As the weather continues to warm up, we continue to see changed in our environment. The sounds of wood frogs are more present as they are now beginning to breed. Egg clusters can be seen around a few vernal pools at Audubon. But a spring snow can always hit Vermont as Wednesday’s class found out. 

Wednesday’s class began their day outside, searching for leopard frog cut-outs since April is peak breeding season for this species. But because it was cold out, we went inside for morning meeting where we also did snack and story as well as some drawing afterwards. We later went to Peeper Pond where the kids made structures out of sticks and ran around in the field. Some of the kids also checked sap buckets on the tree line but found nothing inside; they came to the conclusion we are now past sugaring season. 

But with a fresh coat of snow on the ground, the kids had a fun time making snow angels and a snowman in the backyard to end the day. 

On Friday, all the snow had melted except for a few spots in the shade and the snow man still standing in the backyard. Because it was warmer on Friday than it was on Wednesday, the class got to do morning meeting and snack outside. Afterwards, we spent a lot of time in the front yard playing before hiking up to Lookout Rock. On the way up, we saw a red eft crossing the trail. Many of the children thought a red eft was a salamander, as do many adults. But the red eft is actually the juvenile form of the eastern newt, and will later relocate to ponds and grow a paddled tail and change color to a greenish-brown. 

After spending a few minutes at Lookout Rock, we returned for lunch and a game of tag in the backyard. 

Vermont has been having strange weather lately as we had snow on the ground one day and newts crossing the forests another. It was a good opportunity to observe the changes that we see in our Springtime.