News

“I’m a butterfly! I’m sucking up nectar!”

Children have a natural empathy for animals. David Sobel labels this inherent desire to hold, take care of, and become animals as the Animal Allies play motif. Animal Allies is one of the seven play motifs, or recurring play patterns, that Sobel has identified from observing children playing freely outdoors around the world. 

“If we aspire to developmentally appropriate science education, then the first task is [for children] to become animals, to understand them from the inside out, before asking children to study them or save them.”

– Childhood and Nature: Design Principles for Educators by David Sobel.

With some cardboard, markers, duct tape, and string, the possibilities of becoming animals is endless!

Here is the perspective of Tracy Ramsey, Four Winds Nature Educator in Strafford County, NH:

What better way to end a school year than to go frogging on a steamy June afternoon? Equipped with nets in one hand and buckets in the other, first graders adventured to the pond ready to explore. In the shade of the trees, the next hour flew by in what felt like minutes, the time packed with children’s giggles and smiles as they attempted to catch the big bullfrogs, but to no avail! The first graders quickly learned that patience and quiet lead to greater success. Triumph came in the form of tadpoles of various sizes. 

A year’s worth of learning was on display with these first graders! Perseverance, observation, team work, sharing, comparing and contrasting. These first graders experienced such excitement for learning in the real world and can’t wait to do it again.  

“Stones are a kinesthetic medium, never fixed in their place or meaning, the ground an endless canvas, and small hands the brushes that move them.”

 – Diana Suskind, Creator of Stonework Play

Stack, sort, skip, 

Draw, dump, dip, 

Fill, float, flip! 

How will you play with rocks?

Here are some books to encourage rock play:

How many camouflaged amphibians can you find in this photo? Why are there so many at this time of year? 

American toadlets are dispersing! After about a three-week life as a tadpole, a young toad’s gills and tail are absorbed and lungs and legs are formed. The little toad’s digestive system also transforms from accommodating a mostly vegetarian to a mostly carnivorous diet. After the metamorphosis is complete, the toads emerge from water, but they stay pretty close by for days to weeks. July is usually the time that the tiny toads are venturing off! 

“When I water, the plants grow. I’m going to water them to the sky,” she said.

“I’ve never seen a plant reach the sky,” I responded.

“Keep watering,” she advised.

In her article, Finding Questions Worth Asking, educator and author Ann Pelo writes:

When we reshape our intention, though, from teaching to thinking, our exchanges with children change. They become authentic conversations, and we ask our questions with the mutual aims of understanding a child’s thinking and of supporting a child’s search to make meaning — a search to know, rather than to learn. 

“Do trees touch the sky?” I asked.

“If the wind blows,” she answered. 

What wonderful, authentic, inspiring conversation have you had with a child recently?!

To read the full Finding Questions Worth Asking article by Pelo, here’s the link: https://ccie-catalog.s3.amazonaws.com/library/5021550.pdf

When Common Loon chicks hatch there is a two-week season where they ride on their parents’ backs. In late June and early July the black fluffy chicks hatch and head to the water within a day, when their down feathers dry. Buoyant and unable to regulate their body temperature, the chicks are vulnerable to predators from above and below like Bald Eagles, Snapping Turtles, and Northern Pike. Young chicks find safety and shelter on their parents’ backs. On windy or cool days they are hidden huddled under their parents’ wings but are often visible on calm and sunny days.

Imagine playing with a garden hose or gallon jugs of water, gutters, spray bottles, buckets, funnels, and a variety of loose parts. With a little creativity and a quick raid of your kitchen, you can create an open-ended outdoor play space anywhere!

Four Winds has a guide to fostering water play with materials to have on hand, the adult role, the benefits of nature-based play, and related books and resources. Check it out here!

What is the story behind the hole in this aspen tree? The freshly excavated hole was about 40’ above ground and emitting squeaky chirps. 

This is the nest hole of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! This male landed near the nest hole with a meal in his beak and entered the hole. After around a second, he popped his head out and then flew off. A few minutes later the sequence repeated again, and again. 

Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers prefer to nest in live aspens with heartwood-softening fungus.  Males and females both excavate around a 10-inch deep cavity. Inside, the female lays 4-6 white eggs on a bed of wood chips. Both parents incubate the eggs and later feed the young with insects, sap, and fruit. 

After around a month, the young leave the nest and their parents teach them their namesake sapsucking habit – drilling neat rows of shallow holes in tree bark. They lap up the sap and trapped insects with their brush-tipped tongue.  The sweet sap attracts other wildlife as well – from yellow-rumped warblers to porcupines, bats to moths, ruby-crowned kinglets to red squirrels. Hummingbirds are especially in sync with the sapsuckers – following them from sap well to sap well and aligning their migration timing and range to match the sapsuckers. High levels of sapsucker activity increase the diversity and abundance of many forest species. Keep watch at sap holes to see who visits!

Where do bunchberry’s bunches of berries come from? Bunches of flowers!

What looks to be a single four-petaled flower is actually many tiny flowers surrounded by four white bracts (modified leaves). When bumblebees and other large pollinators land on the 1-2mm wide flowers, the petals spring open. The stamens (male reproductive flower parts) then catapult pollen more than ten times the height of the flower! This event is too fast to see in real time and is barely discernible at 10,000 frames a second.

Try gently touching your fingers to the closed flower petals to initiate this explosive pollination strategy yourself!

Check out our Nature-Based Play and Learning Literature Review Summary!

Everyone wants to see children becoming joyful, engaged learners who actively seek out knowledge with curiosity and enthusiasm. We also want them to continue growing into well-adjusted individuals who can thrive in school and in the complex, problem-saturated world we all face. They need to be equipped with the social emotional skills to confidently express themselves, focus on learning and critical thinking, get along with classmates from diverse backgrounds, regulate their emotions in age-appropriate ways, and tackle new experiences with flexibility and an open heart and mind. More time learning and playing in nature can help prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and mindset they will need in the future.