Wow have we gotten lucky this far for weather on Mondays at Audubon (Knocks on wood, don’t want to jinx it). Today is a special day because it’s officially the FIRST DAY OF FALL! It was the autumnal equinox on Monday, and the forest was starting to look like fall is here. To welcome fall our morning activity was to create a signs of fall scavenger hunt. We could write and draw the things that are signs of fall. We will then use these next week in the morning and see which of our signs of fall we find. 

We planned another jam-packed day. After snack we got to run around playing some games in the field before heading up to Peeper Pond for another round of field sweeping. This time of our students brought a cool gadget that lets you enclose the insect safely and see it through a magnifying glass, it was helpful for getting the insects out of our nets and getting to see them up close too! We caught over 10 grasshoppers, a dragonfly, some crickets, spiders, and a few other creepy crawlers.  

Field sweeping at Peeper Pond Photo: Emily Kaplita

Investigating the insects we caught Photo: Emily Kaplita

A picture of some of our insects Photo: Emily Kaplita

Not an insects but we found a young red-bellied snake Photo: Emily Kaplita

Checking our net to see if we caught anything Photo: Emily Kaplita

1 of 5

After Peeper Pond we changed into our water shoes, traded our field nets our aquatic nets and went to Beaver Pond. At beaver Pond some of us were trying to make records happening by catching more critter than they caught the week before. Others were enjoying the sun and the mud and some more quiet time. We caught some awesome crayfish, a couple minnows, lots of tadpoles, a frog or 2, and a HUGE catfish too! It was a great critter day at the pond. 

After enjoying lunch in the grass and some time to run around which then took us to our first activity after lunch. During morning meeting our students had half designed a leaf catching game, but by the afternoon leaves weren’t falling from the trees anymore, so we shifted our leaf plan. We worked together to create a huge leaf pile and enjoyed that time in the woods.  Then we shifted gears and worked together to start building a shelter in the woods. 

We ended our time journaling about our day or finishing our scavenger hunts. I can’t wait to get to see everyone use their scavenger hunts next week!