Forest Classroom

First Monday of Fall!

Week 3; September 23rd 2024

What a beautiful day to welcome the first day of fall together! As we arrive our morning activity was for everyone to make their own fall scavenger hunt. On this page we could draw or write different signs of fall, with the hope that they’d be brought home and used together with friends and family. Some friends drew leaves fall or changing color, the temperature changing, birds flying south, and so many more. We enjoyed playing some running games in the field and were able to stay nice and cool!

fall scavenger hunt
Building our own fall scavenger hunts Photo: Emily Kaplita
students running in the field
Playing Park Ranger in the field Photo: Emily Kaplita

In the morning we adventured to Beaver Pond to explore. What I love about this program and seeing each other week after week is that we really can notice the changes to our space. It has been a while since our last day of rain and the pond was showing it. The ground was dry, the pond had receded, the stream we were building dams for was no longer running, and the plants looked dry too. It was so amazing to make these observation with the group. We still were able to have a blast and search for critters and play in the mud. We caught crayfish, frogs, tadpoles, and so much more.

Students at beaver Pond
Exploring the changes at Beaver Pond Photo: Emily Kaplita
Students at beaver Pond
Exploring the pond Photo: Emily Kaplita
student with eastern newt
Found a newt making its way to the pond from the woods! Photo: Emily Kaplita

After the pond we had some leaf discovery time. We shared some Tree ID books/guides to try and identify what kind of tree various leaves on the ground came from. Whether we got the exact species of tree, learning that it came from an Oak, or a Maple is a really great first step!

student with tree id book
IDing what tree our leaves came from Photo: Emily Kaplita
student iding a leaf
Identifying our leaves Photo: Emily Kaplita

After lunch we journeyed to the brook. We went to a different sections of the brook this week and found that were was some dams built. We talked about the importance of removing the dam here at the brook, allowing the water to flow will allow the animals in the brook to swim down and make it to the river, like fish. We removed 2 different dammed up sections! It was so great to see these students do some amazing work.

students moving rocks
Working on removing the rock dam Photo: Emily Kaplita
student sitting on fall down tree
We love the brook! Photo: Emily Kaplita

Once we had afternoon snack we then journaled for a bit quietly in the woods at our sit spot. Before we knew it we were sharing our favorite part of our day and getting picked up!

I’m looking forward to see what changes the rain later this week will bring.

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