Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Put on your imagination hat, leave your winter gear behind and join us for a day in the life of your Knee High Naturalists.
Yet another beautiful, if unsettlingly warm, November morning welcomed us to class. Missing a few friends, things were a little quieter this morning. We enjoyed sitting on the picnic blanket, warming our faces in the sun as it streamed through the trees. With mitten and glove covered hands, we raced to pick up slippery cones before settling in for our morning meeting. We talked about our plan for the day before singing our Good Morning song, with more and more friends beginning to take part in the “Sing After Me” portion of the song! We let a new friend pull the wagon and guided each other to the warm and cozy pavilion.
We scrubbed our hands, experimenting more with bubbles today, we took part in some water play. We scrunched in to eat our snacks, getting nice and toasty in front of the heaters. We munched and crunched as we listened to A Bed For the Winter by Karen Wallace. We watched as the fuzzy tailed dormouse tried to find a cozy, safe space to spend the winter. She checked in on sleeping bears in dens, wasps living in old tree trunks, toads under cold, damp rocks and even sleepy bunnies snuggled in burrows. Finally, she found a cozy hole in the trunk of a tree, safe and sound for the cold winter ahead. This got us thinking about signs of winter and investigating winter animal homes during our hike!
We learned about Ruffed Grouse and admired their excellent camouflage as we gently pet him and observed his feet. We learned that the tiny little lines on their toes are the snowshoes they grow and shed every year. They’re made out of the same thing our nails are! We also listened to a recording of grouse drumming, they use their wings to make sounds like a ball bouncing and rolling on the floor or a helicopter. We talked about wild types of weather and all of the fun things that clouds can bring from rain and snow to storms and cooler days or warmer nights. We talked about special weather events like thundersnow and what “freezing” really means. We know that 32 degrees is when rain turns to snow and water can turn to ice! After our weather talk, we geared up and set out on our hike, looking for signs of Winter’s arrival in nature.
With shovels and rakes in hand, we made our way down the stairs, itching to dig! We stopped at the overlook to admire the view and looks for places that animals might like to spend their winter. We decided turtles in the river would probably swim down into the mud or a burrow, bears probably liked dens in the forest and rabbits could live in burrows covered by the tall grass. As we continued on, we stopped to admire a beautiful yellow flower growing and the soft milkweed seeds from a freshly burst pod. We even saw a big, beautiful wasp nest high up in a tree. After reading our book this morning, we know that it’s empty for the winter! Tiny deer tracks led us down the trail until we found a sandy area with bright green moss patches inviting us to explore. We set up shop and shoveled new rocks, made beaver and deer tracks, relocated moss and even found a tiny grasshopper, sluggish from the cold. One friend even made a super cool nature castle using wet sand and living grasses!
As usual, the time for us to leave came far too soon, so we gathered our gear and made our way back. Up the big hill and steps we went, stopping to wait for our friends to catch up. We lingered longer than normal before leaving with bathroom breaks and friends simply not wanting to go home yet!
We want to thank you all for another wonderful week in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! We look forward to seeing you all next Monday when we learn about Terrific Turkeys and get to crafting.
