Earth Day Birthday

It was a beautiful day to celebrate Earth Day. Luckily for me, it was also a day to celebrate my delightful daughter's birthday. Guess where she chose to host her party? Why her favorite segment of the Ice Age Trail of course: Monches.

Being a volunteer Tyke Hike coordinator, I love taking kids out on the trail. However, this having a birthday twist, my wife and I had extra fun planning the day. It was amazing to have a mixed group of over thirty friends, family, neighbors, and classmates join us for this event. 

I planned the hike with the theme "Embry's Favorites." As we hiked, we took advantage of the gorgeous weather and nature's playground to enjoy some fallen trees and stumps in one of Embry's favorite activities, natural play.

We also stopped to take a break and listen to one of her favorite books, The Book With No Pictures, by BJ Novak.

Hard to see here, but before the guests arrived, I hid plastic eggs on both sides of the trail filled with two of Embry's favorite things. One set of eggs had fun animal stickers and the other side had candy.

After snacking, it was back to natural play, and boy, did the kids play. 😋

We wrapped up the hike with some of Embry's favorite snacks. Pretzels, veggies, fruit, juice, granola bars, and dirt cake. We opened a few presents, handed out some gift bags, and cleaned up, even picking up some extra garbage to honor Earth Day.

I think I see more birthday hikes in our future.

Schoen Laufen Park

My family enjoyed a nice Friday afternoon stroll at a local park: Schoen Laufen Park in Germantown. While it was only my second time there, it was very noticeable of the changes made since my initial visit in the fall;. It looks like a very aggressive project looking to remove buckthorn and other invasive species is underway as the park was much more bare, yet much more native.

We enjoyed looking at a variety of plants poking through the newly mulched areas once dominated by buckthorn. Many young plans were peeking through, including may apples, bloodroot,  and trout lilies.

While investigating the trout lily shown above, a rustling sound through the leaves a few feet away caught my attention.

Within seconds, we went on a snake hunt for further investigation. The beautiful garter snake was caught, observed, and released.

And even more amazing was that as my wife and I chatted about hopefully looking into places to find owl, we found one. Well, sort of.

Anyone who knows me knows time in nature equates to discovery and play. Embry agreed, so she participated in some of her favorite natural play activities. She. . . .

found stump seats and completed stump jumps,

did a few rock hops,

climbed over some fallen limbs,

and added sticks to an already started stick structure.

However, she seemed to find most joy in another one of her passions, performing. We found a nice little "stage" and sat back as she ended our hike with a  song and dance routine, stick microphone and all.

Tyke Hike #38 - Monches

With Tyke Hike #37 essentially rained out, it had been some time before we got out and about for a Tyke Hike. Embry was raring to meet new friends on a beautiful Saturday morning. Unfortunately, with this being the only Saturday in April available for us, we had to compete against spring break vacations, family visits, and Easter egg hunts, Though all five hikers were technically already Tyke Hike experts (and volunteers), we still enjoyed a great time on a great segment of trail.

While our newest addition, two month old Oakley, had already been on Monches, this was her first official Tyke Hike. Getting all four family members out on the Ice Age Trail will certainly be a regular occurrence.

In the initial climb, we stopped at one of our favorite landmarks. No matter what season, we check hollowed out stump for nature friends. While nothing appeared today, I am sure we will check again next time.

What did appear was a variety of colorful and vivid wildflowers. This particular segment is known for a great diversity of flowers, so we will be checking in again soon to see what is blooming.

Timberwolf Trail - Week 27 - 2016-17 Edition - Retzer Nature Visit #6 - Nature Wakes Up

Our good friends from the Retzer Nature Center came to our school's outdoor learning time for the fourth and final time this year to investigate spring waking up.

The day began with a review of the life cycle and an introduction to how nature "wakes up" in spring. We talked specifically about flowers, their purpose, their parts, and their interactions with bees and butterflies.

After talking about flowers and the process of pollination, we acted it out. Several students were given the role of various plant parts and a "bee" came to collect nectar and in turn pollinated other flowers.

We then dissected a lily to have a real life sensory experience with the parts of a flower.

After finishing up with flowers, we went to the classroom to hear the story Fran's Flower by Lisa Bruce. This book reminded us of all the things a plant would need to survive.

We also reconnected with the bullfrog and African clawed frog tadpoles we met last month. The progress on their transformation into adult frogs was very evident.

Time to head outside! We were greeted by a small flock of turkey vultures.Upon further inspection, we saw a few turkey vultures perched among some of our oak trees.

After checking out our new bird friends, we headed into our wooded are in search of the perfect spot to place some birdhouses.

We hung six colorful bird feeders at various spots I the land before using a clipboard and sheet to search for signs of spring. One of our first finds wasn't even on the list: garlic mustard. I was very happy to see my class instantly work together to take out this invasive plant.

Along the way, we had to stop to play. :)

We found many signs of spring, but once the afternoon hit, I felt that my kids still needed to find more. So, while they were at a special, I went back to the woods and hid eggs. Of course, these eggs were not filled with candy, but with math number sentences that the students had created the day before.

Now, I was on paternity leave during April Fool's Day, so I decided to have a little fun with the kids. They knew I would be hiding eggs, so when they came back from their special, I have them two minutes to find eggs. Needless to say, they didn't find any. They told me I was the "best hider ever." While I enjoyed this compliment, I spilled the beans and told them about my trick. They enjoyed it, but were more excited once I told them I had hid the eggs outside.

To the woods we went to find our math eggs.

All eggs were found and brought back to the grass class to "crack" open and complete the math problems inside. Completed math problems led to a sweet treat when back inside.

We enjoyed a marvelous day with Mother Nature. With spring here, I think we will be seeing Mother Nature much, much more.