Three Days of Fall Fun and Learning
 
Do you know why the leaves change color in the fall or what the stringy things on corn cobs are for?  Have you noticed all the monarch butterflies around lately? Where are they going?
Do you know how much fat a grizzly bear adds to it's body for hibernation or who invented the plow?  Do you know what benefits there are from planting crops in straight, evenly spaced rows?
If not, ask an Ambassador Academy student!  Those were just a few of the things we learned during our fall science unit.
Mrs. Farmer Franks (Mrs. Doty) visited the class with Happy, the scarecrow, and taught the class many things that were happening around our city during the fall season.
We played the corn harvest game.  Dodging the birds, teams relayed to harvest their corn cobs, then raced to shuck all the cobs they harvested.
On day one we focused on the harvest, comparing past and present farming techniques, crop pollination, and followed our food from the field to the store shelf.  We also looked at the Bible and studied the idea of the harvest in scripture.  We read the story, The Rich Farmer and learned to store our treasures up in heaven. We read Matthew 9:35 - 38 and learned that we are workers in God's field!

"Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field."
On day two the class was visited by Wilderness Wendy and her polar bear, Polly.  She taught the class what was happening in the animal kingdom during the fall season.  We learned about instinct, hibernation, migration and wintering.
God's miracle of instinct is one of His greatest fingerprints on earth.  After studying, we watched a slide show of all kinds of animals and put them in the migrate, hibernate, wintering categories.  We tested how fat insulates animals from the cold.  Then it was outside to play the migrate/hibernate version of Red Light/Green Light.  We headed back to the classroom to study the monarch butterfly and it's life cycle and migration patterns.  Amazing!  Then we used our own creative gifts to make our own butterfly designs.
On day three a short drive to Quarry Hill provided the class with the opportunity to see, hear, touch and smell the fall season.  After we learned about photosynthesis and tree rings, we hiked with a clipboard, noting all we took in with our senses.   We identified poison ivy, then stopped at the climbing wall and collected leaves for leaf rubbings. In the beautiful fall colors and fresh air we read Joyce Kilmer's "Trees".  Then read Psalm 1:1-3. 
I think that I shall never see  
A poem lovely as a tree.  
 
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed  
Against the sweet earth's flowing breast;  
 
A tree that looks at God all day,         
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;  
 

A tree that may in summer wear  
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;  
Who intimately lives with rain.  
 
Poems are made by fools like me,  
But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer
Such good listeners!