September was a fun month as the Explorers returned to school! We had the experience of being part of nature as the Summer ended and watching the Fall season begin. We enjoyed learning about the native plants and animals located in the heart of Western North Carolina. We took expeditions into the forest to learn about how those native plants and animals thrive at the Farmstead.
The month started out severely warm and dry. We experienced many hot days with no rainy days in our forest classroom. We appreciated the sunny days that gave us the opportunity to notice the full greenery of the forest. We noticed how many insects and small critters were active during this time of year. The Explorers were forest-ready as we discussed safety topics such as, poisonous plants, the safety of bears, and treating our forest as a sanctuary. We learned about teamwork, persistence, and having a growth mindset this month. This connected to how we problem-solved with one another, and how we played in the forest together.
In the middle of the month, we started noticing how the weather continued to be persistently warm with many mosquitoes buzzing around and biting us…ouch! We started discussing ideas for the project of the school year. Each week, we tried on a new idea and learned how we could incorporate each topic into our project. We started noticing leaves blowing in the wind as they fell off the trees.
Towards the end of the month, Fall began! We learned how Fall was the harvesting season of gathering food before the cold winter. We learned how important it was to maintain a garden all year round. We collected soil samples of our garden at the Farmstead, to understand how healthy the soil is for future planting. We noticed how the wind started to sing more as it blew the leaves towards the ground. We had the opportunity to seek out cool creatures like a massive tortoise on our adventures this month. The Explorers were starting to notice how the weather continued to be hot during the day, although cooler during the mornings and late evenings. Now that we have experienced the dry and warm weather, we are excited for the cooler weather of Fall to come!