A Rhino knocked the tree down!

The day after we returned back to school from our field trip, we had so much to talk about and see!

The teachers got all the pictures developed from our field trip...

We all gathered around the table to talk about what we saw from the pictures...

We had a lot to share! :o)

" I liked seeing the worms!"

"I saw an ant stump that was sharp!"

                           "I found a caterpillar with my mom!"      " I like being with my friends!"

" It's all my friends!"

 After sharing all our thoughts about that day, we picked a picture and described what we like most about our day at the Arboretum, Please check out our work displayed in the hallway!

One very interesting detail that caught the children's eyes was a tree that was on the ground. Bishop shouted to everyone, " A rhino knocked it over!"

So of course we thought this would be a great opportunity to do a science project when we came back to class...

The children were asked why the tree fell? They responded by telling me different things:

"Some one cut it." -Bishop

Some one ripped it.-Kylie

We discussed that dirt keeps the tree in the ground.

We asked the children what happens when it rains? "It gets muddy and turns soft."

This is when the children began understanding that when it rains the roots begin to get loose because the wet mud  is no longer strong enough to support the tree, and the wind blowing increases the chances of the tree falling.

Hendrix hollered, "The mud made it fall down in to the mud water!"

The children showed me how the tree gets knocked over by creating their own demonstrations!

"Watch how the wind knocks the tree over!"

"Wait wait, watch this!"

The children began drawing their illustrations of how the trees get knocked over from the muddy water.

"The wind blew hard and the tree fell down into the mud."

We tested out our theory by using some clay and trees we bought from the store. We covered our whole ground with mud (clay) and put in a few trees..and after a few days of it hardening we all tested it out to see if the tree would fall over with so much support and no water!

We were excited to see they were all still standing tall!

Stayed tuned to for our second part of the project where we will test our trees out in muddy water! =)