Hello to one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Find a good walking stick, tap into your imagination and join us for a day in the life of your Knee High Naturalist.
Grateful to have another fantastic fall day, everyone arrived with plenty of layers and lots of little smiles! With the sun shining through the canopy and warming our area up, we seized the opportunity for creature exploration. Rakes and shovels in hand, we began to clear little sections of land. Piles of pine needles and crunchy leaves revealed tiny critters hiding underneath. Roly-polies scattered, wood roaches raced by and snails slowly moving through. We eagerly shared the snails with our interested friends, passing them from hand to hand before gently placing them on a log. Some of us explored an animal habitat book while others played with sticks, waiting for class to begin. Once the time was right, we raced to pick up cones and tools before gathering on the blanket for a lovely rendition of the Good Morning Song. Once this was done, we headed to the pavilion, helping each other guide the wagon.
We lined up our backpacks and washed our hands, already taking off layers by the time we sat down for snack. Knowing we had a big hike ahead, we agreed to jump right into today’s book. Some of our friends have this book at home and followed along as we read The Very Quiet Cricket by Eric Carle. We learned that only male crickets can chirped and laughed as the very quiet cricket met friends like spittlebugs, dragonflies and mosquitoes. Once this was done, we explored different animal pelts, learning about Michigan mammals like squirrels (a class favorite), raccoons, coyotes and foxes. We loved some of the pelts so much that we decided to bring them along for our hike! After talking about the weather, we used bathrooms and headed to the trail, soaking up the sun.
We crunched on dry, colorful leaves, touched wilting asters and helped disperse goldenrod seed as we walked along the river. We cheered as we finally crossed through a shady spot on the trail, our bodies are acclimated to fall weather were getting very warm! We stopped at the old Rock Beach to observe changes since spring flooding, hoping the water gets low enough for us to use this a learning space again soon. We crossed a brand new bridge, stopping to admire maple leaves floating by on the creek below. A downed tree crossed the trail and one of our friends graciously offered to hold back a small limb to let everyone pass through! We all gave him a huge thank you as we passed by. Before we made it to Bear Dens, we took a moment to learn about Horsetail (Equisetum), one of the oldest plants that have existed since dinosaurs were alive! We all picked one and brought them along to learn about and play with later.
Once at Bear Dens (awesome fort spot, not real dens), we went over boundaries and rules for safe stick play before jumping in. Mr. Martin and Ms. Aspen helped us pull apart our horsetails, aka Lego Grass, and taught us how to use them like little building blocks. Some of us planted these segments with tiny cedar pinecones in little gardens, while others cached them for later and began major fort construction. Some of us built “fires” and gathered tinder while others enforced a pre-existing fort, taking turns crawling in and out to review our work. As usual, our to head back came all too soon! We gathered our Lego Grass pieces and layers before making our way back over the creek, along the river and up the hill to the pavilion. We were so happy to see our families and tell them about all of the fun we had today.
Thank you all for another amazing week in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! We made sure to soak up as much sun, warmth and bug observing as possible today. We look forward to seeing you all next week when we learn all about Nocturnal Animals!
