With the snow melting away, it was time to get muddy and play. However, with the ground still in its early thaw, we weren't going to get too carried away. Unless of course any of the ridiculous wind gusts we were battling took us for a ride.
We are going to spend more time in our school garden once spring hits, so I thought we should start investigating dirt a little bit more. We read a book on dirt and then used our hands and hand lenses to "sweep the forest floor" and see what we could find. The results were exciting. Students found rocks, mushrooms, ice, roots, nuts, twigs, feathers and deer tracks. The students also swore they found bird eggs, dinosaur bones, and treasure.
A few girls excitedly called me over to show off that they found a stick growing out of the ground, but not like the stick of a tree. It was then that we were introduced to vines. The girls had fun swinging the vines around and searching for other examples throughout the woods.
Unfortunately, the wind postponed" the forest floor" art project I had planned. I am excited to see what we will come up with.
During natural play time, the students broke off into groups and went to different areas of the land. While the rock pile was a popular place at the beginning, kids trickled out and about as time elapsed. Those that stayed at the pile noticed that they could start digging and moving rocks around to find the buried treasure now that the snow was gone.
While watching the rock climbers and keeping my eye on a few kids meandering through the prairie grasses, a group of boys summoned me over to a corner of the woods where they swore the "trees were squeaking." Sure enough, the trees were making sound as they swayed in the blustery breeze. The boys would have watched the tree all day if possible, from a safe distance of course. They desperately wanted the wind to take a tree down. Though disappointed, they didn't get their wish.
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