News From the Outdoors:

The past two weeks at Nature Preschool have been fun-filled and full of exciting nature adventure.  Birds were on our minds as we went off on a circuitous hike around the grounds looking in the many bird boxes that are scattered about. We brought along a map of Woodend and when we found a box we checked it for any bird nesting activity, then labeled on the map where it was located. We’ve found as many as eighteen bird boxes around the grounds, with more yet to be discovered for another time.

The discoveries didn’t end there. While hiking with the Naturalist, Hummingbird the kids looked for seeds that the birds might like to eat, and found two fascinating animal homes! The first animal home discovery came when some of the Nature Detectives were checking out what was once a den used by a groundhog…but now is the home of a fox! The kids spotted LOTS of fox scat, left over bones, fur and feathers from some past feasts!  No sign of the fox (so far) but we’re keeping our eyes open! The second discovery came when we got word of a mother raccoon and some baby raccoons that are nesting in a hollow at the top of a tree near the snake nest. We trudged over there on a rainy day and sure enough, spotted a little raccoon face peering out at us! No sign of the babies yet, but our fingers are crossed for an less obscured sighting!

To make our bird week extra special the PM class got a rare daytime sighting of a large Barred Owl. It was perched in a tree near the bamboo forest, and then soared over our heads! The true icing on the bird study cake was our family bird walk. Thanks to some nice spring weather, we spotted lots of birds and the kids got to share their bird knowledge with their families!

We followed up our bird unit by talking about planting. With Hummingbird, the kids got to plant some radishes in the planter boxes in the outdoor classroom. We also collected seeds from nature to study more in the classroom and checked out the compost bins to check in on the worms. With some heavy rain at the end of the week, we capped off our outdoor adventures with a slog through the muddy trails to look for waterfalls along the creek. We even spied the ducks having their lunch at the pond!

News from the Classroom:

The nature detectives were equally busy in the classroom as well. They clipped out photos of birds and pasted them to giant sky murals (now on display in the cubby room), used the build-a-bird toys, measured their block creations by using cut-outs of bird wingspans and made bird feeders out of cereal. The kids also made paper towel tube binoculars for easier bird-spotting, and used tongs and tweasers of  various sizes to simulate bird beaks and pluck plastic worms out of bark mulch in the lab table. The kids also worked diligently on bird journals, and got plenty of practice with the “I Met a Bird at the Playground Gate” song for the family bird walk.

The Nature Detectives also revisited an activity from earlier in the year by drawing  new self-portraits! They also wrote a message on their artwork about something they can do now that they couldn’t do back in the Fall when we did our first round of self-portraits. We look forward to showing families both versions of the self portraits at the conferences.

The kids found lots of other cool planting and flower-themed activities in the classroom this past week. They played a seed matching game in the discovery table, did some still-life drawings of a potted plants, and made flowery creations with the Magic Nuudles.

There were butterfly wings, puppets and flowers to pollinate in the dramatic play area and kids even made giant flowers out of tangram shapes in the block area. All told, it was an exciting and busy two weeks of indoor exploration and learning!

Weekly Top Hits:

I Met a Bird at the Playgound Gate

Books We Read:

Planting a Wild Garden by Katherine Galbraith

Oh Say Can you Seed by Bonnie Worth

Have you Heard the Nesting Bird by Rita Grey

The Birdwatchers by Simon James

Spoiler Alert:

Pond Exploration