Nettles, Scavenger Hunt
Trees are leafing out, wildflowers and mushrooms are popping up everywhere, the forest is coming alive at Fairywood!
One of the plants we've been working with the kids on identifying is stinging nettle. It's a good plant to know so you don't get stung, and also because it's actually great to eat or brew into a tea, which we did on Thursday. We cut the leaves with scissors, being extra careful not to touch the plant, then we boiled it for 15 minutes to make sure to get rid of the sting. We enjoyed the tea with a little bit of honey during the thunderstorm.
On Tuesday we did a nature scavenger hunt. We set out 5 items from the forest --a purple violet, acorn cap, maple seed, pinecone, and sycamore leaf. Then the kids went out to search for them. Afterwards they enjoyed counting to see what we found the most of.
We also found some surprises along the way.
We've also been into making maps of the land, and having fun with gravity!