On a sunny, spring morning families with young kids gather in the field by the sugarhouse at the Green Mountain Audubon Center. Adults chat and little ones run around looking for rocks, plants, and hidden owl pictures. Everyone is excited to go on this week's adventure. This is Audubon Vermont’s Free Nature Playgroup.
Playgroup is a program for children aged 0-5 and their caregivers. We meet most Monday mornings through all seasons of the year from 9:30 to 11. The program is run by an Audubon nature educator and free to attend. The goal of the program is to provide a space for caregivers to and young ones to explore the natural world together.
Each day we gather and prepare for our adventure of the day. Sometimes we walk to the brook to splash around and throw rocks in the water, or to the pond to dig and draw in the mud with sticks. Other times we flip logs to look for salamanders in the woods or make fairy houses under the trees. In the winter we look for animal tracks, make cakes and muffins in our mud kitchen, and flop in the snow. After our adventures, we gather for a story and an opportunity to have a snack.
On this warm April day, we are on the search for critters. We find a spider hiding in the leaf litter under a log along with a curled-up millipede. I hold them in my hand low so all the kids can see. Everyone is excited to see more. As we continue down the trail, kids call out pointing at other logs and requesting that they are flipped over.
As we get closer to Beaver Pond (everyone’s favorite spot) water becomes the next exciting thing. We look in every bit of pond we pass on our way. “Do you see anything in here?” I ask. “Nope! Not here” a kid says before running off to the next one.
As we round the corner the whole pond is visible ahead of us beyond a large mud flat. Kids dash for the rivulets, the mud, the water, the rocks, and the sticks. They have all the toys they could need here and they know exactly what to do. Dams are built, holes are dug, rocks and sticks are thrown into the water, hands are covered in mud. I walk along the edge of the pond pointing out geese and ducks floating on the far side of the pond and at raccoon and goose tracks at the edge of the water.
We stay for almost 30 minutes of exploring, discovering and getting wet and muddy before transitioning into snack and story time. Sitting in a circle in the sun, everyone listens to Sarah read about animals that live in ponds. After one book the kids chime out “one more!” “can you read another?” and so Sarah does.
Bellies full and sleepiness sinking in, we start our journey back to the sugarhouse field. As we walk, we notice yellow colt’s foot flowers growing in the gravel by the pond and trout lily leaves poking up through the leaf litter in the forest. We flip over logs hoping for a salamander. We had almost make it back when we find one! It is a red-backed salamander curled up and hiding among the damp decaying leaves. We watch it for a moment before putting its log home back on top of it. We meet back up with Sarah who says that her group saw a snake on their walk back! What a great day at playgroup!
For more information about playgroup visit Free Nature Playgroup | Audubon Vermont. If you have been a frequent attendee of playgroup and are looking for other ways to get your little one involved in Audubon, we have a preschool summer camp (Preschool Nature Camp | Audubon Vermont), and a school year preschool program (Forest Playschool | Audubon Vermont). Both are available for kids aged 3-5.
