The weather today proved typical of March’s twists and turns, and gave us Roly Polies (the Thursday Forest K group) a sometimes chilly, somewhat damp, but ultimately rain-free overcast day. As campers arrived some immediately set out to practice their balancing skills along the fence, and some self-organized pocket games of chase or tag, warming up for the day!
Our morning circle involved an attempt to hear the sun behind the clouds, which yielded other sounds to our ears if not the elusive speech of that heavenly orb: birdsong, car passing, creek babbling, rain pants rustling. River Otter introduced the practice of Deer Ears (cupping the ears to hear better) and Fox Feet (for quiet walking), which we practiced with a couple games of Blind Ninja (one blindfolded ninja tries to catch the others within a circle, all trying to creep quieter than can be heard). River Otter taught the group a rollicking song to remember the four directions, involving “Eat Soggy Worms Now.”
After snack and free play at camp, which included drawing up a map which we’ll add to each week, we went on a wander, with each camper having a turn at leading the group according to what we call Body Radar, the sense of being drawn in a particular direction. We went on quite a topsy turvy route through the forest, occasionally checking in about Eating those Soggy Worms Now, before we finally made it back to camp for some lunch around the fire.
We joined up with the other Forest K group for an afternoon of chasing chickens (trying to tag instructors), exploration around a grand old Shagbark Hickory, sawing wood for our walkways, and constructing mini-forests out of sticks, and then capped off the day with a closing story from River Otter about “Why Raven Doesn’t Sing” that had everyone enraptured.
—Red Oak, River Otter, and Striped Maple
March 25, 2022