On Thursday, the students found extra benefit in our morning circle practices (release, grounding, protection & reflection) after a busy Share the Magic Day. We spent extra time sitting in these practices. Afterwards, we made space for creation. Stella and Ethan extended their learning from last week by creating the animal they were studying from natural materials. Stella made her dolphin from leaves and Ethan chose to use dirt, rocks and leaves to make his squirrel.
We then worked together to create a shelter to keep us warm. Inside we read a story about what different animals do when it starts to snow. As today was our first snow at school, we discussed what we can do to keep warm and shift our routines with the changing weather/season. This is how we decided to dismiss from the front door and make more space for tea and coziness at the end of our outdoor days.
On Friday, our supply teacher Ana, and the students enjoyed their morning circle time, connecting to mother nature and reflecting on their animal cards. Deep connections were made with our very accurate animal messages. After circle we shared a story about the first snow, and explored the ornaments Courtney left for us to decorate the back yard. While observing the ornaments we looked for patterns, discussed shapes and added movement to see how the many faces on the ornaments reflected light. Ethan and Oakley problem solved to determine where would be the best spaces in the yard to place the ornaments.
After decorating, some free play and Punderdome ensued. Chilly fingers and toes were kept warm with movement and discussions of friction and where we could feel friction on our bodies while moving. We ended the morning with a fire that was lit today with 4 kleenexes, 2 fire starters and a small pile of spruce sticks and 2 spruce cones. This fire was lit with the flint stick in about 15 seconds!!! We have a record now and a great recipe for a quick catching fire on a cold and windy day. We reviewed fire safety rules around the fire and Ethan chose to gather sand today for putting out the fire. Oakley doused the fire today and did a safe and excellent job.
After lunch, we hiked over through Kiwanis Park, checked out the water in the river and checked in on our guesses about how the temperature would affect the water. Ethan and I continued in the beginnings of a conversation about the thermal capacity of different bodies of water. We all had a beautiful experience connecting with the ducks. They all walked up around us, and we noticed their tail feathers had curls at the ends for the feathers on top. After our hike we checked out our school garden and noticed some finished kidney beans, some luffa still growing, tomatoes, peppers, and that the elderberry was still in full leaf. We added the beans to our foraging collection today and had some fun with our sharing board too. Students that chose to, accepted seeds to plant at home and keep for something special. Our garden produced approximately 20 kidney bean seeds. We began planning what we would like to plant for next year.
Create a spectacular weekend <3
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