Maisie's pine cones

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned here that we're members of the Science Museum of Minnesota. One of Maisie's favorite things to do at the museum is to visit Collectors' Corner and the Trading Post.

This is a neat area that's tucked away in the back corner of their collections gallery. To be honest, it took me a while to even notice it... I don't know how many times we visited and just walked right by it. But it's really cool! Kids can bring in things they've found in nature to trade. They get points based not just on what they found, but also how much they know about it - the people working there ask the children a bunch of questions about where they found it, how they found it, and what they know about it. The kids can then trade in their points to "buy" things from their display case that has polished rocks, little fossils, and things like that.

The first time we went, Maisie brought some finds from our fossil-hunting expedition. Well! She not only found FOSSILS but she also knew a bunch about the giant inland sea (thank you, Dinosaur Train), so she got a bunch of points. Since then, she's been trying unsuccessfully to have another huge hit like that, and get thousands of points at the Trading Post. This weekend, she finally did it again!

This fall, we collected a bunch of different pine cones around our neighborhood. They were intended for a project that never really took off, so they've been sitting on a shelf ever since. With some encouragement and assistance from me and Aaron, Maisie turned them into a poster!

As you can see, she identified each of them, taped them to the poster, and wrote down the name. She also drew a diagram of the parts of a pine cone, along with a drawing of a pine cone on the end of a branch.

Well, the person working at the trading post was REALLY impressed. It's pretty clear that Maisie did this herself, and I think he appreciated that. He asked her some questions about pine cones generally that she was able to answer, too.

He awarded Maisie 7,000 points, which made her really happy. AND he told her that he'd see if they could display her poster as an example of work that children could do to show their knowledge and earn extra points. It was so cool! She used some of her points to get a conch shell with a lovely pink interior, and saved the rest for next time.

I was (and am!) so proud of her, and even better, I think she was really proud of her poster, too. I offered to carry it in and down the stairs, but she insisted on doing it all herself.

It was a great experience and really rewarding for her. She's already planning her next report - on leaves of trees in our neighborhood, once spring is here and there are any leaves to be found!