The new school year has started, and all of our Sprouts, new and old, are quickly getting back into the swing of things. We have some very observant, curious, and creative Sprouts this year! Several Sprouts have been noticing the change in weather and have noticed some leaves are beginning to change color, and more leaves are falling off the trees. They are excited when a big gust of wind comes through and blows down a bunch of leaves. They run as fast as they can and jump as high as they can, trying to catch them. Most have been able to catch at least one.
Some critters and bugs have been mentioned during Nature Notes as well. Some Sprouts could see a butterfly struggling to fly, and predictions were made that with the colder weather coming, butterfly season is ending. The Afternoon Sprouts were lucky enough to see a groundhog run up a tree and were able to watch it. They guessed it ran up the tree because it was scared of humans and Nugget, the dog.
Some ways they’ve been playing in nature is they have organized their own games of I Spy, and they’ve created a Frozen (Elsa) game. Making mud pies and opening ice cream shops has been a popular activity too. It has been so much fun watching the newer kids figure out how to balance, climb on the trees and logs, and watch all the Sprouts enjoy the new slackline. There was a period of time at the beginning of September when they loved trying to do handstands, forward rolls, and rolling down the hill in the field.
The black walnuts have provided hours of entertainment for the kids. They’ve turned them into everything from pumpkins that they “carve” with sticks, to stink balls that help keep bugs away. They spent most of one day working together to build a bird nest out of leaves and sticks and found black walnuts to put in the nest as eggs. The next couple of days, they would go check on the eggs to see if they had hatched.
I can’t wait to see what Nature Notes they come up with next month and how they continue exploring Farmstead!