April 06th, 2021

On Monday we welcomed our very first in-person Mystery Reader! YAY! Lily's mom, Sarah, read a few books, that her and Lily had picked out for us. It was wonderful to enjoy ​the sunshine together. Thank you, Sarah!

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​Investigating scales with the digital microscope

Today we introduced the digital microscope to the children. As our first object of interest we used chicken feet, which have different kinds of scales on them. Hugh kicked us off in the exploration of the fascinating textures today and we will continue throughout this and next week. In the beginning, Hugh was rather hesitant about touching the chicken foot with his hand and felt more comfortable using the tweezers to manipulate it. 
"It's kinda sticky." 
Hugh was very intrigued by the images the digital microscope produced and showed great interest in the different ways he can adjust the microscope's level and focus. 
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What can we see with a microscope?

​I think we actually seeing inside. Because microscopes (...) let you to see inside the animal.
- Hugh

Manipulating the chicken foot underneath the microscope 

(video recording from the digital microscope)

Adjusting the focus of the microscope

(video recording from the digital microscope)

Images of scales on the chicken foot taken with the digital microscope...

... and with an iPhone

Further explorations of scales

Jade brought in a purse with scales from home and we were wondering which animal the scales or skin could be from. We used an animal encyclopedia  to research different animals with scales, such as lizards, snakes, alligators and crocodiles. 

I think that animal is a snake. - Hugh

We identified scales in the shapes of squares and triangles on the purse and compared them to images of alligators and crocodiles in the book.

The purse lines are kinda like the tails lines. - Hugh

On Monday we also continued sewing scales for our dragon costume.

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