Friday, January 31, 2020

Friday, January 24, 2020

Timberwolf Trail - Week 20 & Retzer Experience #3 - 2019-20 Edition


The blanket of snow may slow down some students, but nature kindergartners never suffer from the winter blues. 



We spent the week enjoying winter walks, nature play, and animal investigations.




I love the smooth blanket of freshly fallen snow covering the ground, but there's also beauty in a well-tracked learning space.



Winter yoga and an occasional blizzard provided opportunities to warm up.



Inside, we explored a plethora of picture books about the winter season. We also started working on promoting our next event for our Children's Hospital collaboration: Cookies for a Cause.


Sadly, the first eagle cam we have been tracking lost their eaglet to some type of illness. While this was part of the life cycle, we were bummed to watch the process continue until we found a new eagle cam that was much closer to home. No eggs yet, but the adults have been in and around the snowy nest. Most of the bird observations thus far have been with a woodpecker who also seems to call the tree home.

We also enjoyed the third installment of our yearlong collaboration with the Retzer Nature Center. We visited the Retzer to learn about animals in winter.



We talked about winter furs and animal movement. Whether walking, waddling, hopping, or bounding, animals sure know how to move around to get their needs met.



We always enjoy visiting the artifacts and our animal friends.





Owl Eyes


We created animal track posters and then used those track maps to see animals in action.



We also tried on new snowshoes.


We wrapped up our Retzer stations with an animal evidence hunt. We found plenty of scat and tracks.







We may have stopped to play along the way.







Whether we are at Retzer or at our own Timberwolf Trail, there's always a hill to climb.



Walking around in winter is so gorgeous. The class and I focused on really being observant about the way things are different this time of year. But besides observing, we also like to get hands on. We will plenty of chances for hands on winter fun next week.