what does the fox say...?

"ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding"--and it runs fast! while riding to canaan tuesday, i surprised a fox thinking about crossing route 4. i saw it dash out of the woods the same time it saw me and instead of crossing in front of me, it turned and ran parallel, leaping and bounding through the tall grass, its white tipped tail flagging behind. it was going about the same speed i was and it kept with me for about ten or twenty yards, finally ducking back into the woods and disappearing. i was making up words to 'that' pop song the rest of the way to school.

for three days last week i took the third graders on mini-field trips across the stream bordering the northwest side of the ballfields. while we observed plenty of plants and fungi, stopping frequently for question and discussion sessions,  it was pretty clear that being still was hard to maintain. i had introduced them to the 'edge' effect when we measured dandelion roots and tops and now we were back in that zone between 'field' and 'woods'. there is always a lot to talk about in these dense growth areas. at a fallen birch tree, where as soon as we stopped students started peeling the bark, i gave them the LNT, leave no trace, talk and pointed out three different plants growing on the trunk's bark. focusing an entire class--15-17 eight year olds-- is not easy even in the classroom, out in a woody area, it is all but impossible.

that being said, on monday we listened to a half-dozen different bird species singing or pecking away just out of sight. a good many of the students were even able to see a common yellowthroat  skulking about in the brush and witchety-witchety-witchety-ing away. once one student saw the 'little bandit', they actually got really still and hoped they would too. the same thing happened on tuesday, only with a "huge beaver", which turned out to be a woodchuck.

it was like a huge game of red light-green light with every student standing stock still as the woodchuck speed-waddled towards us then stopped to eat some grass. as soon as it stopped and was eating, the whole class would take three giant steps and refreeze, whereupon it would move towards us. the third time we shared this little exchange, 'chucky' was within twenty feet and the kids looked at me wide-eyed...a few giggling or drawing in huge breaths of disbelief. that got the groundhog's attention and it stood, gave us a good look and dove off into the bushes, disappearing much like the fox had done with me that morning.

wednesday's group was not impressed with any of their classmate's stories and as one youngster put it to his teacher when we got back in, "all we saw was a squirrel!" maybe it was the day or maybe the class makeup, i can't really say, but the last day didn't turn out to be the best. not only was it the last trip out that week, it was the last time i would be with the grade school for this year. it would have been more fun if they had gotten something more 'special' than what they did. but, the kids seemed to have picked up a lot the semester i was on for STEM and always perked up when i came into the classroom. any outdoor activity really excited them. they also loved the computer programing we did, along with their work in google docs. we had a blast building the 1 square meter and trying to fit everybody in. there never seemed to be a dull moment. from my experience as a teacher, new and different was always healthy, and i guess i was definitely that.

carrying on the animal sitings into the weekend, pam and i were on the look out for red efts , the juvenile, land stage of the eastern newt, as we stepped through the woods, up and over town hill. saturday's rain brought out a bunch of what pam refered to as "FLF's" or frail little friends. at one point, she grabbed my arm for balance and was asking if i was stopped for another one. when i made a little squish sound a very young fawn popped up out of the leaves less than step away from us. it tottered off, so well camouflaged, that it was not too long or far away when it too disappeared. it had been snuggled down into a little bed, not moving at all. had it not sprung up and taken off, i might have walked within inches of it and not seen it.

it is not everyday i almost step on a deer and i do love seeing the animal life in the woods but...last weekend pam an i went over to the AT next to the skiway to see the lady slippers in bloom. about halfway up to the ledges, there are dozens of plants. a heavy 1/2 inch of rain over just 10 minutes on friday scoured the trail, and gave some much needed water to the plants.

it was a really grand show!  plus as i was getting back on the trail, i met diane riley, ben silberfarb's wife. ben is always excited about 'koby sitings' as i tend to hike in bare feet. sure enough i was shoeless, but diane was ben-less so we just talked flowers. she had just been to the eshqua bog over near woodstock vt. and seen the yellow lady slippers. as we ambled up the path we saw several interesting species, including an indian cucumber plant!





such was my week outside. things got a bit exciting inside too. on saturday, lenny came over and had me cut away a bunch of his cast that he got for a spiral fracture of one of his metacarpals. (turns out he may have to have it operated on by diane riley who just happens to be the go-to hand surgeon in the area--when she is not chasing wildflowers...) he was having trouble putting the geotrackers on the canada warblers he and christian were mist-netting. i offered to help and expect to get a call soon on that front. we are also due to take a 6th grade class out to the town forest next thursday. all that, and some trail work with MOC plus out the environmental science class should keep my string of outdoor adventures going. all i have to say to that is "fraka-kaka-kaka-kaka-kow!"

go outside and play...

and while you are there, share some learning! lenny, christian, kevin, mike, and i spent three mornings with canaan elementary school classes out in the canaan town forest on the trails about the nature hut. leading groups of 15-20, kindergartners-forth graders, was a lesson in engaging curiosities and harnessing energies.

before we even got the kids into the woods, i had to grit my way through a barrage of logistics involved with moving school children off campus. getting the word out to teachers--after developing a 'word' to actually get out--arranging bussing, permission slips for parents, bus forms for teachers, special medical issues for students, all individually important in making field trips work, together almost overwhelmed me. i don't do well coordinating what i reflexively put in the 'bureaucracy' bucket. but with clear direction and help from kamala, it was all done without leaving any scars.


while these logistical ducks were being arranged in tidy rows, lenny and i were creating curriculum. given the site's environment, three focus areas stood out and would match perfectly with three classes with each busload: forested wetlands, animals, and plants. our individual expertise also matched, christian and kevin took the wetlands, lenny  got animals, and i plants. we took some umbrella terms and objectives for each and discussed possible schemes to address them across the different age levels. intellectual exchange is almost as much fun for me as being with the kids and doesn't get any better than designing and generating with someone like lenny.

wednesday, thursday, and friday, from 8:30 to just past 12:00, about 250 children came out and took in what we arranged...




lenny and christian had brought a few buckets of pond life, along with a 'small' collection of lenny's animal artifacts and set them up in the hut.







each group spent two half of their animal and wetland sessions in the hut discovering all sorts of things at each table...

the plant group started with a leave no trace lesson, gathered around a lone lady slipper just behind the hut. amazingly the plant lasted all three days with only one 'semi-trampling' under the foot of an eager kinder in the very last group, on the very last day. leave as small a trace as you can...





when groups weren't at the hut, they were slowly filing along the trails, observing: looking, hearing, smelling, and feeling--which often included resisting the urge to pick, maybe even taste. while there were challenges to walking single file along a rather narrow trail, imagine how hard it would be for a youngster not to jump off into the woods to point out or just touch some way cool thing they just spotted.

staying on the trail was fairly imperative when the groups got to the old beaver damn. len and i had come out the weekend before and built a few sections of boardwalk across the wettest of spots. even with the 'bridge' more than a foot wide, we were hoping we didn't lose anybody into the wet and muck. the damn was no longer active as the beavers had built a newer one further north.

in the picture above, one of 4th grade lad gets precariously close to at least one wet foot, and dr reitsma looks like an owl! over the three days one student fell in--but not above their knees--and one child left a sneaker 'suctioned' into the mud. while there were students who would have welcomed a dip into the 'pond', there were a few of the youngest that seemed a bit anxious, even of walking through the dry parts of the forest.

all in all, it was a fine week and feedback from teachers, staff, students, even a grandparent, only made it finer. getting all those classes out into the local woods worked so well we agreed that we will definitely do it again next year.