Timberwolf Trail - Trail Camera Captures- December 2017 Edition

2017 has brought many animal friends to our trail camera. Our class received a new animal friend this month. And based on the picture, so did he/she.

For any kidlit fans out there, I wonder if any of these forest friends are looking for a mitten? :)

Where is that Gingerbread Man?

Snow squirrel

Hello

Look what I found!

Great Horned Owl

Flyaway Owl

Coyote tail

Timberwolf Trail - Week 16 - 2017-18 Edition

In the  midst of the season of giving, our nature kindergarten class has focused on the needs of others, including the needs of our forest friends. We have made mouse houses, various bird feeders and created winter dens. However, we wanted to end our 2017 with a special gift to nature, so we decorated a tree.

But before we could decorate our tree, we decided to prepare our dens. The class has come up with many new ways to transfer the food to their dens. More recently, to save time, they have been filling up their hats and/or mittens.

They did need some adult help to retrieve berries. They have cleaned out the lower branches.

Of course, as is customary, after we did some work, we enjoyed some unstructured natural play.

Later in the day, it was back to preparing food for our animals. While we made some pretzel garlands in school, many of our families donated their own natural ornaments from home.

We made our newly created garlands and a sample of the homemade decorations and went out to decorate a tree near the trail,

Then, it was back to play time,

In the afternoon, we had family guests joined in on our holiday celebration. Luckily, the adults were able to help us decorate higher branches on our tree.

My family even came to the festivities. Embry can't miss out on a climbing tree.

Our tree ended up looking wonderful, but not as wonderful as the kids who helped decorate it. Happy Holidays everyone!

Timberwolf Trail - Week 15 - 2017-18 Edition

Old Man Winter may finally be here to stay. While the flakes didn't really start flying until we went inside for the day, it was definitely a nice winter preview kind of morning.

Switching it up, we moved form seed feeders to pretzel necklaces on our weekly work to help feed our animal friends. We then took our salty creations outside and placed them near our winter dens.

Then, after enjoying some slush puddles, we embarked on an annual tradition: the first official snowshoe hike in the actual snow. Unfortunately, another tradition occurs before this hike as students learn the importance of following directions and perseverance. Putting snowshoes on in the cold can be a bit tricky and a few tears were shed, but overall, they gained some great skills and will continue to gain even more with more experience.

Let the snowshoeing begin!

We were definitely tired but we talked about what snowshoes do and how they help travel in the snow.

We also found other things like tracks and squirrel nests.

Of course after we work hard, we have to play hard too.

A few student volunteers also gave a few minutes of their recess time and helped disperse a variety of native wildflower and plant seeds with the first sizable in the forecast for the evening.

When I sent these volunteers out to the playground for recess, I was very pleased to hear them wish that their recess could be natural play. With seven days until winter break, it can get a little crazy and stressful, but comments like that make it all worthwhile.