Week 32: “survival” shelters
Highlights from April 16-19
Week 31: welcome Lewis + bird watching
Highlights from April 9-12
Week 30: cyanotypes + sunshine!
Highlights from March 26-29
Week 29: welcome spring
Week 28: fairy houses + Favorites foods
Highlights from March 12-15
Week 27: rain or shine!
Highlights from March 5-8
Week 26: finger knitting + rain
February 27 - March 1
Week 25: sink, float, or fly?
Highlights from February 20-23
Week 24: wind+garden+root ball
February 13-16
Week 23: root ball + garden day
February 5-9, 2024
Week 22: rainbows + the root ball
Week 21: Puddle Jumping, Creek Walking, and a Stuffy Tea Party
We went from a freezing cold week to a sopping wet week…sounds like January in Georgia! To keep things interesting indoors, we invited children to bring a stuffed animal to share. At snack time, we drank tea, read The Velveteen Rabbit, and introduced our special friends. Even Miss Deanna brought her stuffy! Of course our indoor day also called for more baking. Miss Ashley, who subbed for Miss Kylie, showed us how to make bread-in-a-bag, a recipe from The Waldorf Book of Breads. Children enjoyed the tactile experience of kneading the dough and warm, homemade bread was the perfect addition to our lunch. Once the rain died down a bit we went on an adventure to look for puddles. We splashed in puddles and dug in the mud, experimenting with how water moves across the land and what we can do to collect it and reroute it. The week ended with an unusually warm yet beautiful day. We rejoiced having the sun on our faces again and had the chance to explore a small creek near our forest play site. If there’s anything I’ve learned this week it’s that children could care less about going home with wet boots!
Bread in a Bag recipe
1 cup flour
1 package yeast (about 2 T)
3 T sugar
3 T dry milk
1 t salt
1 cup hot water
3 T oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
Put 1 cup white flour, yeast, sugar, dry milk, and salt in a large ziploc bag and shake to mix. Add water and oil. Close bag and squeeze/squish until well mixed. Add 1 cup white flour and 1 cup whole wheat flour to the bag. Close and squeeze again until mixed. Dough should not stick to the bag. Knead bag for 2-4 minutes, then let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Remove the dough from the bag and shape into a loaf. Place in a greased loaf pan and allow to rise until double in size. Bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
Week 20: tending a fire+ indoor exploration + ice skating
January 16-19, 2024
Banana Bread
Ingredients (slightly different from original recipe at link above)
6 very ripe, frozen bananas (thawed)
½ cup unsalted butter, (8 Tbsp) at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a bread loaf pan (9.25 long x 5.25 wide x 2.75 deep).
In a mixing bowl, cream together 8 Tbsp softened butter and 3/4 cup sugar
Mash bananas with a fork until the consistency of chunky applesauce and add them to the batter along with 2 eggs, mixing until blended.
In a separate bowl, whisk together: 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 tsp of baking soda and 1/2 tsp of salt then add to batter.
Add 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350˚F for 55-60 min or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let banana bread rest for 10 min before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Week 19: New year + rain + garden day
Week 18: seeking signs of winter + Solstice celebration
December 12-15, 2023
Week 17: salt dough ornaments + Lacing
Highlights from the week (December 5-8)
Garden day: weeding, raking leaves, checking on the veggies in our garden! A cauliflower head is beginning to grow.
Kneading cocoa & cinnamon salt dough and making ornaments. RECIPE
Sunny lost a tooth!
Fort/hotel/shelter building. One even has a swinging burlap door!
Playing “hockey” with sticks and a metal mud kitchen bowl.
Lacing card activity with Kai and Ronnie
Taking a class photo!
Week 16: freezing temps + fun with film
Week 15: friendship fire + feast
Highlights from the week (November 14-17)
Painting “Lincoln log” stick homes with chalk
Reading “BOB books”
Catching so many leaves as the wind blows them from the trees
Strawberry jam and mashed bananas as toppings for oatmeal snack
Indigo, Deanna’s son, visited and brought his rock and fossil collection to explore
Making hoop gliders with Kai’s dad, Ronnie
Friendship Feast and Fire!
Students helped to cook lunch, Three Sisters Soup and acorn bread, using black beans they harvested for the soup and white oak acorns they harvested and processed during our time together.
We roasted marshmallows and learned about how bodies can be safe around a campfire.
Week 14 : building shops + Rock hounds + field trip!
Highlights from November 7-10
Baking pan dirt sledding
Homemade pickled peppers
Lincoln-log-style house and shop building
Hide and seek
Rocks and mineral exploration
What is lichen?
Garden Day!
Drop spindle work, spinning wool
Carding wool
Microscope exploration
Finding the feather remains of a barred owl
Field trip to a forest at Sandy Creek Nature Center
