Fossil Dig

Around Sutton, Alaska there's an old coal mine that's just filled with botanical fossils from eons ago, so every year the kids take a field trip to go dig for them. 60 kids, plus hammers and chisels= a day of big fun! Give a kid a shovel and some dirt and you can't PRY them away. Sam found a grocery bag full of all kinds of leaf fossils like the one he's holding in the picture, and several chunks of petrified wood. SO cool. It tied in with two of their study themes this year: dinosaurs and plants.

So yesterday was the last day of school. I admit I was a little sad picking them up from school. I spent so much time volunteering in their classrooms and I'm totally going to miss that this summer. The kids and I put together a list of daytrips we want to take over the break, though, and judging from the length of it, we're going to keep very busy. :)

Remember the chickadee nest I posted a picture of? We were able to count the eggs inside and there are TEN! She sure is an ambitious little thing, huh? We can peek at her sitting on the eggs, and it doesn't seem to bother her. She just sits there, all puffed up, looking pretty content. It'll be so fun to see them hatching!

OK, time to go be lazy and enjoy our first official day of summer vacation!