Parent's News

Nature in Winter


Thursday, January 12, 2012


For the past month or so, we Winnipeggers have been treated with gorgeous mild weather. The children have enjoyed piling up the little snow we have to create a snowman, watching the water dripping from the climber, and complaining of being "too hot" and taking off their mitts or hats. One day last week the children were moving our tree stumps around the play yard when one of the logs dropped and split in half. It was a teaching moment to observe what the elements can do to cause things to rot, and break.
We were in for a much larger science discovery, however, as one child excitedly shouted "Look! There's a spider in the log!" Sure enough, a very small black spider was slowly and sleepily crawling around the holes in the half of the log. Questions arose as to why he was there? Where did he come from? Where is he going? and Will be bite? It was a perfect oportunity to discuss hibernation, what will happen to the spider, and the cheering when he crawled into a nice warm hole to go back to sleep. No child wanted harm to come to the spider, and they crowded around to enjoy this rare gift from nature.
Now we are back into the deep freeze, but hopefully the children remember our mild weather and our visit from the little spider.