ABSTRACT
On warm, sunny fall days you might imagine taking a break now and again from classroom routines to take your students outdoors to explore. But why, you might ask yourself, would I want to continue during the cold, gray months of winter? In fact, our winter stream visits are among my most memorable in all the years of doing nature study. Most of the winter temperatures have actually been quite manageable, and on the occasional frigid day, we simply cut our visit short. And there is something magical about encountering snow in the natural world. My students come alive in the quiet winter wonderland, making snow angels along the banks of a stream transformed into a frozen sheet of ice, examining animal tracks, and digging through the snow to unearth surprising discoveries (see Figure 4.1).
November 21, Ithaca, NY
I eat breakfast watching a blue jay on my bird feeder. For the first time I notice that blue jays cache their seeds. As the blue jay’s head goes down, the beak opens up but there’s no pecking at the seed to crack it open. The blue jay’s head goes up and down, taking a seed each time its beak hits the feeder platform. I count ten to twelve seeds hoarded before the blue jay flies off, only to return for a repeat performance. How did I not notice this before?
