What a day! I'm sure the kids will sleep well tonight. Turns out the Nature Centre has moved to a bigger building since last year so we had to walk much further into the park to get there.
As always, the Nature Centre guides ran a great program, beginning with an indoor portion during which we got to meet Houdini the turtle, and impress our leaders, Katie and John, with our knowledge of how animals adapt to winter conditions. Then, we made pine cone bird feeders for the chickadees using lard and sunflower seeds.
On our hike, we looked for signs of animals including their food, tracks and even... wait for it... their poop! Yup! I walked up to a group wondering what they were gathered around staring at.... poop! We even had a "Poop Tracker" to help us identify what animal it might have come from. The kids didn't think it was funny or gross - they were very scientific about the whole thing.
Our guides surprised us with hot chocolate at the end of our hike and we headed home again on the streetcar!
Please ask your hiker about their favourite part of today's adventure! Thanks so much to the parents for all their help - we absolutely could not have done it without each of you!!!
I'd also like to introduce Mlle Bradfield, who is our new Teacher Candidate this term. Mlle Bradfield will be with us every Wednesday for now, and then everyday in the month of April. Like Mlle Martinson, she will begin doing some of the teaching shortly and gradually build up to teaching full days in April. She enjoyed our trip today and is very excited to be working with Salle 211!