Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Grab your favorite pair of sunglasses, your best rain paints and join us for a day in the life of your Knee High Naturalists.
We started off the beautiful morning with way less layers and eagerly used up our last little bits of snow paint. It was more like ice paint today! We flipped rocks and logs, finding a lightning bug, little pill bugs and millipedes as we searched the leaf litter. The warm weather has made so many insects and critters more active! We noticed that we even heard more birds than usual today, it seems like Spring is really on the way! We cleaned up quick and sang our Good Morning song with gusto before packing up and heading to the pavilion.
By the time we made it to our snack spot, hats, mittens and jackets were already being taken off! Many of us ate snack in the sun, enjoying the warmth on our faces and getting excited about all the things that warmer weather will bring. We determined that it was sunny today, the season is still Winter for a little while longer and the temperature started off feeling cool, but ended feeling warm! We all colored trees that rivaled rainbows before listening to a poem called Tall Oak Tree about all of the different animals who call trees home. As we listened to the story, we had little critters like birds, bugs, animals and objects that we put on the tree as they were mentioned in the story, it was so fun! We also thought of more critters who not only call trees home, but find their food in/around them as well. After our poem, we rushed out to our ever shrinking snow hill, making the most of it before it disappears until next Winter. We made tiny snow people, sledded down the hill like penguins and had fun excavating big chunks of ice to paint and stash away. We even found a Wooly Bear caterpillar that we passed around and observed with a HUGE magnifying glass—we have so much fun in class!
We put away all of our shovels and paints before heading to the forest in search of critters using the trees as their homes. We found a big nest near the tunnel, so we climbed to the top for a better view. Along the way we saw buds starting to open on trees and we squealed with glee! We explored pine trees and found signs of rabbits and observed chickadees hanging out near our climbing tree. Ms. Jenn taught us to make bird calls like these sweet little birds, so we began to chitter and chatter to our new friends! We decided it was time for nature play, so we began to climb trees, build “fires” and forts as the birds sang above us and the sun poked through the branches over head. Ms. Aspen told us about silly goats in Morocco that like to climb trees, so we looked at pictures of these and could not believe what our eyes were seeing! They might even be better climbers than us! As we played, we discovered old logs covered in small, squishy mushrooms and had fun poking them and taking closer looks with our trust magnifying glasses. All too soon, it was time for us to head back so we crunched and stomped through the last of the deep snowpack. We of course had to take a break to make snow angels in the sun, is there anything more fun?
Once we made our way back to the pavilion, even more hats, mittens and jackets came off—we can’t believe how warm it got! We lined up all of our gear on the bench before joining Ms. Jenn for a round of What Time is It Mr. Fox, where we ran, laughed and tried to avoid sneaky Mr. Fox!
We want to thank you for a wonderful day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! We can’t believe next week will already be our last session together, where does the time go? We look forward to seeing you all and celebrating your naturalists achievements and growth over the past 10 weeks, enjoy the beautiful weather and we will see you soon!
