Timberwolf Trail - Week 6 - 2020-2021 Edition

This week, we kicked off or Collections From Nature unit with a deeper dive into the world of leaves. We offered a number of leaf challenges throughout the week.

Outdoor writing workshop was successful. I always love seeing the different locations and positions kids choose to write.

We focused on the letter M and searched for nature items that included the M sound. We found a tree frog friend in the process.

Our first leaf challenge was to find different colored leaves. Challenge accepted.

We began creating the biggest leaf pile before issuing another leaf challenge: finding multiple colors in the dame leaf. Another challenge accepted.

Our third leaf challenge of the week focused on finding a leas[[f as small as your head and one as small as your fingernail. Challenge accepted once again.

We also did some trail work, continuing to pull Queen Anne's Lace and clearing our birdboxes.

Our final challenge was to find different types of leaves. Final challenge accepted.

This week, we'll continue working with leaves, working on the trail, and beginning outdoor stations.

 

Nurtured by Nature Introduction

 Next October, my first professional book, Teaching Off Trail, is set to be published by Redleaf Press. At this time, I have a half dozen or so polished picture book drafts (just started querying again), many others in various stages of revision, and more ideas than I could ever actually get down on paper (or on a computer screen). 

I love writing. I love nature. A great deal of my inspiration for writing (personally and professionally) comes from time in nature with my family and my students. Many of these inspirations and memories can be directly connected to specific places.

I'm happy to announce that I will be sharing some of these places and stories through a series of blog posts I am calling Nurtured by Nature. I encourage you to not only follow along, but share your nurtured by nature moments in the comments of posts that resonate with you.

Timberwolf Trail - Week 5 - 2020-2021 Edition

There's not much better than starting each day with natural play. It calms our bodies, inspires our creativity, and prepares us for a day of learning.

 While we are continuing to focus on trees, we will be zooming in on leaves. This will be a month of so many wonderfully engaging and educational leaf activities.

We also had a trail work morning where we took over responsibilities to help the rail grow and improve. We watered prairie plant, collected sticks, dispersed seed, and pulled non-native plants.

 We also continued to work on reviewing some concepts in nature including seed dispersal while connecting our knowledge to our understanding of ecosystems. 

Timberwolf Trail - Week 4 - 2020-2021 Edition

Another week of hard work and hard play in nature kindergarten focused on prairie planting and the importance of trees.

We learned a bit about the non-native Queen Anne's Lace plant and worked in pulling some on our daily hikes.

We also replenished some of our restored prairie area with a variety of native plants, including a few of my personal favorites: spiderwort, butterflyweed, and ironweed. The students planted, watered, and watered some more.

Our explorations led to a variety of new discoveries for the kids including puffball mushrooms, the woolly bear caterillars, and the changing colors of the season.

We also took advantage of the beautiful weather to utilize some of our space for Writer's Workshop.

We also focused our attention to the needs of trees and why they play an important role in our lives.  Our investigations led us to Find Your BFT. We had a great time and can't wait to pay our BFT's another visit.