pond life

I've been running a program for grade five classes this month at the Elizabeth Hall Wetlands. It involves a lot of exploring-time where I talk to the kids about animal signs, pond formation, and the importance of wetlands in the grasslands ecosystem. We spend most of the two-hours I have with the class in small groups looking very, very closely at growing things, dying things, breathing things. We start in the forest recording tracks, food sources, homes, and scat and then I hand out ice cream buckets and little nets and we try pond dipping. We've found all sorts of beautiful little treasures nestled under fallen cottonwoods and hiding in the watery sedge grasses. We've watched horsehair worms and whirligig beetles dance and twist. Last week we woke a porcupine from a summer-slumber in a bright green-leafed tree. We've found bones and mushrooms and broken robins eggs with the yellow yolks spilling out. muddy nests, turtle shells, ducklings, caddisfly nymphs, and waterstriders.

these are some snapshots taken while exploring the forest and the wetlands with ten-year-olds.

"they're glowing!" said Madison, peering at the underside of a bracket fungi
"this slug is so alive!" said Leah, while a tiny black mollusk crawled back into it's hollow-log home