Spring Hunt continued



Here are a few more photos from our Spring Scavenger hunt, our first finds are *here*.
Our other finds, captured here, are:

*shade of green

*shade of green

*spring mud (with moss)

I had no welcome,
no fancy tea laid on,
so tired inside
that simply raising my arms
seemed too huge a thing.
But Madame Equinox
simply arrived,
put on the kettle,
and blew her breath
through my house,
making herself at home
as if she knew
how much I wished
for an end to cold bitter,
dusting the last leaves
of a forgotten fall
with pollen confetti,
to leave her card,
the sort of RSVP
I can never ignore.

©2007, Lisa Shields
go **here** to read the entire poem

We meant to do our work today...




I posted a Spring Scavenger hunt *here*, about a month ago...and finally got the chance to go out with the kids to work on it today. Here are a few items we found:

*Spring flowers

*a fresh spring scent

*signs of nest building

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.

And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand--
So what could I do but laugh and go?

by Richard Le Gallienne

Our learning day went something like that today...

sometimes you just have to go with the flow...


Spring is here

Has Spring arrived where you are? It is here, complete with some Spring showers today.
Dawn over at By Sun and Candlelight shared this fun activity idea;

Early Spring Scavenger Hunt

  • signs of nest building
  • buds on trees
  • a Spring Flower
  • 3 Shades of green
  • a fresh smell
  • mud
  • a new bird sound
  • an early Spring insect
  • a fiddlehead (young fern)
I am planning on taking my kids on a nature walk this week to do this activity-and to take photos of our finds. If you do a Spring scavenger hunt, let me know in the comments so we can see yours.

March bird watching

American Goldfinch, Carduelis tristis

We celebrate sightings such as these because in our old neighborhood, the only birds we saw were sparrows, mockingbirds and crows. Our new neighborhood is lined with mature trees and we have a much larger variety of birds visiting. We still do not have the excitement of other places, we do not see colorful cardinals, bluebirds and such. We do have some jays that visit, and we do see western bluebirds in nearby towns. Today we had the pleasure of sighting bluebirds in Long Beach.

Bird watching inspired books in our bookbasket; Birds of North America, The missing sunflower,
Crinkleroot's 25 Birds every child should know, and Linnea's Almanac.