This spring Princeton Elementary School students have been excitedly participating in an after-school Nature Club hosted by the Downeast Lakes Land Trust (DLLT). Each week students learn a little more about the natural world surrounding them while having a lot of fun.
In the first week, students got the chance to show their creative sides by constructing their very own nature journals. They mixed and matched covers, illustrated title pages, and had a great time working together to compile it all into a working notebook. The budding naturalists carry these journals to every club meeting and during their own forays outside to keep notes, draw pictures, or record in any other way what they observe out in nature.
Due to the unpredictable weather during the ongoing struggle between winter and spring, DLLT volunteer Roxzanna Montague, Education Committee member Brook Mercier, and the Nature Club students have had to be as adaptable as the creatures they’re observing. Club participants have snowshoed through hip-deep snow while learning to identify trees in winter and looking for animal signs; they made bird feeders and learned to recognize some of their feathery visitors; and they experienced the pros and cons of animals’ winter survival strategies by playing a game in which they collected resources while avoiding predators and Old Man Winter!
Meetings are ongoing, and there is still more fun to be had. Soon, students will hunt for signs of spring, discover how valuable all their senses are when investigating nature, put their observation skills to the test, and much more!