It was Forest Day at Farm Sprouts this week! We prepared for our hike to the forest by personalizing binoculars made out of toilet paper rolls for making discoveries. We took Coltrane, the turtle, out of his watery habitat to consider questions like: Why does he have a shell? What do you notice about his feet? How does he breathe? Why can’t we take George, the fish, out of the tank as well? We’ve also continued to explore the characteristics and properties of natural objects like seeds, such as their size, shape, color, and weight.
Preparing Binoculars
Preparing Binoculars
Exploring Weight and Balance with Natural Objects
Discussing the Anatomy of a Turtle
On our way out to the forest, we passed the calves, sheep, and horses, along with the gardeners working in the CSA garden. They were busy watering and weeding, important jobs for making a garden grow. Before entering the forest, we stopped to talk about how to be respectful during our explorations by staying on the trail and working to do our best to “Leave no trace!”
Horse Ears
Observing Gardeners at Work
The Long Hike to the Forest
Leave No Trace!
We found saplings, a spider web, deer tracks, ferns uncurling their leaves for the summer ahead, tubing for collecting sap, a fallen tree for climbing and balancing along, and much more. We ended up on the bridge crossing the stream to “Lie Down and Look” in order to observe the canopy above. We heard birds and the wind rustling the leaves. We saw signs of woodpeckers looking for tasty insects in the trunks of trees.
Morning Group On the Bridge
Afternoon Group on the Bridge
Among the Saplings
Look Up
Lie Down and Look
Forest Canopy
Sticks, Mud, and Water
Exploring the Stream
The Forest at Tollgate Farm
Meeting a Beech Tree
Spider Web
Log Balancing
Log Balancing
Log Balancing
Log Balancing
We are adventurous!
We ate snack on the bridge as well, savoring the taste of some very juicy raspberries. We talked about how we think trees grow, which included discussion on seeds, sun, and water, with special consideration to how trees are watered. Both groups wondered about the possibility of someone coming out with a bucket to give them a drink. A Sprout mentioned that it takes time, as long as it would take for them to all become “Grandmas and Grandpas.” We shared what we’d like to thank a tree for providing us, with responses such as sticks, shade, and tasty, sweet maple syrup for pancakes.
Our next task was to explore the stream and find a fallen log to roll over for close inspection. We spotted roly poly bugs, centipedes, spiders, and worms, which made for a great journaling session. Logs are homes to many creatures!
Rolling a Log
Nature Journaling on Insects
Documenting a Worm Discovery
As Karle Wilson Baker once stated, “Today I have grown taller, from walking among the trees.”