Chicago Art Institute

Today was our first day in Chicago. We woke up at 8:30. Well, at least everybody else did. I woke up at 7:15 then went back to sleep and then woke up at 8:01. then I showered and got ready for the Art Institute. at the art institute we had to wait in line to get tickets we saw lions. the sculptures. i almost got one at the gift shop but it was 105 dollars so i wasn't allowed to get it so i got a painting of "The Bedroom" by Vincent van Gogh. First we went through the paperweight collection. then we did fullerton hall, Alsdorf galleries, and then we did Chagall's windows its three stained glass windows. but i think that he painted them and thy are huge. Then we visited the Georges Seurat room. he painted with dots. All of it was dots. If you stand up close it doesn’t look very good but when you stand back or look at it from a distance it all forms together and it looks really pretty. Here is the link to George Seurat paintings.
http://www.artic.edu/artaccess/AA_Impressionist/pages/IMP_7.shtml
Then we visited the Vincent van Gogh room. there were two paintings by Gauguin. And then there was a third painting it looked like Gauguin but better. I could pick out the Gauguin paintings right away but this one confused me. It was called Madame Roulin Rocking the Cradle.
I will get the pictures up when I get them all.

Birds

Today was the fourth day of School of the Wild. We did birds today.
On the way to the place were we do birds we saw a living snail. When we got to the place we set up the mist net. Birds get caught in the mist net by flying into the net and falling down into a pouch. While we were waiting for birds we filled out a table . Here it is.
Traits

All Birds?

wings
yes
Feathers
Yes
fly
No
beak/bill
Yes
calls
Yes
color/pattern
Yes
tail
Yes
size/shape
Yes
migrate
no
nest
no
eggs
yes
hallow bones
no
eyesight
yes
talons
no
biped
yes
webbed feet
no
ears
yes


We caught a Black Cap Chickadee. It’s black and white. On it’s back it is about the size of my hand. I even got to hold it. It feels weird when it blinks. It was banded on June 19 , 2006.

Wetlands

Today was the third day of School of the Wild. Today was the wetlands. We visited 3 ponds. The first pond we went to was Prairie pond.
At Prairie pond we caught a lot of snails,2 leopard frogs, 3 tree frogs, 1 bull frog,3 crayfish,leech larva,beetles, and tadpoles. Next we went to Duck Weed Pond. We only caught one thing there and I caught it! I caught a bull frog tadpole. Then we went and ate. We ate by the lake. While we were eating we found a dead raccoon and a fish head. Then we went to Spider Pond. At Spider Pond we caught the 30 pound snapping turtle. It was huge. We think it was the mother because when we caught a younger snapping turtle it was guarding it. We also caught a painted turtle. We got to hold it. I think that snapping turtles are historical because the tail looks like a dinosaurs.

Woodlands

Today was the second day of School of the Wild. Today we did the Woodlands. This was the three mile hike.
We were hiking to the spillway. Along the way we saw a lot of fungi. We saw two branches that looked like elephant trunks , a hollow tree, ( My head could fit inside the hole) We found a Jack in the Pulpit. It was green and white. A Jack in the Pulpit is a flower attached to the side of a plant and has a cover over it. It is really cool. We made it to the spillway! There are lots of rocks . The water moves very fast . On the way back we saw a baby raccoon. It was so cute. It makes a high pitched squealing sound. Then we came into a separate forest and played trust and fall. Trust and fall is were you stand up straight with you eyes closed and you fall back trusting that the person or people behind you will catch you. There were about 5 people in my group that did it correctly. When I went everybody said I had a perfectly straight body.

Prairie and Garden

Today is the first day of School of the Wild! The first day we did prairie and garden.
First we did the garden. We learned that on Conafurd trees you don’t have to cut down the tree you can just count how many branches are on top. They also help farmers. They make a living wall and when wind comes it blows right over the farm.
The Norway spruce is the oldest tree in the world! Types of kiwi can grow on vines. Some types can have a green outside instead of a fuzzy brown.
Next we learned the three colors of the compost.
Brown= carbon = leaves,brown grass,paper bags,straw, and sometimes wood chips
The next color is green.
Green=nitrogen= fresh grass,weeds,food scraps,manure, and urine
The third color is blue.
Blue=water= rain and oxygen.
You will want more brown then green for a good balanced fertilizer.
Next we did Prairie. Did you know that we used to have .1 prairies but now we have a lot more.