Pine Cone Exploration

 This afternoon the PM class continued their interest in the weather as well as going on a little hunt for pine cones! Before heading out on a walk, we talked about what kind of weather they experienced walking into school today. 

"It was kinda rainy!"

"It is cold! I have a coat."

"Yeah, it's rainy and cloudy."

As a class, we looked at the predictions the kids made yesterday

It turns out 3 friends were partly right! It was a bit rainy and quite cloudy. That being said, the kids then discussed what we might need to wear on our walk today since it was cold and rainy. 

"We need our coats!"
"We can wear hats!"
"And gloves!"

With a few borrowed items of clothing, the kids were bundled up and ready to go find some pine cones for an experiment we will be conducting tomorrow regarding opening and closing (stay tuned!). 

The kids successfully found so many pine cones! Luckily for us, they were found by a tree on school grounds, but for good measure we walked the whole block just in case. Once we returned, it was time to get down to some business. The kids noticed there was more than just pine cones in their bag. 

"There's grass!"

"There are leaves too! Those aren't pine cones!"

They were right, pine needles and leaves are not pine cones. The kids got to work. 

They all used tweezers and tongs to try and get the grass, leaves, and pine needs out from the pine cone. They worked for so long and so hard! 

While exploring the pine cones though, O noticed that her hands were getting sticky and that the sticky stuff was kind of smelly. 
"It smells good! It's so sticky. What is it?"

Once they finished "cleaning" the pine cones, the worked together as an assembly line to put the pine cones in a large pile on the table. 

Although it was cloudy and rainy, we still found a way to make the  most out of our day. I can't wait to find out what happens to our pine cones tomorrow during our experiment!