We could not have asked for a more beautiful day as the Turtles gathered on the west side of Harrington Pond for some seed exploration! It was very exciting for us to start our day on the other side of the pond and the area did not disappoint. After greeting our friends, our morning affirmation and some running down the hill, we took our snacks and ventured along Spruce Alley to set up home base camp at the first picnic table near Butterfly Hill.
The trails were full of flowers and plants that had dried and had lots of seeds! We played a scavenger hunt game finding cards labeled with what seeds need to survive. Do you remember the four things that seeds need to grow? It was fun to find the cards as fast as possible and lovely to see how friends offered to share their cards with those who did not have enough. Thanks Snapping Turtle for helping Hawk so he had a balance of sun, water, soil and air cards and Beaver for opening up a ‘supermarket’ with the cards he collected. We then thought about what plant our seed would grow into. What plant did you pick? Willow, Sunflower, Dogwood? Would your plant need more water? More soil? An interesting conversation was had as we discussed which plants needed more of one thing and maybe less of another.
As we continued our travels we noticed more and more seeds all around us. Our morning adventure ended at Cedar Hideaway as we explored the area along the water and the forts that had been built by nature school friends - The Herons.
In the library, Grey Squirrel tested our mystery solving skills. She showed us a picture in a book containing seeds that travel in different ways. Do you remember which ones used hooks? Which ones blew in the wind?
Thanks to Ladybug who arrived at lunch hour to help supervise, to sing songs and to enjoy the activities with us. Do you remember the Tony Chestnut song she taught us? After our lunch we checked in with everyone to see how they were feeling and how they felt about visiting the other side of the pond. Looks like we will be going there again at some point! It was a hit! We were then off on our afternoon adventure down the trail close to the Hall.
Dragonfly gave everyone a sock and we went to work moving our sock around the ground and into the plants lining the trail, picking up lots of seeds for observation. What was your favourite seed that you found? Cardinal really liked moving the cattails through the air and watching the fluffy seeds floating everywhere! By the end of the day she was covered in seeds:) Dragonfly showed us how to make a paper envelope and we put our seeds inside. Are you going to plant your seeds? Do you remember what they will need to survive?
Seeds weren't the only things we saw along the trails. When you are looking for seeds you are looking closely and see other things. Do you remember some of our nature finds today?
Next, it was time to be squirrels! Dragonfly gave everyone two chestnuts to hide like a squirrel would do. Ladybug and Cardinal pretended to be hungry Blue Jays so the squirrels had to hide their nuts carefully. Lucky squirrels, the Blue Jays only found a few chestnuts. How many chestnuts did the squirrels find?
After time to explore in Mystery Forest and visit our tree friends, we sat on stumps and brainstormed words that we could use to describe things in nature. We chose NUTS and the Turtles worked together to create a poem, finding a word that started with each letter. The group came up with Nutritious, Under, Trail and Snacks. Next week, we will be adding this poem to our nature journals! Could you draw a picture with the poem? What would it look like? What details would you include? Looking forward to seeing our poem in print! What is another nature word we could use to create another poem?
Happy Trails Turtle Friends! Chickadee, Dragonfly and Ladybug
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