Timberwolf Trail - Week 29 - 2016-17 Edition - Retzer Visit #7

On our second to last trip to the Retzer Nature Center this school year, we focused on life in the water. From ponds to streams, we chatted about the water cycle and how it impacts ecosystems at the center.

Starting off together, the class got a preview of the day and a review of some important information. It wasn't long before the four classes split into their groups and headed to their first watery learning area.

My class kicked off at the basin, a man-made area meant to keep runoff out of a natural stream. Here, we discussed salamanders, cattails, fairy shrimp, before meeting the smallest painted turtle I had ever seen.

Then, after a quick walk through the woods, we arrived at the woodlands stream.

Here, we used spoons, ice cube trays, and magnifiers to closely examine a variety of macro invertebrates caught by the Retzer teaching naturalists

Next up was the pond. On the way, we found a duck egg in the grass.

The class was trained on how to get "the good muck" so that we could search for life. We certainly found a good deal of it.

Besides a variety of invertebrates including damselfly larva and dragonfly nymphs, we found leeches, a small green frog, and even a fish. Most impressive was that no one fell in.

Our final stop was the prairie stream. Though it was a bit muddy getting there, it was a nice place to wrap up a day of learning about life in the water. It was a small area, so only a few students enjoyed it at once. The rest were given nets to sweep for insects. Though some were distracted by a patch of garlic mustard, I was happy to see them take an interest in pulling it and helping the center get rid of this invasive species.

After four wonderful stations, it was time for a nice outdoor lunch before some natural play.

On our post-lunch hike together, we went up to the vista overlook, stopping to look at area that had a prescribed burn earlier in the season. We talked a bit about why people use fire to help restore the land and talked about how much different this area would look like during our final visit in June.

Then, we wrapped up another wonderful nature day with some tree climbing, shelter-building, and natural playing before stopping in to the center to say goodbye to our animal friends and heading home.

Timberwolf Trail - Trail Camera Captures- April 2017 Edition

Here are a variety of the latest captures . Enjoy!

Sunrise Squirrel

Morning Squirrel

Afternoon Squirrel

Dusk Squirrel

Regular Squirrel :)

Trapeze Squirrel

Easter Bunny

How many do you see?

Hard to see, but there's a rodent here

Timberwolf Trail - Week 28 - 2016-17 Edition

Today, we kicked off our spring gardening sessions in our school garden. Today, we focused on weeding, in particular "de-dandelioning." Essentially, it was a Dandelion Destruction Day. Connecting our Social Studies unit on wants and needs, our Science studies of plant parts and life cycles, and our current Reading focus on cause and effect, we discussed the dandelions in the garden and ultimately decided we should try to get rid of them, especially the ones growing where seeds would eventually be planted.

After a quick training session on safe and responsible usage of the garden tools, it was off to digging up some dandelion destruction.

After collecting quite a large amount of dandelions, we went over to the empty field and saw firsthand how quickly these plants spread, considering this was all green just a few days ago.

We then ventured to the "jackpot spot", affectionately named after the area where I inadvertently yelled jackpot when finding a solid amount of garlic mustard. Now, as we work to eradicate our land of this invasive species, I can't help chuckle every time a kid yells jackpot when finding it.

One of our classroom jobs is the gardener. One of the responsibilities given to our gardener today was holding on to both the dandelion bag and the garlic mustard bag. He found a pretty clever weight to handle the bags as we collected quite a bit of both plants.

Of course, when searching for one thing, nature also allows us to find some unexpected treasures. Today, one of our scientists found a bunch of turkey vulture feathers and a skull. During our sharing time (a routine of our schedule), I was amazed at how the kids independently pieced together a very plausible explanation for this discovery.

One of the students asked the boy where he found the skull and feathers.When he showed them, they found a few more bones. These kids brought all these finds to our share session and the class came up with the fact that this skull must have been the raccoon that we found a few weeks back. At the beginning of the week, we noticed the body had been moved and clearly "messed with" as pieces were missing, including the skull.  This discovery was also coinciding with our first encounters with a flock of turkey vultures that spent the day flying from tree to tree and circling overhead. We followed them around and used our field guides to learn about them. One thing the children really connected to was that they feast on dead animals, or carrion.

It all was coming together, The class decided that the turkey vultures must have found the carcass, moved part of it to under the tree where the skull was found to protect it from other animals. Then they used their beaks to eat the meat and left the skull behind, along with some of their feathers.  is this what happened? Not sure. Could this have been the case? Sure. When I took a closer look at the skull, it certainly seemed like it was a raccoon. Even if it wasn't and this theory is proven wrong, the process the class went through to solve this was truly remarkable and cemented my reasoning for taking them outside.

After our share session, the drizzling rain came down a bit harder, forcing us inside. Once there, we used our dandelions to do a variety of things. After hearing the story Barney Bipple's Magic Dandelion, by Carol Chapman, we broke into groups. Half the class explored how they could write with dandelions. Brainstorming and trying a few different methods, they were asked to show me a sight word before free exploration.

The other half of the class used dandelions and strainers to create beautiful golden bouquets. Ten minutes later, they switched.

There are lots of other things we could do with these plants. Luckily for us, there is no shortage of them outside.

"I'll be outside."

Before spring break, I joked with my colleagues that once school resumed, my class would either be doing the assessments inside or "doing our thing" outside. But was it really a joke?

One of our slogans used to be "we end each day with natural play."  We tweaked it this week to "we start and end each day with natural play." So far this week, as soon as morning announcements were completed it was outside for a few minutes of natural play before phonics and writing.

A nature kindergarten program in a public school is unique. One of the things people ask me is how I manage to reach the curricular requirements and handle time management while spending so much time away from traditional instruction. To me, the answer is getting easier and easier. These students are naturally inclined to play and discover. By observing them and applying simple techniques into my instruction, I am finding it exciting and rejuvenating to connect the curriculum to our experiences in nature.

For example, this week we are working on opinion writing. I acquired a bird feeder photo booth over spring break. Basically, this is a special feeder with a camera attached that snaps photos of birds that enjoy the feed. Rather than just place it anywhere, we reviewed the wants and needs of animals and I had the class scout the land and eventually use a simple sheet to write where they would put the feeder. More importantly, they had to back up their decision with at least two reasons to make our opinions "strong." We will then use a shepherd's crook to have each child place their feeder for a day or to as we analyze the results and enjoy the pictures until summer break.

Secondly, we have been looking at cause and effect in reading. Connecting this concept to plan needs and our look at invasive species, we have searched for and worked to remove garlic mustard. All the while, we have discussed how we are using cause and effect in a real world application. Because we remove the garlic mustard, we are allowing more native plants to grow.

It was exciting to see how happy the students got when they correctly identified the garlic mustard,. Plus, seeing how the last few weeks of sunny, warmer weather have allowed this plant to grow quite rapidly, we searched and found the "jackpot spot," where  garlic mustard was taking over. the kids were so excited because this plant was a lot easier to pull when it was taller.

Of course, every trip outside ends with a tick check.