A new energy settles on Harrington like a blanket of fresh snow when we arrive in the village. A challenge for the farthest slide down the snow hill by Rose and Pin Cherry; lighting a fire with one match; or following tracks to discover a mystery, mornings are so much FUN! Do you think the track mystery was a good or a bad surprise? Use your naturalist brain.
During snack time, we talked about what we need to know or do to explore safely in winter? Dressing properly for the weather conditions is one of the best things we can do. We know that the first stage of Frostbite is called ‘Frostnip’. After learning about the symptoms, Sunflower told us she thinks she had Frostnip last weekend. What are the ways you can protect yourself from getting frostbite in the first place?
In the winter, it is particularly helpful to know how to read the scale on a thermometer. The scale on our thermometers increases by 2 degrees so we practiced being able to read them by measuring the air temperature in the hall and under our clothing. Which temperature was warmer and why?
On our Temperature Discovery walk, the goal was to find the coldest as well as the warmest location outside. Thinking about what you found out, where would you go if you weren’t dressed properly on a really cold winter day on the west side? See if anyone at home knows what windchill is.
How would you like to become the ‘Official Temperature Monitor”, sort of like Wiarton Willy, at your house? All you need is an outdoor thermometer, pencil and paper. Record the temperature in the morning and again at night. At the end of each week, see how much the temperature changed each day by subtracting the smaller number from the larger number. If you like this kind of activity, you may want to become a meteorologist some day!
We stopped to check on our yet-to-be-named winter shelter and discovered that the Turtles had added more boughs to the roof and side. Thank you so much for helping us out! We still have more insulating work to do because when we took the temperature inside the shelter and the temperature outside, we found it wasn’t much warmer inside!
We decided to do a good deed as well and hiked down to Cedar hideaway, armed with mallets and muscles! Our job was to separate the cedar stumps that had frozen together so that the Turtles will have a nice meeting area when they come back on Tuesday. Sure hope they like their surprise!
Grey Squirrel captured our attention when she read the picture book, ‘Blizzard’ because it’s based on a true story. The author, John Rocco wrote about the blizzard of 1978 which he experienced as a boy. So much snow fell in a short period of time that he had to climb out of his bedroom window because his front door was blocked. Think of what we would have to do if we ever got snowed in at the hall. Fun!
In order to be safe on winter hikes in unfamiliar areas, what is one skill that will help you stay safe? Look at the pictures below and test yourself to see if you know what each symbol means. Were you able to ‘read’ the trail markers when we walked out to Crayfish Castle?
Mystery Forest was a hubbub of activity! Wolf made a fun swing out of rope and a sturdy stick. Water Bear and Blue Racer whittled their time away. Pin Cherry made delicious burritos for Tamarack who was stuffed like a Christmas turkey. Speaking of that, what kind of bird tracks did we see on the trails and in the forest?
As the program came to a close, the stars for the day were having a longer lunch time which allowed for some free time for activities with Beaver supervising, whittling, using thermometers, and hiking with blaze symbols.
The wishes for next Friday are all of the above plus being able to spend the whole day out in Mystery Forest! Do you really think we could do it?. Great day together, Forest Friends!
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