Hello to one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Beautiful fall colors and a chill in the air greeted us this morning, reminding us to enjoy the shortest season of them all. Friends came bundled in hats and mittens, we started off slowing by reading a book called Salamander Season by J. Adam Frederick and Jennifer Keats Curtis. We learned all about these wiggly critters before exploring the forest floor. While it’s too cold for salamanders now, we did find pill bugs and a baby millipede under some big rocks. We think they were trying to stay warm!
After a group rendition of our Good Morning song, we made our way to the pavilion to learn about stellar space! We learned that the sun is a actually a star and is way bigger than Earth, counted planets, talked about orbits, the length of one Earth year and so much more. We all decided that Earth is indeed our favorite planet and pondered what life might be like on Mars and the moon. All of this learning made us hungry, we eagerly washed our hands, dug into snack and chatted about pumpkin picking. As we waited for everyone to finish, we dug hats and mittens out of backpacks to prepare for a crisp fall hike! Before long we were bundled up and ready to explore a brand new trail.
Our first stop was the spectacular porcupine tree (a fallen Linden tree) where we learned about habitats and conducted an investigation. After finding an acorn shell in the tree, we believe that it could be habitat for a chipmunk, squirrel or raccoon—maybe we’ll find out who soon! Here, we also found the biggest Linden leaves and delighted in gathering them and creating little habitats for other critters along the trail.
We made our way down a big set of stairs and discovered the trees looked different here! We learned about Hemlock trees and their soft needles with a white line on the back. We also learned about super smooth Beech trees and all stopped to feel their bark! At last, we reached Mini Mac (our mini suspension bridge) and took a mindful moment to engage our senses and tune into the nature around us. We saw all colors of trees changing, heard wind blowing through the leaves, felt the sun warm our faces and smelled clean, fresh air! We couldn’t help but marvel at the Sugar maple sharing the space with us and learned that the pretty, red leaf trees are the ones we get our maple syrup from!
We made our back up the stairs and counted 63 steps—we were tired once we got to the top! We ended our day with some sandy play where we made castles, the sweetest sand pies you’ve ever had and collaborated to dig some spectacular holes. All too soon it was time for us to go, our families were excited to see us and take us home!
Thank you all for another spectacular week in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists, we can’t wait see you next time and learned about the magical migrations of birds!
