October!
Hawthorne, Hickory, and Turtles Galore
October flew by, filled with unseasonably warm days and wonderful discoveries.
We spent much our time hiking and learning to identify trees by their bark and falling leaves. A favorite among the students was the sassafras tree. The students loved finding its various leaf shapes—mitten, football, and chicken foot—and enjoyed smelling the scent released when scratching the stems. We even dug up a few roots and learned how they are used as an ingredient to make root beer!
The students also spent a lot of time with hawthorn trees. We spent many days collecting fallen hawthorn berries, which became a huge hit in the Mud Kitchen as the main ingredient for many mud and mulch "apple" pies! We also used the berries for crafts: the wildwood kids learned how to string a large sewing needle to combine hawthorn berries and shagbark hickory nuts onto cotton twine, creating a lovely garland. We practiced counting, and creating patterns!
We had gathered the hickory nuts earlier in October for an observation project, tracking the larvae of the hickory nut weevil. After the weevils completed their life cycle, they left small bore holes in the nuts, making them easy to thread onto our garlands.
We had some exciting wildlife encounters this month as well. A young male box turtle visited us—our second box turtle in recent months! The students gathered to observe how he emerged from his shell and saw his hinged plastron in action. We discussed the box turtle's diet and upcoming hibernation before watching him retreat into the leaf litter. Some students even took charge of sectioning off the area so our guest could rest undisturbed. On another sunny day, a flock of over 100 Common Grackles visited during both our morning and afternoon sessions. The birds stayed in the canopy for about two hours while the students took turns observing them through binoculars.
We cannot wait to see what next month brings and look forward to sharing more of our lessons, observations, and discoveries with you.
Until next time—learn, grow, and be a child in nature!
