The wonders of winter started to sneak into nature kindergarten this week, so of course, we had to explore them with some natural play.
But we had some work to do as well. The week kicked off with each student randomly selecting a picture of a winter animal either caught on the trail camera or seen around the trail. We got books from the library on our animal, found some online resources for our animal, and then did some focused hikes with our animal in mind.
After researching habitats and the habitat of our animal, we went out on a Habitat Hike, scouting potential places where our chosen animal may chose to visit.
We also cleaned out a few of the birdhouses along the trail and dissected the materials those birds used in their nests. This would be an important preview to a project we will be starting next week.
We loved looking at Pebble Go, an online research site that provided lots of information on many of our winter animals.
Our second focused hike was a Food Hike. Playing the role of a winter animal living on the trail, we hiked to the fallen tree forests and went on a five minute food forage to collect as much food as we could. We then talked about and shared our collections. From seeds to twigs and leaves to nuts, we certainly collected a feast for our winter friends. We will be using these finds in a new project coming soon.
Of course, we also had time to do some of our nature routines like Sit Spots and outdoor stations.
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| Snowshoe Practice |
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| Sit Spot |
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| Pine Cone Art |
I still get excited when other classrooms join us. But what is most exciting. . . .natural play.
We dug holes, made critter castles out of rocks, checked on our pumpkins, and even accessorized our winter den. Even though next week is a short week, it will be a great one!
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