It’s the last week of October and students are arriving to class either the day before or after Halloween. We saw a number of unique costumes from superheroes and princesses, to sea creatures and trains. In spirit of Halloween, the students looked for ghosts as our hidden item.
Wednesday’s group decided to go to Peeper Pond where we played in the fields and opened the galls of Canadian goldenrod to find little gall fly larva inside (the adult gall fly injects a substance that causes the stem of the goldenrod to form a tumor-like growth that the fly’s larvae will live inside and feed off of). Later, we also built a fire at the Forest playground to roast marshmallows with.
Friday’s group decided to hike up to Mossy Rock where we climbed up boulders and trees. One student came across a Red-backed salamander hiding in leaf liter by a big tree. The group also did a lot of free-playing with sticks; testing what the sticks could move and what it took to break them.
Both groups also got a surprise visit by the Oak Fairy (Emily Calder) who needed squirrels to help her plant acorns to grow a healthy oak forest. Luckily for her, all of the students volunteered to act as squirrels and planted all of the acorns themselves by digging holes in the ground and placing the acorns inside. With winter approaching, it was the perfect time for the Oak Fairy to get some help.
