Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Pack your favorite puppet, pull on your warmest mittens and tag along for a day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists.
We arrived to class with smiling faces and soft, cozy layers. We said good bye to our families and made our way back to our morning meeting space with surprises waiting to take place…we saw a snowy owl, perched in a white pine with an eagle, red tailed hawk, squirrel and porcupine waiting nearby. On the forest floor, a sweet little skunk, raccoon and opossum sat, waiting to say hi. We grabbed our favorite fur or feathered friend and let the fun begin! Soft snowshoe hare and lynx pelts were waiting in our Talking Tub today. We passed them and a black bear claw around, sharing the cool items with our friends. We all migrated to the front to pick up our last friend, so happy to show them today’s new tools. We hustled and bustled, packing our gear and made our way to the pavilion for our Morning Meeting.
We washed our hands and unpacked our bags, dug into our snacks with mitten covered hands. As we made our way through sweet and salty snacks, we listened to First Snow in the Woods by Carl. R Sams II and Jean Stoick. We followed along as a fawn prepared for its first winter, watching as chipmunks, groundhogs and hummingbirds helped it prepare. We talked about the weather and decided that today was cold, cloudy fall day—the perfect lead in to the season’s first snow fall tomorrow! Our puppets took flight as we climbed rocks, played tag around the pavilion. We had a hungry skunk who tried eating everything from opossums to porcupines!
We took a quick break to explore and very sleepy praying mantis, letting him crawl all over our mittens and gloves. Some of us held him bare handed and felt his tickly little feet before deciding it was time to let him flee. We packed our bags, gathered our puppets and set off for a miniature adventure through the pine forest. Walking sticks were found, laughs were had and pumpkin discoveries were made…they were all taken and eaten! We ended the day with sand and spider play. Some of us dug in the dormant mud kitchen, creating castles or critters and delicious meals like pine needle spaghetti. The rest of transformed into active little arachnids, bouncing and climbing all over the web. We decided the playscape is still so much fun, even with the water turned off! We gathered our gear and met our families, excited to tell them about our nature play today.
Thank you all for a wonderful and wacky day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! We had so much fun and look forward to seeing you all next week to learn about Terrific Turkeys and neat nature crafts!
