fungi – Woods & Wetlands

“I want to do EXACTLY what you do when I grow up! I want to teach OUTSIDE!”
-Lakes Elementary Kindergartener

“This is just SO much fun! I wish we could do this all the time!”
-Cannonsburg Elementary 3rd grader

“I know so much more about nature than I ever did before!”
-Roguewood 4th grader

“It’s EARTH DAY today! (Please can it be every day?)”
-Me

In the spring of 2021 I was thrilled to begin offering whole-class Woods and Wetlands programs for schools. It made sense to begin with the district where I taught (indoors, mostly) for 17 years. With each hour-and-a-half program I learn more and the format continues to evolve. It began with Valley View Elementary inviting me to wrap up their One School, One Book program by taking every single one of their (many) classrooms out to the woods behind the school where we explored, learned, played, and made connections to the book, Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins. Back in September and October I met Roguewood’s 4th graders at Camp Rockford and made connections to their science units while adventuring in the woods along the Rogue River and Stegman Creek. My “home base” of Lakes Elementary brought Woods and Wetlands programs to their 2nd graders as we learned about local plants and their seeds.

In March of this year I got to return to Lakes and work with the same 2nd graders I met in the fall. With ice still covering much of the swamp, we learned a little bit about the diversity of wildlife there, how the land has been changed by humans over time, and how to test the ice before stepping on it… (and so much more!)

This week I began a set of programs for Lakes kindergarten as well as Cannonsburg Elementary’s entire school! Each program is a little different and always tailored to the features of the specific space, season, and the age/grade level of the students. Beyond that, there are numerous other differences which I feel uniquely prepared to meet after years of being a classroom teacher myself. I know all too well that the energy and dynamics of each class and their teacher will vary, and I love the chance to connect with all of them in the way that works best for them. There is no exact template for Woods and Wetlands programs, though I spend many hours preparing in the weeks ahead of time. I get to be flexible and fluid each time. I do get incredibly nervous before the first of any set of programs in a new place with new students, but the moment the kids show up I find myself centered and deeply joyful to be doing this work. (It hardly feels like work!)

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week I brought kindergarten classes out to a wetland that at one time was connected to Bostwick Lake. As I pulled my classroom-on-wheels (a.k.a. wagon) out to the exploration space before meeting the kids, I caught in my peripheral vision something large, dark, airborne, and incredibly fast, swooping silently toward me from the ground to my right. Almost as quickly as I sensed it, it was past me, and my eyes and brain caught up with each other to realize it was a great-horned owl with prey of some kind in its talons! I have no idea why she was hunting at 1:30 in the afternoon, but she was breathtakingly beautiful. She landed on a low “island” of decomposing log about 100 feet away and proceeded to blend in almost perfectly despite the fact that I knew exactly where she was. We stared at each other for a while before I slowly began to move; after all, I had a class arriving soon and needed to get ready. But what a wonder it was to have that wild creature so near! I was only sorry that the kids wouldn’t get to see her. I love all of the owl encounters I seem to have these days!

The first group of any series of programs always seems to be the roughest. Both kindergarten programs were great fun and all’s well that ends well, but it is undeniable that I always learn at least a few things the hard way with group number one. In this case, my assessment of the space did not take into account the additional rain we have had recently in conjunction with how recently the ground thawed. In past years this space has never once been “mucky,” or sticky. Never once has a child lost their boot or gotten “stuck in the muck,” as we did so many times when my own classroom of first graders explored the area directly behind the school. In fact, that was precisely why I chose this other space; it was open enough to easily see all of the kids at once AND it didn’t have any deep, foot-immobilizing muck! How wrong I was! Regardless, the kids had a ton of fun and they definitely did some learning! (As did I.) Our second group fared better now that I knew what to prepare for.

I loved seeing and hearing the kids out there, balancing on mossy logs, using sticks to help test and balance, shrieking with laughter, and searching earnestly for the things I had photographed and put on a laminated card for them each to wear on a lanyard. One boy came up and triumphantly informed me that he found the duckweed! A few girls showed me the tiny, spiral-patterned snails they discovered, while other explorers turned over decomposing logs and discovered roly-poly bugs/pillbugs/sowbugs underneath. (Why do they have so many names?) I wanted to be everywhere at once! I am always so curious about what the kids find because I almost always learn something new from them. Some years ago my students discovered fairy shrimp out there. I had never seen nor heard of them before, but they are an important early food source for spring creatures just waking up from their winter hibernation.

Today I was especially nervous to be conducting 2 programs at Cannonsburg. Though I know the principal and some of the teachers, I have little familiarity with the school and only introduced myself to its woods just over a week ago when I went to take photos of interesting features for the kids to find. (There is little point in taking photos until right before the program week since nature changes so drastically here in Michigan from month to month!) The Conversation and Exploration cards I made from those photos turned out beautifully! And just as with every new program, my nerves were instantly calmed by the arrival of excited children. Both programs were with 3rd graders and both classrooms were led by teachers I knew already. Yet the two classes were so very different from each other, as most are. I was so lucky that both were fantastic in their own ways. I loved that the first group already had some experience in this space and so their familiarity with the area allowed them a deeper encounter with it this time, yet their comfort level also meant they didn’t need my guidance as much as most do. I could have probably done less talking, less cautioning. They have a teacher who is comfortable doing quite a bit of what I was brought in to do. The second class had no experience yet in this space, but they were eager to learn and were consistently respectful listeners. Their teacher seemed completely comfortable out there and was just as open to learning and exploring as the kids were! She helpfully managed the few who needed a little extra support and circulated widely, checking in and guiding as needed. It flowed just beautifully! The kids with more nature-adventure experience were still happy to take in new information and add it to their growing repertoire of nature knowledge. It rained during the last half hour or so, but the kids were troopers and many were even more delighted to be out in the rain.

One explorer found a red-backed salamander!

Next week I head back to Lakes for the other two kindergarten classrooms and also to Parkside for one of two first-grade programs! Cannonsburg programs pick up again in May.

Below: The laminated Exploration and Conversation cards I created for Cannonsburg kids featured 6 general categories which were color-coded by their lanyard: Trees and tree seeds, plants, fungi and lichen, signs of animals, logs and soil, and patterns in nature. Each card is double-sided with a photo on each side, accompanied by a few facts and usually a thinking question. These are just a few of the photos I took for the cards.

Camp Rockford 2021, Uncategorized, Woods and Wetlands 2021

Woods and WET WET WET lands!

July 15, 2021July 17, 2021 woodsandwetlands

We never cancel for rain, only for thunder/lightning, so we were out in the rain this morning with almost no let-up. At first it was a novelty for the kids to play in the rain. But after about an hour and a half they were starting to feel they’d had enough. Frankly, so did the teachers! I will admit to being puzzled as to why only a couple of our explorers wore raincoats, given the forecast. It’s not fun to play outside when we are wet and, after a while, cold. At the very end one of the boys who had been pretty miserable for the last 45 minutes suddenly announced, “I forgot! I have a raincoat in my backpack!” !!! Sigh. I wonder how many others had ponchos or raincoats in their backpacks the whole time?

We did manage to have a good time, regardless. We greeted each other just before it down-poured by finding the person with the matching tree leaf and saying good morning to them. I intended to have them trade leaves with someone else and greet each other again as I introduced some different kinds of trees and how we tell them apart by looking at their leaves or bark, but as the clouds above us opened we ran for the protection of the tree canopy instead.

Beneath the protection of a leafy beech tree I gave a mini lesson about trees, comparing them to humans. Trees have crowns and we have heads. Trees have branches and leaves while we have arms and fingers. Both trees and humans have trunks. Trees have roots while we have legs and feet. Trees have bark and we have skin. Trees of a family are stronger and healthier when they live nearby each other. Human friends and families are stronger and healthier when we remain connected than when we are isolated. Human skin bleeds when cut. Trees “bleed” sap when cut. Both blood and sap are released to protect us and trees from germs or diseases getting in. Trees and humans develop scabs to heal over a wound. Trees take in the air we breathe out and we take in the air trees breathe out. Trees (and other plants) store carbon dioxide in their roots, which is another reason their roots need to stay underground! We still have so much to learn about trees and humans, but we know that we need trees!

We explored a couple of new sections of the woods this morning. Everyone got to pick a beech nut or two. We examined their spiny-looking shells and broke open a few to see the two, green seeds inside. Interesting mushrooms were popping up all over the place. The weirdest fungi we saw today were a kind of coral fungi that I think are called, “white worm coral” or (my favorite) fairy fingers! But they could also have been crown tipped coral. My pictures of it are blurred from the rain on my lens.

Yesterday a large, dead, branch fell from a tree not too far from where we were playing, so today I talked a lot about dead branches and dead trees. We practiced looking up before remaining in one place very long, checking to see whether there were any dead limbs above us. I always warn our explorers to never trust a dead branch with your full weight and to stay out of the woods in strong winds.

It was while we were checking out a new area that I noticed the most amazing interaction between 3 of the girls. One girl had walked away from her little group and was sitting on a log looking unhappy. Another girl (their evident leader) went to her and they talked for a few moments. The leader then went back to the group and spoke with one of her friends and they both went over to the girl sitting on the log. Using a kind and gentle voice, their leader encouraged the girls to talk out their conflict, and she gave them wording and support. And then?
“I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I didn’t mean to make you sad. Will you forgive me?”
“Yes, I forgive you.”
And all 3 girls hugged each other.
I was stunned. Their leader glanced at me and I smiled at her and told all three that I was so proud of them for their problem-solving and kindness toward each other.

With the older kids’ camp gone this session we went farther afield, so to speak, and discovered a much shallower and more easily accessed bend of our creek! I was grateful for this new space because it kept the kids interested for just a little bit longer when they were all sick of being wet. We splashed around in it for a little while and then headed back to our Meeting Log. The sky brightened even as the rain continued to fall and we returned to the field a bit early in case any parents guessed that we might need to end camp prematurely.

I invited anyone who felt like it to come with me for a walk down the road to look for black raspberries since we saw so many last week, but unfortunately a truck had come through this morning and mowed them all down. Nevertheless, to my great amusement, half of the group moved on to excitedly jumping up and down in the puddles along the edges of the road. How they could still be delighted by water when we were so deluged already was beyond me, but at that point I was happy for anything that took their minds off of being drenched to the skin. Even our fingers were all pruned up!

Thinking back on our session today I believe this group was uniquely suited to the situation we found ourselves in. They are an upbeat, happy, active, and connected little group of kids and it takes more than a couple hours of rain to dampen their spirits for long!

Just the same, I won’t lie; I do hope we have some dry, sunny, mosquito-less days next week!

Camp Rockford 2021, Uncategorized, Woods and Wetlands 2021

Can we go in the river YET??? (No.)

July 2, 2021 woodsandwetlands

During Morning Meeting everyone was given either an oak or a maple leaf. We traced or did leaf-rubbings in our journals, or at least tried, and I reinforced that it takes multiple practices to get them looking the way we might want them to look. Message: don’t give up if it’s not what you want right away.

One explorer brought his own shovel for the purpose of digging for treasure chests. So far no luck, but the kids who joined him in this new space discovered a cool log with new fungi growing on it, as well as an old, metal canister of some kind that made for a good drum! We tossed around the idea of making instruments from natural objects next week. The metal item doesn’t count, but it had great percussion qualities!

These sisters were very into my tree and mushroom field guides and we wanted to find out what the new little mushrooms on the log were called. We also paged through the tree book and enjoyed learning names of different trees. One that made us laugh was the “Eastern Wahoo!” I continue to point out places where decomposers do the critical work of turning dead organic matter into healthy, new soil for new trees and plants to grow.

The stream is lower and calmer every day, but still too deep for most of our explorers. Mrs. Webb and I began hauling some logs and branches over to where we want to build a little bridge once the water level is back down to pre-rain status. Kids also had fun helping to drag and carry building materials to the bank of the stream. I waded in to see how deep the water was on me and found it to be knee high at the shallowest place. At that point one of the boys must have decided that vicarious river-wading was better than none at all because he asked if I would walk down to the logjam bridge from where I was. I decided I might as well, since I already had half the river in my boots. The kids hurried along the bank to meet me at the bridge, at which point I was submerged almost to my hips.

Some animal keeps pooping on our log jam bridge and I keep cleaning it off in hopes of using the log to cross the stream. Clearly a teachable moment, the kids who were there with me ended up getting a mini-lesson on animal scat. We talked about how different animals eat different things and that plant-eating animals seem to have less stinky scat whereas those that eat meat tend to have smellier scat! I talked about how scientists who study animals learn a lot from looking at their poop. It’s also a way to track where certain animals go. I have a set of scat and paw print identification cards but the images aren’t very clear so I intend to make my own.

Lots going on here! During snack break I read aloud a few pages of a really cool tree book. Some of the kids were interested in my initial prompt about different leaf shapes. Others were still learning from their play with the teeter-totter log. At some point they will have played that experience out and will be ready to move on to something else. I love letting that happen!

A lovely gift from a parent after session 1. This chime is our new method for calling everyone back to the Meeting Log!

Looking at the tree canopy and comparing/contrasting the oaks with the maples. We talked about why some trees grew so straight but had no branches until far up at the top, while others branched out earlier and had a rounder shape, over all.

We are so hopeful that by Monday we will all be able to explore our section of the river, actually more of a creek, but a handful of the kids won’t be there on Monday due to the federal holiday. One of the girls was upset that she would be missing our potential first day in the water, so I jokingly promised her we would have absolutely no fun without her. She giggled and told her cousin to make sure of it since her cousin will be in attendance that day.

Happy Independence Day, everybody!

Woods and Wetlands 2018

Spring Smells, Sights, and Sounds

May 6, 2018May 12, 2018 woodsandwetlands

We searched the cattails for redwing blackbird nests but had no luck. O. made her own nest on a secret island she and D. discovered. D. and I decided on a fort area that had a pretend doorbell and a secret password. The password changes frequently, so it is safe to tell you that the first time it was, “Fiddle head island.” I have already forgotten what it was the second time. We also tried catching water bugs but they were too fast for us.