Neither Rain, nor Sleet, nor Snow Stops Princeton Elementary School Nature Club

April 8, 2015

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!