Nature Walk - Written by Guest Bloggers

Last week, on Thursday, the children had their final special walk of the year with naturalist Faye Stoner. As usual, Faye was good enough to check in with me to find out what we were learning about. She is a master at incorporating our thematic studies in with her talks. I advised that we were in the midst of learning about seeds, plants and bees. Thursday was also "Love a Tree" Day, so I figured some tree hugging was in order.

Sadly, I was not on school on Thursday. I left lesson plans in the very capable hands of our guest teacher, Nancy. I also asked Nancy if she would take a few pictures on the walk, and she obliged.

Today I told the kids that I really wanted to post some of the pictures on the blog, but - since I wasn't there - didn't know what to write. Several of them pitched in to help. Without further ado, here is what happened on the nature walk, written by guest bloggers Juliana, Leo, Olivia, Kai, Mark, Antony, Eli, Ella, and Ava. (It is written in no particular order - I mashed up everyone's contributions and tried to make it smooth and readable.)

Faye knows a lot about nature. Faye loves orange blossoms and I love apple blossoms I think apple blossoms are pretty.

We learned that there are lots of kinds of bees:

Sweat bees - they're attracted to sweat. Sweat bees really like summer. We found out that they're attracted to sweat and that they are shiny green. If you bend your arm they sting you. If you scratch your head the sweat bee will sting you! Sweat bees are very sneaky because they're attracted to sweat. Sweat bees are cool but they can hurt sometimes. Let me tell you the story:  Do not get sweaty because you will be sorry for yourself.

Honey bees - they like apple blossom trees. They sting you if you get too close. We learned that (the) honey bees' job was they make 60 pounds (of honey) in a year.

Carpenter bees - they're harmless. and cute. 

Bees are beautiful. They pollinate blossoms/flowers. They make food for us people. They are helpful.

We (also) looked at different seeds. We learned about seeds. Some of us tasted seeds - it was very fun.

We thanked the trees.

We learned about invasive plants. People accidentally brought them here. We even pulled garlic mustard.

Faye is very nice.

As you can see, the children learn A LOT from Faye, and from being out in nature. Our years-long relationship with Faye is very dear to us. She enriches our curriculum in the most amazing and - dare I say it - natural way.

So, until next year, thank you, dear Faye.