A Yellow Wooly Bear

I spotted a Yellow Woolly Bear caterpillar on the Abbot Nature Trail. The caterpillar was eating the Jewelweed leaves. It’s yellow and hairy but when it goes into its hairy cocoon out comes a white bodied moth called an Virginia Tiger moth. They have two broods yearly. Cocoons are formed in spring and summer. I learned so much about just one thing I found on the Nature Trail. This caterpillar was awesome. I hope that I can find it again!

Pokeweed

On the nature trail we found a berry bush named pokeweed. Pokeweed is a flowering bush. The flowers are tiny and white in long clusters. When the flowers die, berries take their place. The berries are black. In the colonial days, they used to put the juice of the berries in cheap wine to make it look better. The colonists also used it as a dye. I tried dyeing some cloth and the color turned out to be the same color as the stem, magenta. The berries and roots are poisonous. The leaves (which are not poisonous) are large and oval shaped, and darkish green.

Welcome to Room 21’s Nature Blogs!

We are about to embark on a new venture in Room 21! Students have been observing and journaling their discoveries along the Abbot Nature Trail. Now they are going to start posting what they have learned in their outdoor classroom. We hope to make some monthly posts about what is changing in nature over the seasons of the school year. Students will be taking photos to add to their posts. Stay tuned to see student blogs about their finds!