Hello to one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Pull on your snow pants, grab your mittens and follow along for a wintry day full of adventure.
Everyone arrived with smiles on their faces and snow gear aplenty, excited to see each other after such a long break and to celebrate the arrival of snow! We quickly got to work testing out our new snow paints, making sure there was indeed every color in the rainbow. We were eager to share with others and trade as more and more friends arrived, welcoming them with toys to go around! Some of us shoveled and dug, it’s something we love. Most of us experimented with coloring trees, leaves, rocks and snow, trading colors and cheering on others as they experimented with new materials. Before long, it was time to clean up our area and start our day with the Good Morning song and an overview of class. We made our way over to the pavilion where a surprise waited for us!
The pavilion’s walls were down and the heat was on, keeping us nice and toasty as we ate snack and learned about hibernation and winter adaptations! We learned that animals do all sorts of things to survive winter. Some animals like birds and butterflies will fly south to warmer places with more food for the winter. Some animals will adapt by growing more fur and even hiding their food to find later, like squirrels. Some animals like the ground hog, little brown bat and a few types of mice go into hibernation! This means that they start eating a lot of food when fall rolls around to prepare for a long winter’s sleep. They will dig their dens, find cozy caves or take over trees so when our days get shorter and the temperatures get colder, they head to their hideouts and fall asleep for MONTHS! Their breathing and heart rate slows down, their body temperature drops and they don’t wake up to eat, drink or use the bathroom until spring arrives. What a cool super power! We even learned about a special animal called the wood frog that buries itself under leaves and will freeze solid all winter until temperatures warm, they thaw out and hop away!
As we finished our snacks, friends began to play with our subnivean model that shows the underground homes and cities that animals like mice, voles and shrews create while others decorated paper snowmen and some friends explored the snow. Before we began our hike, we couldn’t resist the temptation of the snow and it wasn’t too long before we had a whole snow village built. There was even a small hill where some of our naturalists transformed into otters and penguins to slide down! We had to pull ourselves away from snow much fun to take a little hike and investigate signs of animals. We found dog, deer, bunny, squirrel and raccoon tracks while in the woods and eventually chose to follow the deer tracks to see where they went. While we were tracking the deer, we saw evidence of a squirrel digging up old acorns and found fresh deer scat! It turns out the deer were heading to the same place we were—the playscape!
Once we were done tracking all of the animals, we each got our own sled and made our way to the sledding hill where we had so much fun! All of our friends were so patient, helpful and encouraging as we began to make our way down the hill. Some friends helped pushed others while some made sure that everyone at the bottom hill was out of the way before more sleds went down. Eventually, a few of our naturalists turned into logs and began rolling down the hill, too! Before we left, snow spiders, snow cats and chefs even showed up to play.
Thank you all for a truly wonderful winter week in the lives of your Knee High Naturalists, today was probably the best class of the season!
We want to remind you that next week (12/16) will be our last day together! We’d like to have a special picnic in the woods and ask that you pack a special snack (i.e., their favorite food/treat) for this picnic. Nothing big, just something that will surprise your naturalist when they pull out their snack!
We will celebrate your naturalists with a small certificate ceremony around 11:45am, please plan to arrive early to help celebrate with us.
We look forward to seeing you all one last time next week to celebrate a wonderful season of play and learning outdoors!
