Our First Signs of Spring

On our walk today, we looked and listened for the first signs of spring. We listened to the birds that seemed to be everywhere. We saw a black squirrel in the forest.

We watched the stroller wheels leave water tracks on the sidewalks behind us from the melting snow. The children asked me how the wheels do that. It gave us the opportunity to talk about transfer, which they liked so much that "transfer" became our word of the day. We stepped in snow with our boots, then walked on the dry sidewalks and watch the boot prints that were transferred from the snow to our boots, then to the ground and then melted into water. This meant several minutes experimenting with snow and water prints.

We listened some more, and herd the sound of trickling water. We noticed that it was coming from the roofs, and then from the street. The children liked playing find the sound. There were some good rooftops that were demonstrating a quick melt. I took the children to the snow bank in front of our house, and we did our own experiment with snow. We left out three
different sized snowballs on the sidewalk
We then guessed, after finding out that spring makes snow softer as it melts, wether these snow balls would still be there after nap time. Some of us guessed that they would be all melted, while others guessed that they might be smaller and mushier.

Something special we discovered on our way home was the tree trunk that had some of its bark missing. This teachable moment had us talking about the woodland creatures in our area, and how they survive through the winter. We looked around and noticed that there weren't any yummy green leaves or foliage to eat in winter time, and guessed that bark was probably not the yummiest thing to eat. But it would still give the animals the energy they needed until spring grows new plants and berries.