Cone Walk

We hustled and bustled after school/work today to beat the sunset in time for a quick walk in the woods. Since it was around 60 today and sunny, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up. We had an ulterior motive as well: this month I'll be teaching a lesson on pine (and other) cones to the young gentleman's class. I asked the children to help me find examples and project fodder (more on this in a couple weeks). I told them usually it's important to leave nature in nature, but in this case it's ok because we're using it to teach about nature, and we'll put it back when we're finished.

Stately white pines

The only conifers in the area were white pines, so we filled our quota on those pretty quickly. I want cones from as many different types of trees as possible. We discussed the fact that cones differ from tree to tree, and white pine cones are not necessarily white (some had whitish dried sap on them) "white pine" is just the name.

The young gentleman asked me about "acorn trees", so I told him the acorns from oak trees are not the same as cones, but they are seeds and cones have seeds so it was a good connection. At the end of the hike I asked him where acorns come from and he told me it was oak, so we've moved up from "acorn tree."

Still, we have a good grip on white pine. Both children 

were counting out the 5 needles per bunch "W-H-I-T-E"

The little lady and I talked about a wind-downed tree she saw. I told her that a tree's root mass is usually the size of the branches, so why might this one have fallen? The branches are large and heavy and the now-exposed root mass is very shallow. It was probably restricted in growth by the bedrock being very close to the ground surface. It was as if the tree was standing on one leg and then the wind came to give it the final push!

The other thing our little lady noticed was some white stains on the trees. She asked if it was a bird's bathroom. I let her know that the tree had been injured somehow, and the sap is a way the tree protects the wound, like a scab. She thought maybe another tree had a lot of scars, but then she discovered it was really a snag. After that, she found another "snag", but it was tricky: it was really a living tree that had already lost its leaves to go dormant for the winter, "like hibernation."

We did beat the sunset...but barely!