The Nature Preschool at Irvine couldn’t be more excited about the arrival of Spring! We have welcomed the warm showers and soaked up the spring sunshine with open arms! What kind of changes do you notice when we enter this new season? The changes in spring have been a huge part of our lessons the past two weeks. Here at Irvine the changes are easy to see! New life is popping up everyday! The once barren branches are now speckled with green buds. The forest is alive with the sounds of creatures that have become active after a long spring. While walking the trails we noticed our first perennials, bloodroot, blossoming! The vibrant green has returned to the meadow and brought the insects out of hiding!
With this beautiful warm weather, the children could not wait to get into the stream! We had to tread carefully because there were wood frog eggs in the water! The children used fallen logs to build bridges to cross to an area where it was safer to get in the water and explore! There we found crayfish, salamanders, snails, frogs, and tadpoles! Some classes were lucky enough to visit later in the week and see the wood frog eggs hatching!
Check out all the fun we had below!
Cutting Eggs
Some E Soup
Journal Drawings
Observing Spring Peepers
Do you see any peepers?
Tread carefully!
Recording what we observe in nature journals!
Freedom in the meadow!
Building a Nest
Friends With Eggs
Balancing With Eggs
Take good care of them!
Stone Dominoes
Let’s Play!
Stream Water
Exploring the stream together!
Look at this interesting plant!
Fun at the stream!
What did you find?
The Nuthatches at the stream!
Peering at the tadpoles!
They hatched!
Scat with bones!
Tasting Onion Grass
This little froggy spots a flower!
Fly Nuthatches!
Sifting in the stream!
Do you spot something under there?
Deer skeleton!
Walking carefully so we don’t hurt any stream life!
Crossing the bridge we made to protect the frog eggs!
Friends!
King of the meadow!
“Look what I found!”
Tissue Paper on Canvas
Beautiful Rainbow Gardens!
Tracing Snakes!
Working hard in our journals!
Collecting Milkweed!
She made a nature crown!
Spelling Our Names With Milkweed
Geo Board Fun
Listening to, “The Mysterious Tadpole”, a class favorite!
Neat Shapes!
Mixing Mudpaint
Observing some stream findings!
We found a crayfish!
An underwater snake in the stream!
Using a mallet on this dead tree!
Bloodroot!
An artist at the easel!
Mallet Smashing in Nature Journals
Bird Nesters
Mallet Smashing Fun
We found a nest in a bluebird box!
Looking ahead!
He found a tiny flower in the meadow!
Tissue Paper Garden on Canvas
Creating Bean Jars
Nature Journals
Light table play with the Blackbirds!
Frog Egg Sensory Bin!
Smile Blackbirds!
Exploring the stream!
Jumping off logs!
Smile!
Interesting Find!
Stream Walking
Eggs!
How do they taste?
Frog Fun!
Gluing Rainbows!
Rainbow Art
Snakes in the Sensory Bin
The Hungry Caterpillar
GROUP VOLUNTEER INQUIRY
Irvine Nature Center is located in Owings Mills, Maryland. Thank you for your interest in volunteering with us!