Where did the sunshine go?! It was snowing during class this morning–we thought it was supposed to be spring! Despite the wintry weather, we noticed something extraordinary today…leaves are growing on our trees and bushes! Ms. Paige told us that this is a sure sign of spring. We celebrated by reading two stories about trees: Maple by Lori Nichols and As an Oak Tree Grows by G. Brian Karas. The second book was really interesting because it showed how the landscape and wildlife changed over a span of two hundred years. The town grew bigger as more people began to live near the tree. Beginning as an acorn, the oak tree grew massive, losing leaves in the fall and growing new leaves in the spring until one day, a giant storm rolled in. The tree was split in two and came crashing down! While this was sad, we learned that its wood was still useful after the tree was gone. It became logs for building houses and furniture. The tree even left behind a little surprise–an oak seedling growing next to the old stump. The life cycle began again!
Outside, we crafted our very own spring trees. Ms. Paige traced our arms and hands on brown paper to be our trunks and branches–this way each tree would be unique. Then, we painted leaves green to match all the budding trees that we could see around the pavilion. We noticed that the aspen leaves are small right now, but we expect them to grow bigger as the weather warms and the sun begins to shine more often.
We spent some time hanging out on the spider web and Nature Playscape before wandering down to look at the Boardman River. Today was a special day… As a reward for following directions, we got to explore off the usual trail! As we passed over a small creek, we noticed that it sounded softer than the loud roar of the mighty river. Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the pavilion to head home for lunch. We stopped to admire some purple flowers along the hillside on our way back.
