We braved the cold weather this morning to look at trees and follow rabbit tracks. We started our morning listening to the story, Winter Trees by Carole Gerber. We learned some new facts about trees:

Maple trees are shaped like eggs
Beech trees keep their tan leaves over winter
Birch trees form the letter V with their trunks
Syrup is made from sugar maple sap
Hemlocks and other evergreen trees have cones like pine trees

You can listen to the story with your naturalist(s) by clicking the video link below. Naturalists from the Baltimore Woods Nature Center in New York also put together this fun scavenger hunt (attached at the bottom of this blog) based on the story. Let us know if you try it out!

Outside, we enjoyed playing in the snow. We made snow angels and our own animal tracks! We even found bike tracks across the snow and wondered if they were left behind by a really, really long snake. We then talked about why we do not see snakes outside in winter. When it is cold and snowy, they hibernate underground with all their friends to stay warm. We did find some cool bracket fungi on a tree, which surprised us because we thought mushrooms only grow in summer and fall.

When it was time to identify some trees, we started in the aspen stand near our favorite rocks. We determined that some of the trees are not doing well, and woodpeckers have made quite a few holes in them while looking for food. The smaller trees are still doing okay, so we made sure to give them hugs to make them happy :)

On the trail, we found TONS of rabbit tracks alongside the trail. Usually, we stay on the trail during our hikes, but Ms. Paige and Ms. Rachel let us wander off trail today! We followed the rabbit tracks, winding through and crouching under the pines. We stopped under a spruce (their needles are pointy!) and looked up into the branches as if we were rabbits. On our hike, we also learned the difference between red and white pines. White pine trees (Michigan’s state tree!) have five needles in a bundle, just like the word white has five letters. Red pines only have two needles in a bundle. White pine needles are soft and tickly, red pine needles are sharp and prickly. To finish our morning together, we did a winter tree craft before heading back inside the Nature Center to see the animals.