Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Put on an extra pair of socks, zip up your favorite mittens and join us for a very wintry day in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists.
We started off our morning with the sparkliest, softest snowflakes blowing in the breeze, leaving their cozy spots from high up in the trees. We were all smiles this morning, so excited to get back to class and our favorite friends after a week off! We wasted no time in getting our fishing poles ready, eagerly casting our lines with hopes of perch, pike and blue gills on the end. We love to learn about the different fish and compare their colors, shapes and sizes as we pull them off our lines, hoping for the biggest fish but appreciating every catch. Some of us started catching our friends with our magnetic poles! Soon, zippers were being caught and friends were catching each other, laughing and falling in the snow as we tried to untangle our lines. Before long, every naturalist was rolling in the snow, making their own sets of tracks or simply embracing winter! We decided we wanted to have our morning meeting in the pavilion today, so we packed up our bags and went on our way.
We all held our hands under the warm water a little longer than usual today, letting them warm back up after chilly snow play. Some of us ate with our mittens or gloves on, some alternated to keep warm and grab their tasty little snacks. We started reading a book about how snow is made and learning that no two snowflakes in the entire world are exactly the same, just like us! We also learned that snow starts as drops of water, way high up on the sky before falling down and collecting more ice crystals along the way, making each snowflake unique. Some of us traced our names and decorated our tracing sheets while we finished up snack, some colored animal tracks and some played in the snow, conquering the giant rocks. Eventually, we gathered to talk about our activity for the day…winter sun catchers! We talked about what we could use to decorate our sun catchers and how we can help birds with them, too.
We hiked around the building, grabbing green pine needles and old boneset flowers, making sure we left some behind. We found little handfuls of magic we couldn’t resist tossing up in the air, creating constant little snowfalls wherever we went! As we grabbed little juniper boughs, we spotted rabbit tracks and followed them under the juniper where there was a nice cozy rabitat (rabbit habitat) and scat for us to identify. We love to get little peeks inside the secret lives of bunnies! We took a quick toe warm up inside the nature center and learned about beavers, bobcats and coyotes before heading back outside. We gathered tiny tamarack pine cones, old milkweed pods and Queen Anne’s lace flowers before making our way back to the pavilion. As we made our way back, we found big, fresh snow banks just waiting for us to enjoy. One by one, we stood at the edge and tipped back into the deep snow, laughing as flakes covered our faces! We were having so much fun that Ms. Aspen had to join us and we were all rolling through the snow, happy as frogs on a log.
We poured water into our molds and carefully placed our found nature objects in the water, sprinkling birdseed through our sun catchers so the birds can get a little snack, too. We cleaned up, packed our bags and met our families out front, so excited to see our art work next week!
Thank you all for another wonderful, wintry week in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists! I hope you have a wonderful week and I look forward to seeing you next Monday when we learn about the secret lives of animals below the snow.
