Hi, friends!
This post about our most recent nature exchange is a bit overdue. As in, 6 months overdue!
For a little background, our first 3 nature exchanges were with Silvia. You can read about them here, here, and here.
Our fourth nature exchange was with Celeste. Then, last fall, we arranged a fifth nature exchange with Amber.
We spent many fun hours searching for treasures to send to Amber and her family. Since Amber and her family live about 2,000 miles away, we searched high and low for unusual items that they might not have in their area. My children enjoy
the searching part as much as they enjoy the receiving part. :)
We found butterflies, moths, insects, feathers, snail shells, flower seeds, a lump of pine tree sap, a mantis egg sac, a snake skin, milkweed pods, etc.
The children sketched some of the treasures so they could look back at their Nature journals and remember what we sent. Here's a peek.....
Naomi sketched a Monarch butterfly, a pigeon feather, and a snail shell. I love her Monarch butterfly. :)
Ian sketched a wood beetle, snail shell, and a Spicebush Swallowtail.
Love the detail of his wood beetle. :)
Aaron sketched a wood beetle, a Monarch butterfly, a pigeon feather, and a dragonfly.
Love it! :)
Natalie sketched butterflies and a feather. Even though the Giant Swallowtail was a bit ratty around the lower edges of the wings, she sketched it accurately.
Asher's sketches..I love the horsefly. :)
The detail on his cicada was impressive. :)
After sketching, we carefully boxed everything up and mailed it. A short time later, Amber's box arrived.
We were thrilled to open the box and see what Amber and her family sent us -
- all tree-related treasures. :)
Everything was carefully packed and labeled.
The biggest pine cones we have ever seen!
And to top it off, Amber enclosed a very informative letter with a detailed explanation of each item. It was like a tree-based Science lesson in a box! :) We compared the tree specimens with similar trees in our area. Lots of hands-on learning and fun. Thanks so much, Amber!
Sharing with Celeste.
