The weather is changing and things outdoors look different. Autumn is upon us and we have been learning about what happens during this time. We read a book and learned that the weather gets cooler, the leaves change colors and that animals are very busy preparing for winter. We wondered what signs of autumn we could find. Before we went on a nature walk we looked out the window to see if we could find any signs of autumn in our playground.
Children: “I see leaves on the grass.” “It’s windy, I see trees moving.” “Look! I see squirrel.”
Morah: “Wow, where do you think that squirrel is going?”
Children: “To her home up, up in a tree.” “To find food.” “Her likes acorns.”
With our explorer bags at hand we ventured out into the forest behind our school to look for signs of autumn. This was our first autumn nature walk (early October) but it wasn’t long before we found some signs of aututumn.
Children: “I see leaves on the ground.” “There’s so many.” “I see a red leaf and yellow leaf.”
The leaves are falling down.
The leaves are falling down.
Red, yellow, orange and brown.
The leaves are falling down.
While exploring the great outdoors we used our senses which lead us toward many different discoveries.
Children: “I find a big tree.” “This is scratchy tree.” “Tree is hard.” “Makes my hand itchy.”
Morah: “This rough and scratchy part of the tree is called bark.
We found some interesting things on the ground under the tree.
Children: “I find acorn.”
Morah: “Wow, how did this acorn get here?
Children: “It falled from the tree.” “Someone bite it.”
Morah: “Someone bit it? Who do you think did that?”
Children: “Deer.” “Squirrel.” “Bear.” “Chipmunk.” “Bird.”
Morah: “You’re right it was probably an animal, animals like to eat acorns.”
We found more interesting things on the ground.
Children: “I find a berry, look Morah, it’s a berry.” “Looks like tiny apple.” “It’s for eating?”
Morah: “I’m not sure that we can eat it but who do you think can definitely eat it?
Children: “Aminals!!!”
Morah: “That’s right, I bet animals love eating these berries. I wonder where this berry came from. Let’s look all around and see if we can find out where they grow.”
Children: “I find it, I find it, it’s up in the tree, look I see a lot berries, so many for all the aminals.”
Morah: “Wow, you are all such great explorers, you found the berry tree. Now we know where these grow.”
Children: “I want to put one in my explorer bag.” “Me too, I can’t find it, can you get it from the tree.”
Morah: “I really don’t want to take one from the tree because that might hurt the tree. Let’s just look for some more on the ground.”
Child: “Wow, morah, look at this tree, what is it?”
Morah: “This is an evergreen tree. Do you see any leaves on this tree?”
Child: “No, I don’t see leaves in this tree, why? Look everybody there’s no leaves on this tree, what are these things on it?”
Children: “Theres pointy things on it.” “It poke me.” “It’s sharp, ouchy.”
Morah: “These sharp, pointy things are called needles and they grow on evergreen trees.”
Children: “Like needles in the doctor?” “I get a shot with a needle, it hurt a lot.”
Morah: “These needles are called the same like the needles at the doctor but doctors don’t use these to give shots. These needles just grow on evergreen trees and doctors use different needles.”
Child: “Ah! I find something, I touch it, it’s not leaf, what is it morah?”
Morah: “Wow, you found a mushroom.”
Children: “What’s mushroom?” “I don’t like mushrooms.” “I do, I like to eat mushrooms.” “Only my mommy like mushrooms.”
Morah: “Mushrooms grow in the ground like plants do and we can eat some mushrooms but not this one.”
Children: “Why?” “Why we can’t eat this one?” “Can animals eat this mushroom.”
Morah: “Yes, animals can eat this mushroom. Which animals do you think would like to eat this mushroom?”
Children: “I find fuzzy grass.” “It’s so soft.” “It tickling my hand.”
Morah: “This is moss, you’re right it is very soft and fuzzy.”
We found lots of leaves on our nature walk and many were already changing color.
Child: “I find a leaf, I see brown and green on my leaf, why it’s brown on it.”
Morah: “The leaves are changing color because it’s autumn time, soon all the leaves will change color and then they will fall down.”
Before we went on our second nature walk which was at the end of October we looked at the pictures from our first nature walk to remind ourselves of the experience and what we found. This is a picture of how the forest looked on our second nature walk.
Morah: “Before we go into the forest let’s just look at it first. Do you see anything different? Look up at the trees and the leaves, look on the ground. What do you see?
Children: “So many leaves on the ground.” “I see orange and yellow.”
Morah: “That’s right almost all the leaves have changed color and so many already fell on the ground.”
After reviewing safety rules and the importance of staying on the path we began our second forest exploration.
Children: “Where is the path, I don’t see the path?”
Morah: “Oh my gosh, you’re right, where IS the path. It was here last time. What do you think happened to it?”
Children: “Somebody taked it.” “It hiding, maybe it playing hide and seek.”
Morah: “LOL, you think it’s hiding, where could the path be hiding?”
Children: “In the forest.” “Behind the tree.” “Under the leaves.”
Morah: “Maybe it is hiding, where should we look for it?”
Children: “I find it, it’s under the leaves.” “The leaves cover up the path, that silly.”
Morah: “Wow, look at that beautiful tree, all the leaves are orange and look at all the leaves on the ground around the tree.”
I’m a tree so tall, tall, tall.
Now my leaves must fall, fall, fall.
Leaves go tumbling down, down, down.
Orange, yellow, red and brown.
Morah: “Let’s collect some leaves to put into our explorer bags.”
Child: “I don’t want leaves, they dirty on the ground.”
Morah: “You don’t want the leaves from the ground because they’re dirty? Hmm, what can we do? How else can we get the leaves into your explorer bag?”
Child: “I want leaves to fall in my bag, I open my bag and wait.”
Morah: “That sounds like a good idea, let’s try that and see if it works.”
Children: “Gabriel find a branch, look it’s so big.” “I see orange leaves on the branch.” “How the branch got here?” “Put it up high Gabriel.” “It so big.” “It fall down from a tree.” “Why it fall down?”
Morah: “Sometimes branches fall because of the wind. When the wind is very strong outside it can break the branches and they fall down.”
The children had a lot of fun crunching and kicking the leaves on the ground.
Morah: “Are you having fun kicking the leaves? What sound do you hear when you kick the leaves.”
Children: “Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh.” “Crunching.”
During our nature walk we tried to keep our eyes open and look for some animals. We didn’t find any, probably because we were having so much fun and making lots of noise. We did however find one spider among all those leaves.
Child: “Morah, I find a spider, look, quick, he’s going to hide, I don’ see him, he hiding under the leaves.”
At the end of the path we found the river. It was nice to see the water in the river passing by.
Children: “I see leaves in the river.” “Why the leaves are in the river?” “They falled down in the river?”
Morah: “Yes, the leaves fall down and some fall into the river. Do leaves float or sink in the river?
Children: “Float!” “They float, like a boat.”
We had such an amazing experience during both our nature walks and we learned so much about the forest, trees and leaves. We love exploring nature and before we headed back to our classroom to examine the contents of our explorer bags we found a nice spot to sit and rest. Fallen trees are great for resting on.
