The Reason for the Seasons

The Old Farmer's Almanac has a great explanation for The Reason for the Seasons! Happy Summer!

June: Full Strawberry Moon

On June 26th look for the Full Strawberry Moon because it is a wonderful time of year to gather ripened strawberries!

To find a Pick-Your-Own farm in Maine check out this link!

Here is a video on how to grow your own strawberries!

How to grow strawberry plants

May: Full Flower Moon

The May Full Moon (happening on May 27th) is often called the Full Flower Moon due to the abundance of flowers typically visible this time of year. Other variations also include the Full Corn Planting Moon and the Milk Moon.

Studying Rocks & Minerals

If you are interested in studying rocks and minerals further here are a bunch of websites and videos to get you started. Have fun!

The Dynamic Earth
Information on gems and minerals, with maps, close-up photos and slideshows. (Click on "Multimedia Version", then on "Gems and Minerals" or "GeoGallery".)

Virtual Quarry Interactive
View rock samples with a virtual microscope then see fossils found in limestone. (Click on "Young Geologist" to see the fossils.)

Rock Hounds
Slide show on how to collect rocks safely, with online quizzes. (Click on "Rock Hound Collection Safety" and to test your knowledge of rocks, click on "Discover Earth's Treasures".)

Earth Our World in Motion
A fun introduction to Earth science, with lots of ideas for things to do.

Mineral Matters
Games to test your mineral knowledge, and useful information on starting a collection. (Click on "Mine Games".)

Geo Mysteries
Find out more about rocks by solving some "geomysteries".

Tour the rock cycle
Join Rocky on his amazing journey around the rock cycle.

Rocky's rock cycle games
Test your knowledge of the rock cycle with fun games.

Geologic Time
Find out more about the different periods of geologic time.

Hillman Hall of Minerals and Gems.
Carnegie Musuem of Natural History's Collection

Mineral and Gemstone Kingdom (click on "Gallery").
Minerals A-Z, Gallery, etc

Bill Nye the Science Guy- Rocks & Soils Videos
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Exploring Trees

At our hike on October 14th we had a nice fall day exploring the woods and the trees that surround the trail at Pettengill Park. If any of you would like to study trees more indepth here are numerous resources to get you started.

4-H Earth Connections Adopt-A-Tree
http://www.umaine.edu/umext/earthconnections/activities/16.htm

Mainefoliage.com Has a Kid's Page and also has a neat video about how the leaves change color.

Tree Leave Identification
http://www.discoverscience.rutgers.edu/extras/trees/treephotos.html

Maine Tree Club...Tree Fact Sheets

http://www.extension.umaine.edu/mainetreeclub/MTC.htm

GreenHour Discovery Journal and Activity--Leaves
http://greenhour.org/content/activity/detail/8559#activity