Frozen Nature

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One of our favorite places to visit is Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria.  This past weekend since the weather warmed up a little we decided to see what the wetlands look like in the winter.

On our walk from the parking lot to the wetlands we made lots of little discoveries from wasp nests to green holly trees standing out brightly against the brown forest.
Our favorite part however is the boardwalk out and over the wetlands..  Stepping out the first thing we noticed was the water was frozen and all the grass and leaves were perfectly still under the ice.

This was fascinating to C.  We found some areas where the water was thawing and talked about how the water was moving there.  Still C kept returning to look at areas under ice to ask us to confirm they were frozen.
As always is the case at Huntley Meadows C loved listening for and finding the birds.  Even in the winter there was so much wildlife around, you just had to look a little closer.  We saw a hairy woodpecker, a heron, a bunch is sparrows, seagulls and loads of geese.
We headed back towards the nature center and parking lot to warm up.  Our trip back was a little more difficult given tired little legs and dragging feet.  C was determined to kick every gumball in our path.  Given the amount of sweetgum trees in the forest this required a lot of kicking.
After returning home and eating lunch we looked for some nature from our backyard to place in a bowl with water to see if we could freeze it like the wetland had trapped the grasses and leaves under the ice.

After nap we retrieved out own frozen pond.  C had a great time exploring.  He like to show us the different parts of our backyard hidden inside.  He was able to touch the ice and see how cold and hard it was.
Next, we gave C some salt water, an eye dropper and a fork to see if we could free our backyard from the ice.  He loved putting the salt water on the ice with the dropper.
It was a slow process, but the ice started to melt.  A couple times we shook a little more salt directly onto the ice to help it melt a little faster.  Eventually all of our backyard treasures were freed.
Over all C had a lot of fun.  I was surprised at how long the frozen nature held his attention.  Next time I will make it a slightly thinner and flatter block of ice.

To continue on with our ice theme the next day we did a little ice painting. I mixed some tempura paint and water and froze them in mini popsicle holders.
C loved this especially as the ice started to really melt.  A was fascinated as well.  We painted 2 pictures that turned out looking like he had painted with water colors.
Our 2nd related activity was using some "gumballs"  from the sweetgum tree to paint.  Since they are prickly I clipped their stems to a clothes pin.  That way C could dip them in the paint and then dab them on the paper. 

We had fun and given C's obsession with construction I was not surprised to hear him exclaim, "Like a crane truck Mommy!"  Comparing the dangling "gumball" to a wrecking ball on a crane.  (We see a lot of construction cranes)



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