Category: Nature Notes

Spring is in full swing and things are finally green! The Sprouts’ imaginations have been in full swing this month too! They have been using creek water and rocks and walnuts to make some delicious soups, as always, they’ve opened up their pretend ice cream shops, the cold weather this winter didn’t slow down their […]

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 […]

Spring is in the air and this month the Sprouts have been excitedly discovering new creatures and plants as the forest begins to come back to life. We have been treated to the songs of birds above and the Sprouts drumming on logs down below. The warmer weather has also led to more time playing […]

The first month of the new year has been a dazzling show of ice and snow. We were treated to two snow storms that left the Farmstead blanket with snow for weeks. This gave the Sprouts a chance to engage with water in a new way. Some of the Sprouts noticed that while some of […]

January has felt like our first cold month of winter. We experienced freezing temperatures and lots of snow! Ice crystals were a very popular discovery this month! Ice crystals are called ice needles and they form from groundwater that seeps out and meets the below-freezing air. We have fun collecting these and seeing how many […]

November has been a month of big temperature swings as we have seen days starting in the thirties and peaking in the upper sixties. We have all been getting a lot of practice removing or adding layers as the temperature changes. This gives us a chance to practice our own flexibility and adaptability as the […]

With September came the fall. We didn’t notice the signs right away, but slowly over the month, the Sprouts started to notice that some of the leaves were starting to turn brown and some were starting to turn yellow. More and more fell to the ground and began collecting on the trails. The Sprouts have […]

Harvest – Producers, Consumers, Decomposers, counting, resilience, famous failures, Penology walk/sit spot Our Littlest Learners year always starts in the month of September, and this year we welcome our largest group; some who have been in our programs before and about half who are new to the Farmstead. The month is spent getting to know […]

July around the Farmstead was filled with lots of warmth, water, and life. The weather has been warm to hot this month and the plants and animals around the Farmstead have been very active. Water has been a big part of the students’ days as we try to stay hydrated and cool. The students have […]

June has been the month of critters around the Farmstead. We have seen so many individual creatures, as well as many different types. We noticed early in the month that the willow tree has a couple of colonies of tent moth caterpillars. They work together to create a tent, trapping some of the leaves of […]