Sara, Trailside Naturalist, visits Beye Discovery!

(My apologies, this post should have appeared earlier!)  We were quite fortunate to once again benefit from Sara's expertise. On Nov. 2nd, Sara presented a lesson about trees and brought numerous samples to share with us. She discussed all the wonderful food items that come from trees such as fruit, chocolate, maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon. Each child had the opportunity to share what they liked best about trees. They also learned how to distinguish between simple and compound leaves. Of course, Sara asked the children questions about why leaves change color in the fall, what contributes to leaf color and what happens to allow the leaf to fall from the tree. She also taught the students to determine the age of a tree by counting its rings. During the presentation, students took lots of notes and drew pictures on the small individual whiteboards. Trees and Sara were a big hit!

By the way, Sara even helped me to identify a favorite tree of mine that grows in front of Beye school: It is the Callery Pear and in fall, its leaves turn a peach to red color, sometimes dropping small branches with tiny ornamental fruit attached (non-edible for humans).

Jessica smelling a cinnamon stick

Identifying leaf samples

Sara sharing the benefits of winged seeds in the reproduction of trees

Emerson drawing a "helicopter", a winged Maple tree seed

Joel drawing a seed pod

Aidan and apple tree

Sample for determining the age of a tree

Compound leaf sample

Emerson with winged Maple leaf seeds (helicopter)

Leila's tree inspired drawing

Jessica's detailed notes!

Aidan's tree drawing

Leila sharing her new knowledge