We’ve been really blessed by the weather on Thursdays this fall! Yet another beautiful autumn day today. Thank you for letting your child have the opportunity to spend it outside! We had fun with them today.
Our FOREST day started with some running tag games to get everybody moving. The children played Camouflague, learning and practicing different elements of camouflaguing like breaking up form, dead space, and sink and fade. They then played several rounds hiding themselves along the trail and instructors Black Walnut and Raccoon tried to find them. Many were not able to be spotted! The group also prepared a fire for lighting just before lunch, and Scout Sticks was played. Some students are catching on to this awareness game!
In the garden, we had the exciting moment of putting our first seeds in the ground, so to speak! We finished preparing a bed for planting by adding composting, turning it in, raking and then planting one of Mother Nature’s best health-giving plants, garlic! We learned how to plant it, how much space it needs and how we can use parts of our body to help measure (hands, in this case), and got our garlic in the ground.
We also talked about some of the healing properties of garlic, and medicines that can be made with it to help heal colds, flus, earache, and boost immunity. Our gardeners also worked hard to shape some other beds and pathways, remove sod, and add compost, and mulch some pathways. It’s fun to see the power of many hands as this former patch of grassy field is transformed into garden beds.
After sit spots, we spent the afternoon on a woodsy ramble down by the stream, discovering Woolly Bears (our Forest K group), sleepy bumblebees, salamanders, and interesting mushrooms, and ended the day with a rousing game of Hawk and Flock in the woods. The sounds of bird calls, running footsteps, and teammates strategizing filled the air, and a great time was had.
—Plantain, Black Walnut, Painted Trillium, and Raccoon (Emily, Raven, Lauren, and Haydn), October 21, 2021