Rainy Days

I think it is safe to say that the rainy days have finally left us.  This has been the longest and most prolific monsoon season I can remember in Arizona, and boy did we need it.  Before it all ended, we decided to go for a walk in the rain together to do some exploring and checking out the way nature responds to rain.

We learned that drainage ditches like this were created by the city to help prevent flooding.  At the time we took this picture it was barely sprinkling and there was no evidence of running water through the ditch.  The following day it was absolutely pouring and by the time we reached the ditch it was about 2 feet under water.  We took that opportunity to discuss water safety and talked about never going in a drainage ditch when it's raining unless your crazy mom wants to take a picture for her blog and is CPR and First Aid certified. :P 

We checked out some sunflowers growing on the side of the road, and asked some questions about why flowers close up when it is cloudy, rainy, or dark.  Our scientific hypothesis (a vocab word for us this week) was that because the sunlight went away with the clouds, the flowers were not receiving sunlight for photosynthesis, and bees would not like to collect pollen in the rain.  By closing up, the flower was able to use its energy to absorb the water from the roots. 

Many of the flowers had not closed, and Anna said that she thought they were very brave by staying open in the chilly rainstorm. 

A lot of gourds grow near our house, so we took some time to check them out on our walk.  We found this one in the middle of the plant cycle, going from a fertilized flower into a "fruit."  It was wonderful to be able to explain with a hands on demonstration how pollination works.  Because we had been studying the life cycle of a plant, it was exciting to see the progress of it in person. 

In addition to these fun science lessons (and the social studies lesson about drainage ditches), we have been learning about using the letter y as a vowel and as a consonant, and being able to distinguish when both are used.  In math, we worked on estimating amounts, rounding, and recognizing & extending number patterns and sequences.  We also do a morning meeting each day, but I will talk about that another time soon!