Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Pull on your boots, zip up your jacket and tag along for a day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists.
Fresh, sparkly snow welcomed us for our last day of class, inviting us to come and play all day! Every face was smiling as we eagerly greeted our friends, calling them by name and offering snow paint as they arrived. We belly flopped into the paint splattered snow, showing each other our reverse snow angels as we nibbled on clean snow! We traded colors, painted trees and marked hidden rocks so no one would trip on them. We caught up, sharing our favorite parts of Thanksgiving and our weekends as we dug and rolled in the snow—the consensus is that we really like eating turkey, mashed potatoes and of course, pumpkin pie! Knowing we had a big day ahead of us, we raced to pick up our snow paint and cones, sharing extras with our friends who didn’t get to pick up anything. We hopped onto our picnic blanket and sang the sweetest rendition of our Good Morning Song before talking about our day and heading to the pavilion.
We took off our mittens, jackets and hats and laid them on the picnic table before hopping into line to wash our hands. We snuck little bites of snow as we waited our turn, unable to resist a refreshing treat! We comfortably settled in next to our friends and pulled our special treats as we voted on today’s books…the winners were Moose On the Loose by Kathy Jo Wargin and Welcome to the Ice House by Jane Yolen. We giggled and gasped as we read the silly tale of a moose who wears pajamas, eats pies and goes down slides! We followed arctic animals like polar bears, arctic foxes and seals as we learned about life in houses of ice at the North Pole—it seems a little too cold for us, but we love learning about new animals! We transitioned from eating our tasty treats to making tasty treats for our feathered friends.
We talked about why it’s important to provide extra food for birds in the winter because all of their food is buried under the snow and their favorite plants have gone dormant for the season. We got to work painting all sorts of pine cones in peanut butter and rolling them through bird seed, sprinkling on extra when there wasn’t enough. We can’t wait to watch our local birds enjoy these sweet treats with our families! Afterwards, we got all of our gear back on and waddled out to play with snow paint and to conquer our new snow covered mountains (boulders). Once we were all ready, we slid down the hill to go see the new Ottoway Crossing Footbridge! We stopped on the way down to roll like logs down the hill, make snow angels and munch on the freshly fallen snow. While we weren’t able to walk on the bridge just yet, we were so excited to finally see it and to think about all of the great adventures we’ll have once we cross the river! We admired it for a few moments and then made our way back to spend the rest of our time together sledding.
As we made our way to the shed, we found a bunch of new animal tracks and worked together to figure out who made them. We all identified the bunny tracks and found their “rabbitat” (rabbit habitat), a cozy home beneath a Chinese juniper shrub. We found signs of them nibbling on dead flowers and found lots of scat—we know exactly what they’re eating and where they’re going! We also found some very surprising deer tracks next to the nature center and followed them to see where they went. Imagine our surprise when we found even more deer tracks through the playscape and all around the balance beams! We discovered that they were digging through the snow for fallen leaves and grasses, munching on the tasty treats hidden beneath the snow. After our investigations were done, we picked our favorite sleds and raced up to the sledding hill. It took a few runs to create nice trails, but once they were packed down, we zipped down the hill with snow flying and laughter echoing off the trees! Some of us rode with friends, some of us used deduction and figured out that more weight meant a faster ride, so we asked Ms. Aspen to ride down the hill with us, too. We learned how to make the sleds turn and roll into the snow if we leaned hard on one side and how to go really far by laying flat on the sled! All too soon, it was time for us to get our backpacks on and prepare for our special ceremony. We talked about what was going to happen and eagerly made our way up front where we saw so many family members waiting to celebrate us!
We want to give you a huge thank you for arriving early and helping celebrate all of our naturalists in their accomplishments today—that was the biggest turn out of family members we’ve had in three years! We appreciate all of your support today and every day, helping prepare your naturalists with the right gear and plenty of extra clothes, encouraging excitement and growth outside of comfort zones and raising wonderful, kind, curious little humans. Your naturalists have grown leaps and bounds over the past ten weeks! They’ve become more resilient through exposure to all types of weather and exploration from creeks and critters to mud, trees and new trails. They’ve honed their problem solving and social skills through fort building, creative free play and general exploration in nature. They’ve developed connections with new friends of their own accord, have guided and taught other students in their favorite activities and their language skills have grown, too. They’ve learned how to open snacks, zip jackets, put on mittens and gloves—they also have learned how to keep track of their gear and take care of it when they’re done using it! Their empathy has grown through countless interactions with living animals from roly poly’s and worms to frogs, fish and turtles. They understand nature’s rhythms and take great delight in noticing new patterns, changes and recognizing familiar trails, trees or animals!
We are so grateful for you and your trust in us—it’s truly an honor to foster the wonder and curiosity your children have for nature and to guide them through all sorts of explorations, activities and lessons in the outdoors. We will miss you all so much over the holidays and hope to see you again soon!
