Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Grab your shovels, put on your imagination hat and tag along for a day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists.
We started off the beautiful fall day with all sorts of fun nature play, flipping rocks is a fan favorite and a daily tradition. Today we found big worms and little worms, dark roly-poly’s and light ones, we even found a whole colony of baby roly-poly’s and got to watch them crawl around their tunnel system! We noticed that there were lightly colored ants we don’t usually see and we found dark grey slugs that we don’t usually see either. After thorough investigations and letting a worm ride the breeze on a maple leaf, we cleaned up and started our day. Our Good Morning song was sung, with hands movements and words starting to be remembered!
We made our way to the pavilion where there were animals awaiting our arrival! Before we could even think about eating snack, we had to take a quick break to touch the animals and learn who they were. As we ate, we talked about our pets, our favorite snacks to eat, our favorite animals to catch (frogs and turtles) and our siblings. After snack, we got to meet all of the animals and learn about their unique adaptations! Today is Raccoon Appreciation Day, so we started by learning about raccoon’s hands and how they can open doors, jars and even break open clams or acorns! We also learned that they are nocturnal and have camouflage to help them blend into the forest and trees. Next, we learned about bobcats, noticed their sharp claws used for climbing trees and catching their food, talked about their camouflage and their senses. We talked about coyotes, too, and put all of these animals or pelts into the tall grass to see how well they really blend in—we were surprised at how hard it was to see them! We also got investigate a deer skull, touch it’s teeth, observe where it’s eyes are and how we know it what it ate by looking at its teeth. We finished up our lesson by investigating a turtle shell and feeling our own spines, thankful that we aren’t attached to shells!
We wrapped up the lesson and quickly hit the trail, so excited to watch the construction down at the river as tractors slowly rolled by. On our way to pine forest, we stopped to ID ferns and goldenrod flowers. Once we made it to one of our favorite spots, we got familiar with our climbing tree while others investigated mushrooms, dug for insects or built forts. We did a mini mushroom dissection, using a magnifying glass to see the gills and inside of the mushroom better, how cool! Soon, the fort building became a group effort as the roof went up and the sides came together. Before leaving, we took a vote and decided we wanted to spend the last 10 minutes of class playing in the mud kitchen, so we packed up and made our way to the playscape we were eagerly began digging and creating our very own river. Soon, it was time to go and meet our families for the end of the day!
Thank you all for another fantastic day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists, we look forward to seeing you all again next week when we celebrate National Salmon Day and learn about these fantastic fish!
