What I Discovered by Sitting in the Woods!

Inside:

• My Nature Journal Entry (hoping to inspire you!)
• Some cool stuff about mosses
• Reframing Boredom

MY NATURE JOURNAL ENTRY
I've invited you to be part of a learning community! Earlier this week, I issued two Invitations (here's the link to the Google Doc):

1. Describe something you built, created, or made during this time of social distancing.
2. Complete a Nature Journal Entry.,

Well, I'm here to report that I spent 20 minutes outside on Thursday morning completing the Nature Journal invitation. I'm sharing my journal right here!  Please consider sharing your journal here! (You have to use your school account to view and edit.)

SOME COOL STUFF ABOUT MOSSES
I found out some really cool stuff about mosses just by being in the woods. One thing I discovered is that mosses are one of the first plants to grow on land. Mosses started doing that about 450-425 million years ago! Here's a really cool, short article on the early history of mosses.

There are a lot of cool critters that live in mosses, too. Here is a terrific episode of Pondlife that describes some of the cool things that live in mosses. You'll recognize rotifers from when we looked at the biofilm slime layer from the creek.

Follow this link to see the KidsShouldSeeThis page. There are other links that you might be interested in exploring.

Here's the video. (I want that microscope! :)




REFRAMING BOREDOM
It's pretty easy to get bored when we are social distancing. Yet, it's super-important to observe the social distancing both for our own health and for the health of our community. But... its BORING, isn't it?

Did you know that boredom can actually be good for you? (I know. Such an adult thing to say, right?)

Well, here's a fun video by a psychologist about the positive aspects of boredom. This link will take you to a short KidsShouldSeeThis video. (The images do not link.)

This next video talks about the importance of staring out the window. Have you done much of that lately? :)

Maybe I like this video so much because I do this all. the. time. (It's kind of a family joke.) And I really want to think of that window-staring as a strength. At any rate, I was happy to see this video use a very positive word for what some people call "spaciness": reverie. Fancy.