Winter is a wonderful time of year to get outside to play and learn. Many teachers in the Upper Valley are doing just that with their students. Younger students play in snow kitchens, use ice slides, measure snow depth, create snow volcanos and observe buds, while older students learn about strategies living things use to survive winter, the laws of thermodynamics, how to track animals, and winter tree identification. In winter, you don't have to worry about yellow jackets, t

Arctic Wednesday 2/6 Pre- Blog I am so excited!! As I am preparing to go up the Mountain, I have a million ideas swarming around in my head. Last week I shared with my 6-8th graders at Plainfield Elementary School about this amazing opportunity. Several of my students asked why I would want to go up to the top of Mount Washington in the winter and I said, “This is going to be an amazing experience and I’ll be able to bring so much information back to you.” I brought up th

The first time I witnessed the woodcock mating ritual was in Knoxville, Tennessee in early March in the backwoods of Ijams Nature Center. The senior naturalist, Stephen Lyn Bales, led a small group of us along an old farming road just before dusk. The spring peepers were calling in full force and the barred owls were waking up for the evening. We bushwhacked to a small clearing in the middle of a young forest with brush on all sides. Lyn directed us to the edge of the cleari