Timberwolf Trail - Week 9 - 2016-17 Edition

Today, on a 60 degree November day, we learned about how animals can prepare for winter,. However, if November continues to be as beautiful as it has been, I am not sure how many of our animal friends will even need to do what we are studying.

After reading Hibernation Station by Michelle Meadows, we went on a search for potential spots animals might visit in winter. We found a few tree cavities that intrigued us and even found a friendly (though lifeless) mouse nearby. Then, after researching for natural homes for our winter friends and talking about how some animals hibernate and other stay active through winter, we migrated to the wooded area to check on the "mouse houses" we created last week. Many friends found that there houses were definitely visited by an animal friend or two!

We used our brand new Mouse House journals to describe our mouse house setting through illustrations before sharing our artwork with our regular writing partners.

Then it was off to potentially relocate or mouse house, add corn and/or seed to it, and have a snack of our own before we went snowshoeing. . . . .in grass and leaves.

Winter and the snow it brings can arrive anytime now so we have spent a few minutes here and there practicing putting on our snowshoes. Today, with the grass long and a little bit harder than usual due to an overnight freeze, it was time to put that practice to test.

We went on a nice "leafshoe" hike in our snowshoes. We had a few fall off on the way and some loosen up, but overall, it was a great success.

In the afternoon, we practiced our math directional words in the hidden forest by standing next to trees,

running and walking through the leaves,

jumping over fallen branches,

and standing under sticks. We also worked on across and behind.

We also reviewed big, bigger, and biggest and small, smaller, and smallest with natural items.

Wrapping up, we decided to review our preparation for winter activities by c a new acronym chant "Hibernate, Activate, Migrate, HAM!" Hibernate, Activate, Migrate, HAM!" Hibernate, Activate, Migrate, HAM!" Then, we went  back to the woods to search fr new potential places our animals might sleep or store food for winter.  We found many wonderful spots, including one of our soon to be hibernators, the woolly bear.

By this time, the temperatures had warmed up so many students found interesting places to hang their coats.

And, as is the routine, we checked ourselves over for ticks before heading in and wrapping up another awesome day of outdoor learning.

Tyke Hike #32 - Loew Lake

Temperatures in the lower sixties and hiking on the Ice Age Trail in early November?  I'll take it! Many others did too as approximately 43 hikers enjoyed a wonderful walk along the Ice Age Trail's marvelous Loew Lake Segment.

With Getting Ready for Winter as the theme of the hike, we kicked off with a walk through the fantastically fresh-smelling pine forest and chatted about needles, pine cones, and coniferous trees.  A few of my new friends even took the "Pine Needle Bed" Challenge.

As the forest transformed from pine-dominant to deciduous heavy, we found many coniferous and deciduous saplings. We also took my daughter's lead and bopped every blaze we found.

 After talking about "dropping" deciduous trees and figuring out how animals got ready for winter, we felt the urge for natural play and found fallen logs that scratched that itch.

With so many children, I was reminded of my 25 kindergartners. Last week, they reached a class goal and celebrated by burying their teacher with leaves. They had a blast, so I thought the tykes might enjoy it as well.

I am pretty sure they did!

Back to the trail and back to natural play. We took extra time to enjoy natural play in the forest as we all know winter is coming and opportunities are limited.

We found this uniquely-shaped piece of wood which kids took turning placing on their heads and acting as little reindeer. Embry didn't want it on her heads but at least she smiled for the picture.

The focus on natural play made for a very unique tyke hike. I especially liked watching kids go out of their comfort zone and "get in" to nature. A little extra laundry might have been added to the weekend chore list today, but the children walked away with some awesome experiences and more confidence and resiliency in themselves and their own abilities. Plus, they had tons of fun!  Not a bad way to start your Saturday!

Timberwolf Trail - Mouse House - 2016-17 Edition

Call me a nature nerd but I am having a ball creating lessons and units that connect the curriculum to outdoor learning. I am very excited about a unit we are currently immersed in. Based out of our Social Studies unit on Wants & Needs and connecting to so many other areas (Writing, Science, Art, Reading, Math, etc.), we are working towards helping those in need through a special classroom charity project by first helping our animal friends get things they might want and most certainly need. We have created mouse houses.

After reading Mousekin's Golden House, planning and sketching a design, collecting natural materials, researching potential animal tenants, measuring and comparing mouse house models (shoe boxes), and doing various writing activities surrounding the project, today was the day to get artistic and scientific. We created mouse houses aimed at providing them with the wants and needs they can use for the upcoming winter months.

It was great to see the class come up with unique and creative houses, but I really loved hearing the reasoning for their design decisions. From making a door with a ramp "so an older mouse could get in easy" to camouflaging the outside of the box, each house was designed and constructed with hard work, effort, creativity, and focus.

After the houses were built, we filled them with natural materials. From grass and seed bedding to rocks to keep the house sturdy, each student had interesting ways to practice their interior decorating. Students were also given  an ear of corn and a small cup of bird seed to help make their self-proclaimed "mouse mansions" even more attractive to potential animal tenants.

Then it was off to the woods for the ever-important mouse house placement. Some students chose to give their mouse house a very large lot lot size while others made small mouse neighborhoods.

I look forward to checking in our mouse houses over the next few weeks and seeing how the class reacts, adjusts, and learns from what we find.

Timberwolf Trail - Week 8 - 2016-17 Edition

Today was a different type of day for the nature kindergartners. Today, they were not the student but instead the teacher. Our school collaborates with the Retzer Nature Center and part of that collaboration includes the Retzer Teaching Naturalists (RTN's) coming to our school and leading presentations. With that in mind, I invited the RTN's over to the site ahead of time to take a look at what our learning area offers.

While it took a little bit of practice for my very excited students to make sure the RTN's were with them as they traversed the land, they got the hang of being tour guides and shared the special areas of our site.  From the hidden forest to the rock pile, the cavity to the dead alive tree, and the inside tree to the grass class, the RTN's were in for quite a tour. The students also got to practice some tree and plant identification as well as enjoy some of our favorite nature chants, actions, and songs.

There's nothing like some natural play and discovery time after a nice tour, so off the kids went to explore. Some of their discoveries included millipedes, woolly bears, mullen, milkweed, and worms.

In the afternoon, to go along with our wants and need unit, the class selected a shoebox and went outside to collect natural items so we could turn these ordinary shoe boxes into "mouse houses" for the winter months. Many more details about this engaging project coming soon.