pond creatures we caught and learn some useful information. For example, we learned that both water boatmen and backswimmers bite. Knowing that is pretty useful, don't you think?

A fine young gent found some clear slime clinging to a weed, eggs of some kind. He says frogs, I say snails. We'll see in a week or so, as we brought the eggs home in a jar to hatch. Tomorrow we'll make a short excursion back to the pond for more pond water so that we can create a pond-in-a-jar for our soon-to-be hatchlings, whatever they may be.

I forgot the camera, but remembered the paints. Our lovely artistic lady has returned from her summer visit to relatives, and she inspired her brothers to pick up their paintbrushes too. Six-year-old gent sat with his sis and painted his vision of the pond right along with her. Not a bad effort for a gent who, until recently, didn't care to color, draw or paint much at all. As a matter of fact, he even chose painting as his favorite part of today's outing. Then he changed his mind and said it was catching bugs and throwing rocks, but hey, he's a six-year-old boy. That painting even made it onto the list is pretty darn good.

Items to remember on our next pond trip: A trash bag for picking up the trash around the pond (Litterbugs. Ugh!) and a container for blackberries. I got a handful of ripe berries today; by our next visit we'll be able to pick enough for a cobbler.

Pond box

A few days ago at reading time, I picked up six-year-old gent's science program. I waffled a bit over buying him a science program, as our science kits and interest-led explorations worked really well over the past school year, but in the end the curriculum junkie part of me won out, and I purchased My World Science, the unit covering the African Savanna, Sound & Light, Electricity & Magnetism, and Ponds.

I opened up the book that goes with the pond section, One Small Square: Pond, Donald M. Silver and Patricia J. Wynne.

"What's that?" asked fine young gent over my shoulder.

"A book about ponds," I replied. "It's for your science. Do you want to start by learning about ponds instead of Africa?"

"Can we do it right now, Mom?"

I put together a pond box using the recommendations from both the My World Science teacher manual and One Small Square: Pond, and today we went pond dipping.

We saw dragonflies and damselflies, water bugs and minnows, very noisy crows, a large beetle, duckweed, and a nutria. We learned stuff and everyone got wet, including the dog.

"Can we go again tomorrow?" the fine young gents begged.

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How to Make a Pond Exploration Box

You Need:

A large backpack

A clear plastic container with a lid-- large enough to store your other items, small enough to slide into a large backpack.

Nets (I bought ours from the fish section of the pet store for $2 each. We also used a small kitchen strainer, which worked dandy.)


Magnifying glass
Ruler
Scissors
Thermometer

Bug collecting jars
Small containers, some with lids if possible (we reuse yogurt cups and small vials from lovely lady's science supplies)

A plastic bag large enough that the whole kit or wet shoes will fit inside

A pond field guide
Paper and pencil

Optional art supplies:
Watercolor paints and paper
Colored pencils

A pond (This item will not fit in the box.)

Tips and Ideas:

The plastic bin doubled as a small collection pond, which allowed us to observe the minnows and water bugs that we caught. The bug that looks like it's floating upside-down in the corner is a backswimmer, a water insect that swims on its back. We read about backswimmers in Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems, which I've written about here.


Don't forget Mom's bag: Drinking water, sunscreen, snacks if you think you'll be out long enough, and a blanket for sitting.

The only items we couldn't do without: The nets, the plastic bin, and the bug jars and other assorted containers. If you've got those three things you're ready.

Bring at least one net per child because they are the item with which to dip.

Be prepared to get wet. Make sure the kids are wearing clothes that can get muddy, and if you're familiar enough with the pond that you're comfortable with kids wading make sure they've got shoes that can get wet and muddy too.

On the pond

Song of the Water Boatman

Song of the Water Boatman & Other Pond Poems, written by Joyce Sidman and illustrated by Beckie Prange.

Delightful. When I saw Song of the Water Boatman, a 2006 Caldecott Honor Book, I knew it belonged on the Poohsticks bookshelves. A wonderful combination of poetry, art, and nature study, Song of the Water Boatman is a collection of poems about pond life. Poems about algae, the pond food chain, pond plants and different pond animals and insects. "I grow daughters like ears," goes a line in my favorite, "A Small Green Riddle," a poem about duckweed. The gents especially enjoy the poem about the predaceous diving beetle, and the wood duck poem, "Spring Splashdown." Each poem is lovely to read aloud, stunningly illustrated with Prange's beautiful prints, and is accompanied by a short informative paragraph about the subject of the poem. There's even a short glossary at the back of the book. We get this book off the shelf again and again, especially in the spring and fall when we're making our nature excursions.