We started our week with tracking, tracking, and more tracking! The children have shown a strong interest in tracking animals this year, especially deer, as they are abundant and come close to us frequently. Many days, the children have had the opportunity to sneak up close on a deer munching on plants. Today we decided to track any animals we could find evidence of, and surely, deer showed to be the most interesting animal to follow!
Finding deep deer tracks before we even got out of our site intrigued us to follow where they went. Nearby plants showed signs of deer vegetating. We learned that deer will leave the end of a plant frayed, unlike a rabbit or other small mammal with the incisors to make a clean cut on a plant. It wasn’t long before we came across deer droppings! Using a tracking guide to identify the scat, the children enjoyed learning about the behavior of the creatures of the shared forest. We also found signs of underground mammals, red squirrels, earthworms, and birds of prey out there. At the end of the day, we were greeted with a White-Tailed Deer! Ending the day getting as close as we possibly could without the deer running from us was a wonderful full circle.
With all of our deer tracking on Tuesday, we learned about the anatomy of a deer, specifically their mouths along with how they munch and chew food. We learned about their footprints, about pheromones left behind with every step they take, how their incisors are shaped, along with the ability to move their ears 180 degrees to hear the world around them. Once given a lesson on deer, the children made deer masks out of felt. Cutting the deer head out and gluing objects to create a deer mask proved to be a blast! Afterwards they played games with their masks on, making up many different scenarios.
We ended our week with our large group, tie-dying with black walnuts! The Woolly Bears prepped bandanas for the whole group on Wednesday so they would be ready for us Thursday. Smashing the husks, throwing them into the pot over the fire, and then smashing the nut even further to get to the walnut was exciting and brought a lot of satisfaction once the children could get to the edible part.
Once the pot of boiling husks was ready, each child got their bandana out and made designs with rocks or by folding them, then placing rubber bands around them. They threw their bandanas in the pot and let them sit for the whole weekend. We can’t wait to see how they come out next week! Most of the children journeyed to Grandmother Maple for a bit of their afternoon, where they spent time swinging from vines, making worm communities and houses, along with hiking up the great big hill.
In gratitude and community,
Foxfire, White Pine, River Otter, Black Birch (Jodi, Raei, Ocean, Chris, and Sarah)
October 22, 2023