After a long delay, I’ve finally posted a new video to JUMP!’s YouTube channel! It’s been a long year for everyone, especially kids who weren’t able to go to school or see their friends and family very much.
It’s helped to walk outside and see all the animals, especially rabbits! This spring and summer, I’ve been outside collecting videos of baby bunnies and bigger rabbits; we’ve had tons of them hopping and running around!
What animals live outside near you?
Please enjoy “Bunny Madness in North Carolina” 🙂
My kids and I went on a short hike a couple of weeks ago at the Shallow Ford Natural Area in Elon, NC. At the start of the trail, we picked up a cute leaflet with a dog on the front — it turned out to be a scavenger hunt. We looked for tree bark, a bird, a flower, a sparkly rock, and lots more.
Along the way, we also saw a crazy-looking fuzzy mushroom and a spiky caterpillar!
Later, as we read through the leaflet, we realized that we could win prizes for doing hikes through the Kids in Parks program! I went online and signed us up; then we put in information about the hike we’d just finished. About two weeks later, we got these in the mail:
We got two certificates for joining the TRACK Trail program, two Nature Journals, and stickers!
The journal is a great way to keep track of where you’ve hiked and what you saw that day. Every time you track an adventure on the TRACK Trail website, you receive a sticker to put in your nature journal! Plus, the more trails you do, the more prizes you can win!
Here’s a video so you and your grownups can learn more:
Hello, Everyone! If you have read JUMP! magazine before, you know how colorful and fun it is. That’s why I’m a little sad to say that I won’t be making the magazine any more.
While I love working on it, life has a way of changing your plans. You know what I mean — like how the Coronavirus has turned school upside-down!
But, don’t worry. I’m still going to have this blog, where you can find old issues of the magazine to print out or read online. And I’m still going to work on the JUMP! YouTube channel. So, please keep on reading, and always feel free to say hello or share a photo down below in the comments section!
Have you been able to get outside lately? Here in North Carolina, it’s crazy hot (more than 90 degrees Fahrenheit right now!). But it’s still good to walk outside in the mornings or evenings, especially after a rainstorm.
A few days ago, I was out walking and I spotted a rabbit (an Eastern Cottontail) AND a turtle (possibly an Eastern Box Turtle)! The rabbit was chewing wet grass, and the turtle was just hanging out. It let me get close:
Eastern box turtles can live about 25 to 30 years in the wild and eat berries, fruit, seeds, roots, plants, and almost any small animal they can catch including snails, slugs, frogs, and birds.
So, when you are outside, keep your eyes open. You never know what you might spot!
A few weeks ago, I noticed some tiny black-and-yellow caterpillars on my milkweed plants. Within days, they had grown into big, chubby caterpillars, longer than my finger!
Not long after that, they disappeared! I looked around, and I finally saw that two of the caterpillars had each turned themselves into a green chrysalis on the side of my house.
After about two weeks, the chrysalis got darker and kind of see-through:
And today, I noticed that this chrysalis was empty! Sitting right beside its empty “tent” was a beautiful Monarch butterfly!
So, next spring, ask your grownups to find some milkweed plants, and then you might have baby Monarch butterflies, too! They love to feed on milkweed, and honey bees love its pretty pink flowers!
