We had a great day hanging out in the sunshine together! Because it had been so warm the past few days we started out in the woods behind the clubhouse to do a leaf litter search for amphibians that may have woken up from hibernation. We didn't find much other than a worm, pill bug and some fungus. But then, we encountered a pile of feathers on the ground! We guessed who they might belong to based on size and place. It was a turkey! We think this is either a sign of a struggle or just some turkeys plucking their down feathers as the weather warms up.
Then we gathered at our bench circle to try something new: Morning meeting! Morning meeting is something we hold in our Forest Playschool programs, where students get the chance to help plan our day together. Today we planned on having snack, going on a scavenger hunt through the sugarbush, having some free play time, eating lunch, visiting beaver pond and finally, pick up!
After snack, the group wanted to check our sap bucket that we hung a few weeks ago. It was super full!
Then, we explained our scavenger hunt. This is our Maple Scavenger hunt - it involves learning about five birds of the sugarbush and their preferred habitat. Each bird is numbered 1-5 and hidden in the woods at it's preferred habitat with a letter next to them. Once you find all of the birds of the sugarbush, you'll have enough letters to spell out a secret word! We had so much fun doing this and it really encouraged us to think like the birds.
Once we finished our scavenger hunt, we ate lunch and had free play in the sugarhouse field to enjoy the sun.
Finally, we ended our day together with some exploration around Beaver Pond. We know that there's an active beaver hanging around, but we haven't had eyes on it yet. Be sure to look out for new beaver chews!
Hope we have this weather next week! See you then!
