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.
They rarely seem to mind the cold water! 
An explorer found a hawk feather! 
Interesting mushrooms called, “dead man’s fingers!” Eww! 
Explorers went upstream. 
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
Make a wish! Dandelions are important flowers. 
So many different ways that plants spread their seeds!
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 