Debbie and Emily filled in for Kyra and myself today and it sounds like everyone had an incredible day! In the morning everyone enjoyed two activities, first laid out where examples of tree leaves that can be found in the forests of Audubon and students were tasked to find matches of fallen leaves. Then we took our favorite leaves and made leaf rubbings with paper and crayons.  Something you can do at home with your student is try and identify what trees you have around you too! This is a wonderful resource to ID trees, find other resources, and so much more! Have your students, family, friends, see what trees they notice. Ask yourself, Are they all the same? Are they all different? Does this impact the widlife you see and how?

As a game the parachute was brought out for some fun. One activity that we did was we flapped around the parachute and called out statements and if it related to you then you would run under the parachute, like “go if your have a pet”. The next game with the parachute was focused on trying to keep a ball bouncing on the parachute while others were trying to knock it off.  

The adventure for the day was a big hike! As they hiked they stopped and found leaves along the way based on characteristics, like size, holes, color, etc. The group stopped at Forest Camp to have some free play too. Most friends played in the mud kitchen and climbed the trees.  

Lunch was enjoyed at Lookout Rock and once done the group continued to hike the entire Hire’s trail and went back to the clubhouse via Erny’s Pass. 

Once back at the Clubhouse the choices were either shelter building or a leaf litter search. One group worked on building their log cabin shelter and stated to insulate it with leaves. The other group was focusing on the leaf litter search and ground worms and salamanders. They even got to look at them under a magnifying glass too!