Animals around Irvine!
All spring, our Forest Dreamers have been exploring Irvine discovering the different animals in the different habitats! This week, we have included a glimpse of what we might see each class. With all the rain, the tracks have been in abundance! This week, we saw squirrel, raccoon, deer, fox (most likely), and even bird!
All of the eggs that we found earlier in the spring have hatched into tadpoles, salamanders, and even snails! The children are able to catch these critters almost every class. They are getting really good at identifying basics macro-invertebrates and toads.
Recently, with all the rain, the children are interested in the worms that are wiggling under the leaf litter on the floor. In fact, we had to incorporate worms into our Good Morning song 🙂 Our coolest find this week was a millipede! When we slow down (hahahahaha) it is amazing what we see!
Edible Plants…YUM!
One of the children’s favorite things to do is discover new foods to forage! This week, I even learned a new flower we can eat..the black locust blossom! Besides being a popular nectar source for the honey bee, this flower is also a new class favorite. In fact, we had to limit the blossoms we ate so that the bees can take advantage of the spring flow.
Down the vernal pond trail, we made several stops to enjoy some greenbriar. One class was so enthusiastic about this tender treat that we had to talk about leaving some for the deer! We explained that we have stores for food yet the animals have to forage for their nutrition. This seemed to appease the class!
At the stream, we found several pockets of wood sorrel. This lemony treat was quickly identified by its heart shape leaves. One of our Forest Dreamer friends wasn’t very interested in trying the locust and greenbriar but he was VERY interested in wood sorrel! He joined the rest of the class for a dessert of sorrel!
