The last day is always hard. None of us want to say goodbye! I am hoping that I can continue bringing Woods and Wetlands to local schools this fall, so I plan to reach out to as many educators as possible to get these programs scheduled. One of my dreams would be to offer repeat programs for the same classes in the same, wild, space throughout a school year, whether once a month or even 4 times a (school) year. Imagine the kids getting to bond with a natural area that they can access whenever their adults can get them there, where they would benefit from seeing nature change throughout the seasons! School curriculum would be supported as we learn naturally about local plants, animals, fungi, geology, history, and geography. Woods and Wetlands programs support physical education related to strength, balance, coordination, teamwork, spatial awareness, and self-confidence. The arts can be woven into repeat programs as well. Nature-play and play-based learning offers health and wellness to all of us, even those who don’t enjoy the outdoors. We become more resilient to the stresses of life and better able to heal and grow our spirits when the world gets to be too much.
On the last day I give everyone 3 little nature treasures along with getting to keep their journals and colored pencils. This year the 3 treasures are types of beautiful tree seeds: sweet gum tree, hemlock tree, horse chestnut tree. The seeds from the sweet gum and the hemlock not only connect with our ongoing tree-lessons, but also with the nature patterns we learned about and drew in our journals. The horse chestnut seed feels smooth and pleasant in our hands. We talked about some of the many ways trees spread their seeds around. Learning how to use dip nets to scoop up muck from under the water, dump it on the edge of the water, look for moving life, and pop those little creatures into a jar or bucket of water for observation.Little crayfishI never knew they were kind of pretty!FAIRY SHRIMPDRAGONFLY NYMPH & CRAYFISHNo one has to make them “do science.” It comes naturally!Big dreams of tiny creatures.Found a feather!A new island.We went down to the main river channel and discovered a multitude of living things in the water under the “muck,” (a.k.a. decomposing organic matter that is packed with nutrients!) We found: crayfish big and small, fairy shrimp, dragonfly nymphs, and fish.
Imagine you have spent your childhood living down deep in the warm mud of a wetland, swimming around and breathing with gills. One day when you are anywhere from 3 months to 5 years old, you crawl out of the muck, up onto a cattail or blade of grass, your back splits open, and you crawl right out of your “skin” (exoskeleton), but you are no longer a creepy crawler; you are an iridescent, shimmery, winged creature who can now FLY! You have lovely fairy-like wings and amazing eyesight. No more dark, muddy days. You are a DRAGONFLY!
Happy explorer.Always more to discover.The river’s edge is nice and shallow.A slew of snails were creeping around in the grass and logs.It’s so interesting to see which kids had a hard time with Brain Gym at first but have no problem now!Last day of Brain Gym. I wonder if anyone will remember to do it on their own?A dragon head shaped piece of bark.Root wrapped around a trunk.Photo taken of a pine tree catkin on bark through a pocket microscope with phone camera attachment!Noticing bark differences between trees.Observing ants and their busy highway.Since we were the ones to go to the ants’ home, we respected them by simply observing and keeping our feet and hands out of their space. No need to hurt or kill them when they were minding their own business!
Our last day began with sharing some of our favorite things about Woods and Wetlands. Using their journals to document and share was optional, but everyone got to take home their journals and colored pencils at the end of the day. Maybe they’ll use them for their own nature adventures! It was fun hearing all the different memories the kids had and to hear the others pipe up and say, “Oh yeah! I remember that. I loved that too!”
This book is a favorite EVERY SINGLE TIME!
Since some of the kids wanted to go back to the two “new” spaces we explored on Wednesday, and others wanted to return to our “normal” spot, while a few were eager to walk upstream to the giant boulder and the tunnel they hadn’t seen yet, we compromised. Everyone agreed that we would spend 15 minutes in each area and then vote on where we wanted to spend the remainder of our time. I set the visual timer (they LOVE this thing and are so much more willing to move on, pack up, or give up a nature exploration tool to another explorer when they feel they have control over the timing,) and off we went.
In the woods up high above the Rogue River some of the kids returned to throwing various things into the water just to see if they could, and to watch the rings and ripples created as the sticks, rocks, and acorns hit and either sunk or floated. Others challenged themselves to climbing the slanted, fallen tree. New “nature Swiss army knives” were crafted from sticks and imagination.
She was absent on the day we first explored here. This log offered more risk, due to its height from the ground, but as usual, kids only went as far as they felt personally safe going.
Wondering about this leaf gall.
After 15 minutes, we moved on down to the main channel of the river so that we could catch and observe more crayfish. I think this activity could have entertained most of the kids for the entire morning if we’d had more dip-nets available!
Sturdy logs provide balance challenges in shallow water but deep muck!
The teachers are still interested in looking at different seeds.
Catching crayfish and trading nets.
Nature finds a way in some of the oddest places!
Their laughter and joy makes me so happy!
Traveling in order, next we moved to our “normal” spot with The Meeting Log, Logjam Bridge, and forts. It was a good place to stop for a snack mid-morning. A few explorers were still set on “fishing,” so I went to the creek with them. These photos capture some really peaceful, calm moments where no one was talking or yelling or moving around. Just feeling at-ease and quite content. These are the moments when kids have had enough active exploration in a location and they can now just sit down and breathe, mindful of how good it feels to be in a natural space they have bonded with.
Our youngest explorer has already learned to watch for and recognize “poky plants” and knows how to carefully move them out of his path. He is only 5!
The end of the route we took was where “our” creek flows through two, metal, tunnels beneath a dead-end, gravel road. Some of the kids chose to join me in wading upstream to it in the water, while others chose to walk along on the bank with Mrs. Webb. My intention was to merely show them the mossy boulder and yell into the echoing tunnels, but enough kids begged to wade through the tunnel that I gave in and agreed to this adventure. After all, one of my favorite repeated activities in my own childhood was walking through a similar tunnel with my older sister, yelling and echoing while brushing spiderwebs away from our faces. I warned our intrepid explorers that there would be cobwebs and spiderwebs so we brought short sticks to wave before our faces. A few kids were triumphant as we emerged into the sunlit creek on the upstream side of the road, while others seemed to feel a little less secure and were more than ready to go back. Together we sloshed back through the dark tunnel, each of us with one hand above our heads to follow the metal ribs of the tunnel so we didn’t bump our heads on the low ceiling.
Meanwhile, those explorers who chose to hang back with Mrs. Webb got busy mud painting some trees and roots, apparently to protect and bandage them. When the tunnel group met back up with them, some stayed there and others returned to The Meeting Log with me.
The only explorer tall and strong enough to master the boulder!
Her first try failed and she got a little scrape on her leg, but she didn’t give up!
She made it to the top!
Those who remained with me went back to their teeter-totter experiments. This time, when they announced that they were perfectly balanced, I offered some questions to get them hypothesizing and testing. What happens if the kids on one side scoot further forward? Backward? What if both sides move forward at the same time? Backward? What happens if one person stays toward the back and the others move forward? Now alternate? What about when one side moves forward and the other moves backward? They tried every scenario and invented some of their own. Levers, fulcrums, balance, weight, distribution… it’s SCIENCE, people!
It wasn’t easy to say good-bye to this group. They were a stellar class of kids! There were a few tears- one of our sweet boys was full-on sobbing when his mom picked him up- and we were surrounded by hugs. I assured them all that Woods and Wetlands is always available if their parents can gather a group of at least five explorers and we can choose any natural space available for future adventures!
I must admit, I can no longer keep up with daily writing about all of the wonder and joy we are experiencing during this summer’s Woods and Wetlands camp! I will just have to let photos and captions give you a fraction of what goes on out there. We discover new things every day. Kids create, invent, problem-solve, think, communicate, gain confidence, and ever so much more!
Empathy and Literacy: Learning that trees and humans have far more in common than we might have ever realized. Noticing and caring for tiny creatures reminds us we are not alone on this earth. Seeing, feeling, smelling, listening to, and tasting nature creates lasting thoughts and feelings. We held a toad, crayfish, spiders, grubs, slugs, minnows, mushrooms, and fairy shrimp. Everyone was gentle and kind. They were able to imagine what it might be like to be one of these small lives so different from ours. We read the book, A Snake In the House, and the kids were on the edge of their seats, so to speak, wondering how the little snake would get back home to the pond where it belonged. At the end there was a collective sigh of relief as the boy in the story “shared its joy at being home.” In addition to listening to both fiction and nonfiction read alouds, the kids are exploring the field guides and gaining interest in looking up our various “finds” using iNaturalist. They are writing and/or drawing in their nature journals almost daily, though not everyone was developmentally ready for that and we didn’t push it because we don’t want to create negative associations with writing or journaling.
Math: Estimating how long a stick or string needed for “fishing.” Gauging the distance one can leap or jump from a log into the water or the ground. Today one explorer created a monetary system using beech nuts (1 is worth $5 because, due to the beech scale disease, there aren’t going to be so many of these in the future,) and acorn caps (worth only $1 because they were all over the place.) Two other explorers stood on the steep, high bank over the river and had a “rocks vs sticks vs acorns” contest to see which created the biggest and most circles rippling outward in the water. They energetically proceeded to throw the aforementioned items as hard as they could into the river. (Hello, physical strength and spatial senses!) They noticed the rings started small and grew larger as they expanded.
We cross the log in whatever way feels safest to each individual.
These kids are amazing listeners.
Reading, “A Snake in the House.”
Kids are careful observers.
Snake grass is so cool!
Mushroom gills match one of the nature patterns we learned about.
Dead trees provide food and habitat to other animals.
Teamwork!
Jelly fungus!
Sticks CAN be used safely with practice.
A pretend campfire.
He lost a tooth today!
Looking up into the tree canopy is a different view to consider.
We used the game, “Lock On,” to greet each other at Morning Meeting. The kids loved it so much they played it in small groups in the woods!
I thought this was a keyhole to the fort but was informed that it’s where Jerry lives… Not sure who (or what?) Jerry is.
Teepee for pretend campfire.
This lacy-looking web used to connect bark to the tree trunk and branches.
A few of us wandered upstream to the road and discovered this huge, moss-covered boulder!
She wanted to try to climb up.
Not quite tall enough yet.
We discovered an American toad. She was very frightened of us and tried to rely on her camouflage for protection. When that didn’t work, she peed on me!
Do you see our toad?
Tree canopy
The kids were so gentle with the toad..
We got our hands very dirty to make it safe for the toad to be held in them.
They loved the puppets and books!
Slugs have cool eyes!
We looked at tiny “critters” living in and underneath decomposing logs.
Hands need to be nice and dirty before handling an amphibian!
We found some animal scat!
Weird mushrooms call for weird faces!
The “dead man’s fingers,” were VERY strange fungi!
A buddy approach to log exploration.
As the dead log is decomposed it looks very red.
Some kind of caterpillar was eating this leaf.
Learning about tiny living things reminds us that we are not the only ones who depend on this planet’s health and balance.
We compared trees to humans.
One way of removing water from our boots is the “flamingo move.”
These spiders make amazing webs across the creek!
Examining one of the spiders.
Finding the matching tree to the leaf.
Animal puppet greetings
We have an adorable set of Michigan wildlife finger puppets. The kids LOVED these!
Make a wish! Dandelions are important flowers.
So many different ways that plants spread their seeds!
Our focus began today as seeds. We looked for (and found) different types of seeds. However, it quickly became more about crayfish since that’s what nature gave us today!
Time to check out the “big” river!
These kids have already shown us that they can be safe, so we trusted them to balance on these logs on the edge of the river.
A dead and VERY smelly crayfish we found and examined.
Everyone wanted to see what was down there in the water!
Tiny crayfish!
These crayfish were too small to even pinch us.
Taking turns with the crayfish before putting them in the water again.
We used a bucket of water for viewing some of our finds.
Dip net to scoop up muck and look for movement in it!
One of our “crayfish handlers.” The kids were so gentle with the. small creatures they found.
The explorers who were comfortable handling the larger crayfish showed us how to do it without getting pinched!
The kids found many small crayfish, one big one, and a few minnows. We looked at them in the bucket of water for a while.
Both wanted to be the one to dump the bucket back into the river. This was a compromise they both agreed to.
Perfectly camouflaged “dark fishing spider” beneath loose bark on an oak overlooking the river.
This tasty looking (inedible) mushroom turned out to be called “oak bracket,” or “pseudoinonotus,” or “warted oak polypore,” or “weeping polypore,” or, “weeping conk.” That’s a LOT of names for one cool mushroom!
She found a bone! (A WHAT?)
Sticks became “nature Swiss army knives,” and “machetes.” Imagination knows no bounds!
Using wooden “knives” to cut grass.
Looking underneath loose bark.
He found a cicada’s nymph exoskeleton.
After using a wood version of a Swiss army knife, she used the grass they cut as a colorful hair piece.
Noticing circular ripples from rocks, sticks, and acorns thrown into the water from the steep bank above.
Rocks vs sticks vs acorns
Another cool mushroom!
Staying a stick-distance from the weeping oak conk.
This mushroom has amber colored liquid oozing from it. We have never seen one of these before!
Woods & Wetlands 