We just finished our “What Animal Did That?” Nature Tots session and had a lot of fun exploring different evidence of animal activity, from insects, to birds, to reptiles and amphibians, and finally to mammals.

This is a great time of year to find some tadpoles in some of our neighborhood creeks or ponds and start to watch their transformation into frogs. It is great for preschoolers to witness this miracle metamorphosis themselves. Just remember if you purchase tadpoles through a mail order company, to not release them into our community waterways. They may not be native to our local habitats.

Our next session, called “creepy crawlies” will start on June 17^th and will explore the fascinating world of insects and spiders that make their home in our own backyard. Topics have included the butterfly life cycle, differences between insects and spiders, and how an ant colony works. This class will be taught by Rachel Freed.

Rachel grew up in Sonoma County, graduated with a degree in Biology from UC Davis and then did some electron microscopy research on hamster brains at UC San Diego before getting a Master’s Degree in Neuroscience from Northwestern University in Chicago. She then transferred to Stanford where she did more graduate research in Neuroscience. After teaching 7th and 8th grade science for a short while, she taught high school chemistry and astronomy for 6 years in the San Jose area and also volunteered at NASA teaching people about Mars and space exploration. She has been a full-time Mom of two for the past 4 years, is tutoring chemistry and is substitute teaching, and is also a volunteer docent at the Robert Ferguson Observatory. Rachel has attended several Nature Tots classes with her own two children and is looking forward to teaching the creepy crawlies class!

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere