We are now going on three weeks of rainy Tuesdays, but that doesn’t seem to bother anyone in Forest Classroom.
The morning was dry and then later turned to on and off rain showers. Since we were wet we decided to explore Beaver Pond and the Brook and get even wetter. Before we left we searched around the clubhouse and found some salamanders, including a SPOTTED SALAMANDER!
At Beaver Pond we brought looky no touchy bins for the critters we were catching. We had to have caught at least 40 Eastern Newts, 10 leeches, a few crayfish, and many big tadpoles. We discussed why the tadpoles were so huge, it’s due to the fact that they will overwinter in the pond and not fully transform until spring 2023. With the pond so full all of the critters were having a great time and we were catching so much.
In the afternoon at the Brook we explored the idea of dam building. Many of us gathered and found sticks, rocks, leaves, mushy wood, etc. to build this structure. We spend over 40 minutes designing and constructing it. At the end, Debbie gathered us up to discuss what changes we noticed. We talked about how we saw that the water was pushed on the stream bank and was flooding the plant area on the right side of the dam. We talked about how the water needed to go somewhere and was still flowing so it flooded. We then took apart the dam and watch the floodplain area empty out and rush downstream.
