With temperatures hovering right around freezing all week and episodes of snow, rain, sleet, and anything else Mother Nature could throw our way, we were all happy to see the sunshine in full force this lovely winter morning. Before heading out, we read Jean Craighead George's Dear Rebecca, Winter is Here. I love her middle grade novels and wasn't familiar with her picture books. based on this great story, I will be doing some more research.
We kicked off this forest day a new activity. Taking full "squeeze" water bottles with added food coloring, we experimented with coloring the snow. When I prepared the bottles in the morning before school, I avoided yellow for a few reasons. :) Today's goal was to get familiar and comfortable writing with this type of tool as we may use it for some sight word and math problem practice in future weeks. I also have a feeling this could turn into a very fun and creative art project.
After our squeeze water activity, we headed out to the trail for our first Trivia Trek. Before the buses pulled up, I took a nice morning hike and set up ten questions along the path. Connected to the theme of winter, we enjoyed the long walk. Though they seemed to enjoy figuring out the answers, I think the kids enjoyed trying to find each question along the way even more.
After a trivia session and a long hike, snack time was here! A few friends were camera shy and stayed away. :)
Because the class did exceptional with their first Trivia Trek, we spent a little more time than usual in natural play. As usual, some of their best learning came from the play session.
Many kids drifted to our colored cube building area we have been adding to everyday. Though the cubes had melted a bit from recent warm ups and then got covered with the flurries we have seen lately, they could care less. They had a blast creating their "color castles."
Some took a break from building for some classic Duck, Duck, Goose, though a game of this type with only a handful of kids requires creativity and flexibility.
A few friends opted to add to our growing stick pile.
Still others went on a search for tracks. these lovely ladies battled black locust barbs to point out some tiny tracks. They came to the conclusion they were from a hungry mouse.
We were excited to share what we learned both in a share session and in our nature journals. Until next week. . .
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