It is a new school year and that means a new class and classroom and a new teacher. My new teacher is called Miss Theresa Green. The students think her name sounds like “trees are green” and so often call her Miss Trees Are Green. The teacher is young, fun, loves art, music, and nature. All the children like her big bright smile. Miss Green likes to give us challenges and wants us to become citizens of the world. This week, she organized for us to have a day excursion to the forest. She said we would do something called a “Gratitude Walk,” we would have the opportunity to observe nature and learn to be thankful for the environment we have. Miss Green said we would do an "Alphabet Nature Walk" as this would make us aware of our surroundings and help us reflect.

At the start of the week, we all arrived at school early in the morning. All the children and Miss Green took the school bus to the forest. Mr Fitzgibbons drove the bus and dropped us off at the forest shelter cabin. We all went inside and Miss Green asked us to sit on the floor of the cabin. Miss Green took off her backpack and then gave each of us a booklet. We wrote our name on the front and then Miss Green explained about our schedule for the day. She suggested that we had morning tea before leaving for a long walk. Everyone munched on fruit, nuts, and salad sticks. We found ourselves a small group to work with and we all felt excited about the day.

We left the forest shelter cabin and commenced walking along the forest trail. The air was fresh and crisp, and there was a slight breeze in the air. Miss Green referred to the light breeze as zephyr. As we came across various aspects of nature, we added the information to our booklet. Miss Green also asked us to collect twelve items each as we went along from the forest floor. We were not allowed to pull anything off plants or trees as we needed to protect nature and not destroy it.

We continued our walk to a stream that led to a waterfall. The gushing noise of the water falling down the side of rocks made it exceedingly difficult to talk. We followed Miss Green and her hand directions to a pond. The pond at the base of the waterfall contained koi and tadpoles. Plants floating in the pond acted as shelter and food for the water life. Long brown reeds acted as a natural barrier along one side of the pond and vibrant green moss-covered large rocks on the other side.

We walked along a large patch of mud and pebbles that created a pathway. It was a little tricky and we tried not to fall in the mud. Larger rocks not covered by water acted as stepping stones. We all carefully crossed over the water. The water bubbled and gurgled. Miss Green pointed out quartz rocks that surrounded the stepping stones and mentioned they were made from cooling magma. She told us that we would be learning more about rocks in science.

We then returned to the trail to make our way back to the forest shelter cabin. On our way we went through patches of wildflowers, dandelions, and ferns. Yellow aphids swarmed around one flowering plant. It did not smell too good. The sunlight sneaked through the large trees and left patterns on the ground. Miss Green showed us the xylem on a fern and how the tube allowed water to move from one part of the plant to another. She told us how she had ordered microscopes for us to use at school and that we would look closely at the parts of a plant and how they worked. We all looked at one another and thought how lucky we were to have Miss Green as our teacher. She certainly knows so much about nature and makes it remarkably interesting to learn.