April has been the month of spotting pollinators! Friends on the farmstead have been looking actively for bees and butterflies. This month we learned about our native bees and how we can help them find a home along with providing them with some native flowers for nectar. The class was even able to observe a bee pollinating a flower. A friend noticed that it had two little orange balls of pollen on its back! We also learned about monarch butterflies! We looked at their life cycle and what their migration looks like. Other pollinators spotted on the farmstead were ants, flies, wasps, and even hummingbirds! The warm weather has welcomed all sorts of birds onto our campus. In the afternoons we enjoy listening to nature’s “music” full of bird songs, buzzing bees, and blowing trees during our snack.
In our forest classroom, we have been finding lots of millipedes, spiders, and even some lizards have been making appearances. Each week we come back to school friends have noticed lots of change. Green growing everywhere is the most talked-about nature note. New growth around campus has all of us identifying new plants. We have identified violets, dandelions, golden ragwort, dwarf irises, rattlesnake ferns, striped wintergreen, buttercups, dogwood flowers, crimson clover, and lots of mushrooms such as morels, turkey tails, and even a few stinkhorns!
The warmer weather has all of us losing layers and soaking up the sun’s rays. We have been making sure to keep our bodies hydrated! Friends are becoming more aware of hydrating with the warm weather appearing because of sweating and losing water through play. We need to replenish our bodies with lots of water!
As we leave pink moon we are seeing so many new plants growing! As the growing season continues we will get to enjoy even more plants around the farmstead. This next month is going to be full of gardening. Planting useful herbs and tending to them along with taking care of plants that are already growing around the campus. The littlest learners will get to enjoy and watch the process of seeing a plant grow into something they can harvest and use!
I know next month will be even more full of learning and embracing this season of growth!