Today was a different day with a different teaching staff. Many students remembered Amy as the teacher of last year’s AFK, and pedagogista for this year, and Robin was back in the forest after an absence last week. Amy led the students in an activity on “animal gait” while we were waiting for all the kids to arrive. The students attempted to replicate certain complex animal movements, and suggested imaginative animals, creating their own imaginative gait. In circle, after introductions, we sang our good morning song, and discussed the previous kid-led making of different types of eggs and nests. Amy mentioned a book she brought with her about nests of ALL kinds, and Robin mentioned the VERY large nests of bald eagles. Students seemed enthusiastic about these topics, although seemed to be having a few challenges with listening well and keeping their bodies in control. Amy entrusted individual feathers from her feather collection to the students for them to carry into the forest and help focus their attention.
Once in the forest, Charlie and Jarrett played a variety of imaginative games together, Larkin and Eden gathered a great deal of moss for a rich moss “cake” during a mud kitchen session, while singing familiar and silly songs. Beck, Sammy and Wendell also began a series of imaginative play games, until the swirling wind caused colored leaves to shower and float like snowflakes from the sky, The boys were transfixed and delighted, and abandoned their fantasy scenarios, to race from spot to spot attempting to catch the leaves before they touched the ground. Eventually only Wendell and Sammy remained, chasing leaves on their own for a long while.
At snack time we read Amy’s all animal nest book (A Nest is Noisy by Diana Hutts Aston and Sylvia Long), and a book Robin brought about a boy who helped with an eagle egg adoption by an endangered bald eagle pair. Post-story time we extended an invitation to build a large eagle nest (6 ft. in diameter), in the future, (if not today), and to consider/and or draw plans on how to build wings, also noting the 6 ft. spread of a bald eagle’s wings. We also mentioned that the children could bring their own thoughts ideas and information to share on the topic to school over the next few sessions. Amy shared that children could see a real Bald Eagle nest in Georgia at Berry College, and visit the nest cam online to watch the entire life cycle. Adults can use this link: https://www.berry.edu/eaglecam/ to connect! The children chose to return to their own imaginative play from before snack. Amy introduced some binoculars with very specific instructions on their use. Larkin chose to do some quiet drawing with Robin, and was soon joined by Wendell and Sammy who were taken in by the illustrations of eagles in some of the book resources provided for the day. Students still work to control their bodies and voices, but did well today in their forest explorations, imaginative games, and creatively resolving differences as they arose.
