“Thank you, Mother Nature for this wonderful playground.” Those words from one of our Woolly Bears are so simple, yet so powerful! What an acknowledgement of the bounty of the world.
The children found purpose and focus this week in creating different kinds of pigments from rocks, clay, and spices to paint and use for camouflage. Pounding stones and experimenting with different binding agents, such as honey or dish soap, created a table full of creativity, art, problem solving, and turn taking.
Some of our incredible staff, Raei and Violet, volunteered to take on being painted with all these new pigments as well as the challenge to hide along our trail. As a group, we first asked if any areas of their bodies were a no-zone. Small lessons in consent like this go a long way, and our willing volunteers were very clear about avoiding the eyes!
Conversations around the different kinds of camouflage that animals naturally use to protect themselves were the center of our morning lesson. The children learned about mimicry and self-decoration as well as patterning as a natural strategy for blending into the environment.
On Thursday, we kept warm with a long hike and made an Earth Day birthday cake. We discovered some spring ephemerals under the leaf litter and accidently hurt a growing trillium while making the earth cake. We took this opportunity to slow down and recognize our mistake, not knowing that the area we trampled had such sensitive plants, by talking about why it is so vital that these short-lived plants have a chance to flower in order to proliferate. We apologized and sang a grand birthday song. We will know from now on that this area of the woods is to be tread on very lightly during the spring months—another incredible outcome of place- based education—connecting with each small patch of land over a long period of time allows for this deep respect.
A few more highlights of the week:
- The silliest song ever about a great big moose
- Trap making continued at the construction zone
- Some beautifully improvised shows at the theater
- A game of deer vs. bears for practice of fox walking and to learn about predator/prey relationships
- Discovery of baby spruce cones falling from the trees after a hailstorm
- Melting of pine pitch down to glue for future projects.
—Julie, JJ, Raei, Molly, and the counselors
April 23, 2021