Our little Turtles arrived this week all ready for a rainy day exploration. After the morning affirmation, we read “Today I feel…An Alphabet of Feelings” by Madelina Moniz. We used words like Relaxed, Strong and Yucky from the book to help describe our feelings. Maybe you can share some of the words at home that we read about? How did you feel when you arrived at nature school? Did you feel nervous? Free? Relaxed? Some of us noticed we were sleepy. How long did it take you to feel more awake?
On our morning walk we placed colourful dots in spots we found interesting. Some of us found beautiful leaves, mystery holes, flowers, opened walnuts and mushrooms growing on dead tree stumps. Of course, we can’t forget the heron flying by! What was your favourite thing that you saw on the trail? Was it your nature item or was it someone else’s? What are you hoping to find on the trail next time? I wonder what was living in the big hole we found!
In the library, Grey Squirrel read us a wonderful book “Robert Bateman: The boy who painted nature” by Margaret Ruurs and we discussed how naturalists explore and observe nature and often draw or sketch what they see. We are enjoying our time at the library! Remember your books and library cards for next week.
See the book about Robert Bateman gave us some ideas for remembering our day at nature school. Using a sketch of our pond area we coloured and drew things we saw on our adventures. Show your family your picture and tell them about your day. Did you feel like a naturalist when you were drawing?
Using some measuring tools that naturalists use, we estimated and measured a few natural things. Was the owl more than 30 centimetres tall? How long was your arm? We also started looking at distance. How many steps count when you walked 10 metres? Is 10 metres a long distance?
During our Wander Time in the Mystery Forest we met up again with our tree friends and some of us used a stethoscope to listen to our heart and then to our tree friend. Did your heart sound the same as your tree? How would you describe what your tree sounded like? Monarch thought her tree sounded like water!
Many of us enjoyed exploring mud, the dead trees and breaking up the bark. How did it feel? How did it smell? We pretended we were cooking with nature! There was fish & chips, chicken (sorted into black, brown and white) and hot dogs. We discussed how it is important to be gentle with the living trees and wondered about the dead trees. Red Fox explained that breaking the bark off the dead trees is part of the decomposing process and that it is good for the soil and for plants to grow. Decomposing, that is a big word with four syllables. Try clapping out the syllables for your parent(s). Later in the afternoon, we discovered while reading a book that bark is great food for animals. A wonderful way to connect our learning!
We all have a nature name! Yahoo! We celebrated by getting an official necklace with our nature name on it! The Turtles includes so many amazing animals: Snapping Turtle (Fynn), Red Fox (Cortland), Hawk (Colm), Gray Wolf (Levi), Monarch (Freda), Catfish (Carter) and Water Strider (Elliiot), Butterfly (Scarlet), Black Bear (Teo), Beaver (Hudson), Deer (Sylas), and Pileated Woodpecker (Henry). What action could you do that would best suit your animal? Looking forward to seeing and sharing those actions next week! Happy Trails!
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