Author Archives: Tresca Weinstein

The day was warm and our hearts were warmed by this Fall day. Today was our Stone Soup celebration and what a monumental day it was! There was such a sense of joy and community bringing both our kindergarten groups together.

We started our day in the open sun warming our bones and practicing our dance moves. We made a “movement soup”—we laughed, fell, wiggled, and grooved and then played a game of Dance Honcho where our dance moves were put to the test. Students took a turn leading the group in dance moves in a circle, with a guesser trying to figure out who was leading the group.

The angels of rain did not hold back today! We got well and truly soaked. And the Woolly Bears had a ball!

We charged up the hill and had an opening circle around the lighting of the fire. After some fun playing in the forest, we came together to begin our craft projects. Split in two groups, we began burning our burn bowls as the rain poured down. The Woolly Bears used hot coals to burn a crevice into pieces of cedar for future bowls, periodically scraping away the ash to form the hole.

As colder temperatures and wet, wet mud become a part of our routines, we are finding a new rhythm to our days together. The red squirrels in our spruce grove have been actively knocking down cones in large quantities. And, they are starting to nest! A highlight of our week was the discovery that a red squirrel has moved into the nesting box we built last year! We are so excited to watch their activity as the season progresses. 

Our little community continues to grow and strengthen as we practice our friendship skills and awareness of the world around us. The children are really settling into deep play with their peers and are so excited about some skills that we are exploring. 

We have been weaving in learning about tinder, camouflage, fire, and carving into our wanders and activity time. Up to the top of the hill we headed on Tuesday to find as many dried ferns as possible. We learned that the warm weather has kept things alive well past the usual time, but we did find some and collected them for tinder to start fires. We also found a brand new downed birch tree ready for harvesting its bark. 

We kicked out on yet another beautiful day in Flying Deer neighborhood. As soon as we arrived, we were removing layers upon layers to cool down. 

We started our day with a song and some quiet attention to the world, smells, and sounds around us. With our voices warmed up and our senses tuned, we revisited a game we learned last week and practiced the art of “Terror of the Stump.” The ants try to steal the food from the giant Tiger beetle.

This week we came together in honor of Indigenous People’s Day. We listened to the story of the Golden Flower that produced the pumpkin that brought water to the Earth, and provided the Taino people with everything they needed to sustain life. 

It was the most beautiful fall day and our new Thursday Roly-Polies Forest Kindergarten group had a wonderful day in the sunny field and cool streams at Daley Road!

The day began with games and animal movements. After some snack, we got chopping and splicing apples for the apple press. With four 5-gallon buckets of apples, we started to press and squeeze all the juice we possibly could. It was delicious!

The Woolly Bears group also made apple juice this week! The group learned how to safely cut, using their bear claws, and we had not a single cut! Hooray! Cider never tasted so good, after we practiced a mindfulness exercise to slow down and seriously enjoy every drop.