What a beautiful spring day! The air was full of excitement and the warming signs of the changing season. The kids were generally some level of wet all day!
We started our day playing around in winter’s last bounty in the big field—laughing and playing and happy to be back all together for the spring semester. We made our way to Little Field for morning circle. After our song and some animal forms, we finished our circle off with a game of Terror of the Stump, where ants try to steal food from the fast and territorial tiger beetles stump. If they don’t move fast enough, they get paralyzed until an ant friend frees them.
We went to camp for snacks shortly after and prepared for our craft. Today we all got a chance to use our knives to carve a special type of wood, Staghorn Sumac. We were carving the wood because it’s soft, but also for its pithy center. When carved down to a tapered point, it can be used as a spile or tap in maple trees to collect sap. All the kids listened attentively and almost seriously as we went over our knife safety together, ASTABS. Ask…Sit…Threaten not…Away…Blood Bubble…Sheath/Safe.
After some time exploring and playing, we all came back to carve our spiles and then burn out the pithy layer in the center using a hot iron rod. The kids were all quiet and focused for a solid half hour, committed to their carving progress and each left with a tap or whistle to bring home. We made our way out to the sugar grove and tapped a tree before the day was done.
After some lunch, a story about the infamous Rainbow Crow, and some more time playing in the sun, the day was done! Next Thursday, both Forest Kindergarten groups will come together to celebrate Maple Fest, an epic sap boiling event complete with pancakes!
—Raei, Christopher, and the counselors
March 10, 2022