<![CDATA[Radicle Roots Series

<![CDATA[Radicle Roots Series - Activity Blog]]>Sat, 07 Mar 2026 20:48:50 -0800Weebly<![CDATA[Dinosaur Exploring]]>Thu, 17 Aug 2017 20:32:27 GMThttps://www.radiclerootsseries.com/activity-blog/dinosaur-exploring

This is a special KB edition to Investigate With Jam.
Jam has been traveling from city to city having his own adventures with family this summer. These next few blogs will be preschool focused with KB aka Mr. Kal Bradley.

The Scope, Norfolk’s city arena, showcased a traveling exhibit called Jurassic Quest. The main hall display showed a variety of life size animatronic dinosaurs in various habitats and lifestyle scenarios accompanied by information boards. One scene showed a dinosaur attack, however I questioned the need for the “flowing blood” to heighten the point. They made a fountain of red water flow from the dinosaur bite. It was quite funny.

They had fossil displays of dinosaur bones, plant life, and other ancient creatures along with a D.I.Y. fossil making craft station. The exhibit even had indoor sand boxes where kids could practice their excavation skills.

The most interactive and popular attractions for the kids were the robotic dinosaur rides and the moon bounce obstacle courses. You simply cannot have a children’s event without some sort of moon bounce.

By far the best exhibit was the baby Dinos. Yes in 2017 you can pet and interact with a baby dinosaur. Shocking! These cute hand puppets looked great, felt pretty real, and were even a little feisty. Kal found out the hard way.

Some of the sections like the rides and moon bounces were an additional cost to the ticket price but overall it was a good exhibit to spend your money on. Make sure you take water because the Scoop charged me $5 a bottle. Thirsty much?

Activity

Find out if Jurassic Quest will be near your town: https://www.jurassicquest.com/

Case Study #16- Dinosaur Count
In this KB edition, here is a number 3 dinosaur inspired coloring page. Can you count the horns, eggs, and footprints?

]]><![CDATA[Jam goes on a creature walk]]>Sun, 30 Apr 2017 20:25:31 GMThttps://www.radiclerootsseries.com/activity-blog/jam-goes-on-a-creature-walk

The Investigate with Jam crew took a creature walk to the playground. During our journey, we tried our best to count all the creatures we could find. As expected we saw too many birds so we decided to only count the single ones and not the flock. As we looked for different animals and insects we started to notice their homes and potential hiding places. It was fun trying to guess what creatures could live in each place.

Our simple creature walk also turned out to be a magical experience. Did you know in Laurel Maryland you could find elephants, peacocks, and lions on a walk to the playground? It’s true…. well according to Kal. He even pointed to a red and blue peacock, and I got a picture of it. Can you see it? Try closing your eyes. Can you see it now? I told you a magical experience. I love the imagination at work.

Our final count was as follows:
11 squirrels
7 birds
3 crows
1 falcon/ hawk (there was some debate)
1 butterfly
1 lion
2 elephant
1 peacock
10 nests

Activity

Take a creature walk on you next walking trip.

Case study #15- creature walk. Look for something that flies, walks, hops, crawls, or swims. List what you find.

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]]><![CDATA[Jam investigates architectural drawings]]>Sat, 04 Mar 2017 20:54:16 GMThttps://www.radiclerootsseries.com/activity-blog/jam-investigates-architectural-drawingsSo, I finally got around to the introduction of architectural drawings. The three basic drawing views used to express an architects design is the plan, elevation, and section.

A plan view is basically a bird’s eye view. It is looking down at your design to see show how items are related to each other, where they are located and how it can be navigated. This could be the layout of your house or the layout of your neighborhood.

An elevation drawing show the vertical design of the object or space. It shows you what the design looks like if you were to view it standing in front of it. This type of drawing is used to show what the outside of a house might look like, the interior design of a wall, or what the playground will look like from the street.

A section drawing shows more detail. It is typically used to show how materials fit together to make the design, or to show the height of a space. For example, a designer might draw a house section to show how the walls connect or how high the ceilings are in a room.

Each of these types of drawing are essential for a designer to communicate their projects to others. So how do we show these concepts to kids? With CAKE!

Jam and the IWJ crew learned architectural drawing concepts with everyone favorite treat. (Please don't judge my cake decorating skills- the point got across) As you can see from the pictures I broke out my reliable landscape books to show them examples of real plans, sections, and elevations. (those college books still come in handy) After we looked at book examples they each took a turn investigating the cake. With every drawing, we discussed the differences, focusing primarily on shapes. We talked about how in plan view the cake looked like two circles, but in elevation it was two rectangles. The hardest part of the lesson was keeping the kids out of the icing. Every time I looked away Jam’s fingers and lips got browner.
I have to admit the best part of the lesson was eating the cake.

Activity

Find your house on Google Earth. Look at the aerial view (plan) around your neighborhood. If available jump to street view (elevation) and discuss the differences you find.

Case study #14- Investigate a snack. Find two snacks in the kitchen and draw them in plan, elevation, and section. Then devour.

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Drawings from the books
The old house book of cottages and bungalows- by Lawrence Grow
Landscape graphics. Plan, section, and perspective drawings of landscape spaces- by Grant W. Reid.

]]><![CDATA[JAM INVESTIGATES Patterns]]>Sun, 13 Nov 2016 03:11:12 GMThttps://www.radiclerootsseries.com/activity-blog/jam-investigates-patterns

This group of investigators examined their neighborhood for patterns. Patterns are a big element of design and can be found everywhere. We talked about how to look for different rhythm schemes like A-B-A-B and A-BB-A.

I pointed out examples like how the cars were parked, car –empty space- car- empty space, and the colors on the ground: green grass- tan sidewalk-green grass-tan sidewalk. I shared how many of the patterns we see are not accidental because designers think about these things. The team thought that was pretty cool.

The team tried to just stand on the front steps and look around but I was not going to let that slide. You gotta get out and about, move around a little and all that jazz.

Activity

Case Study #13- What patterns can you find around you? Find an object pattern, shape pattern, and color pattern. Happy hunting.

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]]><![CDATA[Jam investigates the Oak tree]]>Tue, 11 Oct 2016 23:01:16 GMThttps://www.radiclerootsseries.com/activity-blog/jam-investigates-the-oak-treeHappy autumn! There is no better time to look at leaves then when they are all over the ground. The Investigate With Jam ™ crew adventured out on another tree hunt. This time we searched for Oak trees. I printed off five differently types of Oak tree leaves for the boys to use as a guide.

I picked different Oak trees that could be found in our area. Pin Oaks and Red Oaks are common street trees, and Willow Oaks and Swamp White Oaks like to be around wet areas. Since we live off a road and in walking distance to a stream I figured we had a good chance of finding something.

As the boys picked leaves we compared them to the pictures. I pointed out the leaf type, shape, and margin as guide for comparison. (If you don’t remember some leaf vocabulary can be found in case study #4- leaves)

I think Kal had the most fun on the hunt. With every step we took his head was focused on the sidewalk looking for leaves. When he would find a leaf I would tell him to bring it to us so we could compare it to the pictures. 9 times out of 10 he just look at his leaf and say “Not the one” then throw it over his shoulder.

Interesting, out of all the places we walked and looked we ended up finding 3 of the Oak trees planted along road to a softball field. Trust me no one was more excited than Kal.

We would have continued our hunt for the other two trees but with a playground near the softball field my team got distracted.

Activity

Join the search and find an Oak tree.

Case Study #12 - use these leaf pictures as a guide. Circle the leaves you find.
Reference Case Study #4 to help you describe your leaf.

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