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.

Welcome Rachel!

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

This month, try making a woodland garden (or terrarium)! Setting up a woodland garden in your home is a great way to get to know some of the native plants in your community up close and personal and it can serve as a temporary home for any moisture-loving animals you’d like to observe for a while.

An old aquarium would make a good container for your garden, or even a very large, wide-mouthed glass jar. Place a layer of gravel, and then a layer of charcoal on the bottom for drainage. Either transplant soil along with the plants you dig up, or you can use a layer of potting mix. Put in some large rocks, and some small logs, trying to make the garden look as natural as possible. To keep the moisture level high, you can cover the aquarium with a sheet of glass or plastic, but make sure to have an alternative cover with holes to use when there are animals in residence. Don’t forget to look up what plants you’ve included and find out their water requirements!

As we are starting to get into the warmer months of the year, thoughts begin to turn to outside activities – beachcombing, hiking, biking, etc. Inevitably, especially with small children, these excursions more than likely will include some kind of picnic or at least a snack! This is a great age to start teaching “leave no trace” principles – leaving an outside area, whether it be a park, the woods, or a beach, exactly how you found it. While this may seem obvious (who is going to litter in front of their impressionable kids?) this also applies to things like orange peels and apple rinds too. Make sure to teach your children why it is important to pick up after themselves (keeping a place beautiful for the next visitor, protecting wildlife, keeping waste out of waterways, etc.) and perhaps even set a good example by picking up trash when you see it.

One recent outdoor activity I recently did with my kids which they had a lot of fun with, and wanted to do again and again, was to build “fairy houses” to attract woodland or garden fairies. This doesn’t need to be very complicated.  In the woods we just found a spot in the middle of a ring of trees that looked like a perfect place for a fairy house. We propped up sticks and bark against a corner and then covered it with moss and lichen and decorated with little pinecones and acorns. They had so much fun with this they wanted to build one in our garden the next day.

Making a woodland fairy house!

Our first class of the season will start on March 3, and is called “The Senses”. In this session we will explore our senses as we learn each week how we can use all of our five senses in the outdoors to learn about nature. Children will discover how we can learn much more about our environment besides just looking at it, in this hands-on session that will especially focus on hearing, smelling, and feeling the world around us.

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere

This is also such a great project to involve even young children in – and what better way of encouraging healthy eating habits? Children are much more likely to eat fruits and vegetables that they’ve helped plant, maintain, and harvest themselves. You can get children involved in the process early on, by getting their input on what types of fruits and vegetables they would like to grow, and letting them help in choosing a proper site in the garden (which can lead to a discussion on sunlight, soil, shade, etc.) There are several books at the library dedicated to specifically gardening with children.

While I encourage getting your children outdoors, even in winter and even in the rain for some puddle jumping, earthworm exploring, fallen-leaf hunting, etc. I have to admit there are days “when the weather outside is frightful, and inside is so delightful” (to quote the line from the “Let it Snow” song), and hanging out in a nice heated house seems a lot more enjoyable than getting everyone bundled up to go outside. On those days, you could try to get some nature indoors and perhaps work on some of those crafts you never seemed to find time to do at other times of the year. Especially at this time of year during the holiday season when many of us are bringing nature into the home anyway to celebrate the season (i.e., Christmas trees, evergreen boughs and wreaths, poinsettias, and pinecones, just to name a few), it is a lot of fun for little ones to participate in this decorating by making their own crafts. Some ideas include:

• Decorate pinecones with glitter glue or glitter added to paint, and tie a ribbon on them to hang from a Christmas tree or elsewhere around the house.

• Make miniature wreaths from tiny hemlock cones glued to cardboard shapes.

• Tie together bundles of cinnamon sticks and sprigs of dried herbs with velvet ribbon.

• Make orange or lime pomanders.

• Make “snow”-covered pinecone ornaments. Wind some wire around the cones and dip them into wallpaper paste (parents need to supervise this step). When the paste feels tacky, dip the cones into white laundry powder. Shake off the excess. Let dry before you decorate them with some ribbon.

• Make nature-inspired candle holders. Glue a candle onto a flat piece of wood and glue on small pinecones, small pieces of evergreen, and red berries around the candle. This can be made even more child-friendly by adding a “fake” (battery-operated) candle that can be found at craft stores.

I’d love to hear your ideas as well! If you have any good ones to share, please email me at stephanie@naturetots.org. In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday season and a happy New Year!

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere

Speaking of stocking stuffers, I am also trying to be more eco-friendly in my stocking stuffing this year by choosing gifts and trinkets that I know will be used and cherished. It’s tempting to just load up on dollar store finds that look cute for five minutes but will inevitably end up in landfill shortly after Christmas. Therefore, I am veering towards stocking stuffers such as art and craft supplies, little books, and stickers that I know will be used, not break easily, and bring enjoyment for some time to come.

Making autumn leaf prints!

While the weather is turning colder and rain is imminent, it is nevertheless still a good time to get outdoors with your children. The fall colors can be spectacular and my children have had some of the most fun splashing through puddles, finding earthworms after a rain, and watching flocks of Canada Geese migrate south this time of year. There are so many fun activities you can do with colorful autumn leaves (see the nature activity on the next page for one idea).

Another special event taking place right now in nature is the return of thousands of Monarch butterflies to the Monterey Bay area where they will spend the winter. It is a bit far but if you’re in the area, it is well worth checking out one of the Monarch’s resting spots, like the Monarch Grove at Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. We just visited at the end of October and it was spectacular to see hundreds of Monarch butterflies fluttering about and hanging from the trees. Public tours are offered on weekends in November at 11:00am and 2:00pm and no reservations are necessary.

Trying to spot Monarch Butterflies

Thanks, and hope to see you outdoors!

Stephanie Derammelaere