Pyramid Mountain

On Thursday we started a series of 4 classes at Pyramid Mountain (http://www.morrisparks.net/aspparks/pyrmtnmain.asp). The first class was about Glaciers and how they work and how they left their mark on NJ. The gentleman who is teaching the classes is phenomenal. He did a great job.

Here are the kids at the beginning, about to have a paper snowball fight. A little introductory game so they could get to know each other. They all wrote their favorite winter game on pieces of blue paper and when you got hit with a "snowball" you had to say if that was yours or not. They loved this game.

This is a shot from the rope bridge we crossed on our hike to see the evidence of the glaciers. I liked the view. It reminded me why NJ is called the Garden State.

Here he is asking the kids to examine the rock and tell him what they see. Little Miss M said the markings looked like a river. Ding Ding Ding. Winner. The water from the glaciers dissolved the softer minerals in the rock thus leaving the impressions.

Continuing on our hike to see more evidence of glaciers. Rocks that were relocated by glaciers. We know this because the rock is not native to this area. How smooth rocks were shaped by the glaciers and how jagged rocks were broken by water freezing and melting and freezing in craters in the rocks.

After our hike we headed back to the classroom to see how the glacier experiment was going. They placed ice on slopes and used bricks on one part and wood on another to see which glacier (block of ice) moved further. It was the one with the brick. More pressure.

Doesn't Little Miss look thrilled?

After all the great information about glaciers that the kids learned what do you think is he fact that really stuck? Penguins live on glaciers.

The kids really enjoyed the class and are looking forward to next week when they get to use binoculars to look at winter birds.