Hello one and all, we’re excited to welcome you back to the best nature program of all! Pull on your warmest boots, fluffiest hats and get ready to go on a wintry trek with us.
Our morning was filled with excitement as we were finally reunited after a month apart! All of our friends arrived with smiles on their faces and a little pep in their step as they made their way to our morning meeting spot. Even though our snow paint was frozen, we happily hopped, rolled, laid and dug in the snow, happy to be back outside together. Snow butterflies and people were made, tiny ferns rescued from their heavy snow load as friends reconnected. We stepped right back into our routine as we eagerly raced to pick up cones and take care of our toys before our morning meeting! We talked about what we did over break and had Ms. Miranda help us lead our Good Morning song. We were eager to make our way to the warm pavilion, friends volunteered to pull the very big cart through the deep snow—we’re so strong!
We jumped right into the handwashing line, as we waited we grabbed our snacks and set them out at our favorite tables. We caught up as we ate, some of our older friends jumped in to help younger friends or siblings open snacks, it felt so good to be back! After snack we experimented with crayon rubbings of wild animals and their tracks, some of us put together track puzzles and some colored their favorite tracks. It was long before our snow paint was melted and we couldn’t resist the snow anymore! Though our favorite hill is small, it’s mighty and we laughed and yelled with joy as we belly slid down it like otters. Soon, the snow was colored blue, orange, red, green and purple as our imaginations took hold and we began to paint—we don’t care about the cold! After a long time of free play, we decided it was time to accomplish our goal for the day. We readjusted our mittens and hats, cleaned up our area and set off in search of animal tracks.
You see, our goal for today was to learn how to read nature signs to tell us what animals may be in our area, what they were doing, where they live, etc. We led the way as Ms. Miranda and Ms. Aspen asked where we wanted to go, eager to find the first nature signs! With all of the fresh snow it was easy to see where animals went to and fro. It wasn’t long before we discovered a little sapling missing big chunks of bark and we talked about what that might mean. We had seen this before and knew it meant that some animal was munching and crunching! We felt confident that it may have been done by a bunny, but couldn’t find any tracks to confirm. As we made our way down the trail, all of our naturalists began to read the nature signs and eagerly told us that someone was snacking here recently! At last, we found rabbit tracks under a low hanging branch with nibbled sticks and rabbit scat nearby. When we looked closer, we even found a little den where the rabbits had slept recently—can you believe how quickly we learned to read nature signs?
We continued on our way, searching high and low for signs of critters and followed rabbit tracks through the trees until we made our way to the pine forest. Here is where our terrific climbing tree and fantastic forts live, we quickly got to work taking turns to climb the tree and working together to move sticks and logs. We laughed with joy as a big wind came and all of the snow on trees fell down, leaving us in a blizzard for a few seconds. Before long, it was time to make our way back to the pavilion, we hopped, galloped and skipped as we made our way through the woods, becoming our favorite animals. Once we were back, we noticed that our giant rocks needed climbing! We took turns scrambling up and down them before finally packing up our bags and getting ready for pick up.
As we began to leave the pavilion, everyone decided they wanted to help pull or push the cart, something that might sound chaotic for so many small humans! Though for us, it was no big deal as we decided who would help pull the cart and everyone else found a space around the sides and back of the cart to help push through the deep snow. As we made our way to the pick up spot, naturalists decided when they needed to move their bodies to be more comfortable and when they thought we should switch jobs so everyone could have a turn—look how much we’ve grown together over the past few months!
We want to say thank you to you all for a truly amazing day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! Everyone settled back into our routine quickly, they were all so eager to see each other, play together and were absolutely incredible taking turns and sharing with much or any prompting. We can’t wait to see you all next week to become Snow Scientists!
