BLOG | Forest Kindergarten Archives - Page 3 of 7

Tree Id and Fire-Making

The bright blue skies this week felt like a harbinger of the growing daylight and all the gifts of winter yet to come. Snow changes everything. The pond is now an ice rink. The tiny, unremarkable hill to the office is the epicenter of frenzied sledders. Our campsite is a mine of glittering ice jewels and crystals. While the adjustment to the winter takes our bodies and minds a bit, once we lean into it, there is so much to experience that is only possible with the transformation of snow.

Welcome, Winter!

All fall we were waiting for colder temperatures, and now we are in it. The deep winter days are filled with snow, flocks of birds staying warm together, tracks to follow, and the amazing resilience of the human body. Like the birds, we stay warm together by moving a lot. All of our daily routines take a lot longer to complete, but that is the nature of winter after all—a little slowing down!

a sweet Semester’s End

We have made so many memories this semester! Thank you so much to all our young students and parents for being a part of this growing vision!

This semester was full of exciting projects. The Roly Polies learned how to make black walnut dye, how to make burn bowls and spoons, how to use a strap drill and flint and steel, and so much more! They each found a safe space in the forest for sit spots and created a garland to adorn and honor the tree they felt called to, brought gifts to the medicine tree, and carefully tended to the land around camp.

Arrows and Feathers

Free play last week inspired our turkey theme this week. We put on our best feathers and made connections with tools and skills that can help us track down animals.

We crafted arrows on Tuesday by warming dogwood branches over a fire and bending the parts that were curvy to straighten them out. We learned that keeping the sticks moving right over the flames is best. After sharpening the tips, we were ready to head to our archery range.

First SNow

What a wonderful change in landscape this week! The snow certainly surprised us all and provided so much fun to explore. After only a couple of days, most of it melted, but it allowed us to see ice, slush, hard slush, and the very famous face print snow—soft enough to stick your face in it and hard enough to hold its shape! So fun!

Tuesday provided us with many tracks to spot along the trails. We spent some time using a track guide and found deer and cottontail rabbit tracks near the nest campsite. We also explored the pond as we noticed it had already frozen over. We tested its strength by throwing sticks and rocks and it didn’t break. We could tell it was not safe for humans yet by looking at the edges which were still liquid. Of course, sledding was a must, both in the field and at Grandmother Maple.

Stone Soup

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.

A Water wonderland

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.

Mud, Glorious Mud

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.

Sensory Awareness in the forest

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.

Roly PolYs Meet Tiger Beetles

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.