Back on the Nature Trail with 2nd Grade Tree Huggers!

I thought I'd share a little bit more about the Nature Trail at Sandhills Farm Life School that I'm always talking about. The second graders who recently explored it with me sent me some thank you notes. I thought I'd use some of their comments as captions, along with my own.



Come on in. And watch out for snakes!

Big Rock.

• "I defly like Big Rock it was cool."


• "I liked when we got to Big Rock. I think he has got real bigger."


• "I think Big Rock is the biggest rock in the world."
• "He was humugies and in humugies I mean very very very BIG!"
  

Jack-in-the-Pulpit.

• "Oh, when will Jack-in-the-Pulpit fully ripen?" (end of summer, see two pictures of seed clusters below)


• "Jack and the Pulpit I did not see becouse Kayjuan was in my way a lot."

Old Man Poplar.

• "He looks like he might fall anytime."


• "When will he get tired of leaning?"
  

Jack, Will, and Tom.

• "I was wanndering if we could go and see Jack, Will, and Tom. Why don't we do it again?"
• "I never thought three trees could be stuck on one tree."
• "When we looked up it looked like the trees went all the way to space and we were the tinyest things on earth."
  

We didn't see a snake that day, but we could have. We did do JUMBO LIMBO by going under a tree like this one. Snakes can go under almost anything, but not leaning backwards! (This shot was taken by Amanda three years ago when she went with me to release this nice black rat snake specimen.)

Ferns. At least 8 varieties grow on our trail. Most, but not all, are pictured below.

• "The ferns were relly prity."

• "I liked Fern Valley and was wondering how long it took to grow?
  

• "Thank you for showing us six kinds of ferns."

Lady ferns in Fern Valley.

Bracken Fern.


Christmas Fern, displaying its abundant spores.

The unfurling ferns are called "fiddletops."

Royal Fern.

Cinnamon Fern, not yet in bloom.

Netted-chain Fern, from a pattern on the frond's underside.

The ferns, mosses, wildflowers, and damp humus could make you think you're padding along a path on the Appalachian Trail.
The Bridge and The Stream.

• "How did you and your class ever build the bridge?"

• "You took us on the brige but I didn't like the brige part."

• "Was the river we saw a creek or a stream?"
  

Kudzu.

• "Kudzu might take over the entire nature trail so we can't go on it any more."
  
• "Kudzu was awesome because if he grew any bigger school would be canceled."
  

My favorite parts were the closings and 'thank yous.'

• "Thanks for the amzing trip throgt the nature trail."
• "I wonder how you lern all of this. You are the best."
• "I never expected the nature trail to be so fun. Thanks again."
• "It was so cind of you to spind your time showing us all the nature trail."
• "You are nice to lots of kids. I think you are a great person in this school."
• "Thank you Mr. Loyd. You're the best sience teacher."
• "If you still worked at SFL I would want you as my third grade teacher."
• "I like it when you come to our school and give the kids new experiences. Thank you for taking me. It was a very inspirational walk."
• "I'm happy you showed me the Nature Trail because now I can show my family and tell them all about it."
• "You rock!"

Now, I'm sure you all see why I loved teaching so much!