Scout School day 1. With pictures.

Today we started scout school. The idea of this is that we will be accomplishing our regular schoolwork, while earning Girl Scout badges. I'm not sure if it'll work, but it'll be interesting to find out. (I am, however, still doing my "normal" school.) I am supposed to be writing down what I do each day, so that our Girl Scout leader, Holly, can look them over. So, I'll be writing them here, in my blog. I will also have a bunch of pictures, if you haven't already noticed. (this should hopefully bump up my post count, lol.)
Today I helped Christina (the girl in the picture on the top) make a walking salad. It contained:
1. apple slices dipped in diluted lemon juice.
2. celery sticks. (yuck-o, but the recipe called for it, and we had to include everything the recipe said, so...)
3. raisins. (again, ick.)
4. carrots.
5. grapes. (This wasn't called for, but we decided it needed some grapes. so we added them.)
It was quite yummy, and we had it for lunch.
For the badges today, (We are working on badges pertaining to wildlife and plants) we went to two forest preserves. At the first one we played a "guess the leaf" game, which was quite easy.. "This leaf is RATHER LARGE."
I had to use a dichotomous key to figure out what some plants are. I figured out what the black ash was, but the other ones I failed. I tried to figure out what those mushrooms (see pictures) were, but the key didn't have anything for the fungi family. I had to choose one of the things I identified, and sketch it, so I sketched the black ash seedling. Quite awesome.
While Valerie and I were sketching, these dragonflies were everywhere. Like, EVERYWHERE. they kept landing on us, and I have a picture of one of them on her knee. It landed and ate a mosquito on her leg. I was a little grossed out, but Valerie was all "Awesome!" (not that I don't love dragonflies and hate mosquitoes, I just don't like blood. And mosquitoes have a lot of blood.) we then went on a walk to the other forest preserve. on the way I helped Christina with her try-it. We had to feel, touch, and listen for specific things. My favorite has got to be the smelling bit. When do you get excuses to stop and smell everything ?? The other forest preserve has lots of wildlife. They have a de-scented skunk, a red fox, a red-tailed hawk, a great horned owl, a barred owl, and a bald eagle. Inside their visitors' center, they have more: a rat snake, a water snake, a king snake, a.. fox snake?, turtles, a kestrel (sooo cute!), a black squirrel (yeah, cause I don't see THOSE every time I go to church/outside/anywhere), a mouse (....don't know why. they just do.), an eastern screech owl (see last picture), fish, and a bunch of stuffed animals/animal skeletons. It was amazing.

so, that was the first day of scout school. I have now to think about questions to ask someone... gotta interview one of the people who works at the second forest preserve. O.O I'm freaking out... I hate interviews... wish me luck! We go back on Thursday/Friday. :P