It was frosty in the morning, but it warmed up nicely today! In addition to Sarah and Robin, Evelyn from Atlas joined us as an intern again today as part of her school project! It has been wonderful to have her with us. At our opening circle, we referenced “East”, which Robin had taught to the children with the placement of the sun many months ago and without any direct instruction about how to figure it out, we invited 4 students to sit in each of the four cardinal direction positions. It was so cool to see them work it out together! One of the children’s favorite circle activities recently is to let each speak their name in different voices and had them echoed back by the group with the same volume, voice, etc. We held a vote as to where we would like to spend our day. Given the closeness of the vote, we decide on BOTH locations! We started our day at the “new” location, which is off to the left of “Parking 9” if you’re there exploring without us someday! Imaginative play along with tree climbing, elaborate moss labs, fancy cakes with our mud kitchen, and strategic dismantling of dead logs and stumps as “enemy bases.” It was an active but relaxed and wonderful morning. We had warm Bengal Spice herb tea as an option with our trail mix snack and read the book/fable, “Everyone Knows What A Dragon Looks Like” and “The Lucky Hat” about the fabled Grand Canyon! Shortly after snack we returned to our original site location and they enthusiastically jumped into familiar places, including the trench with standing water. Since the day was warm, we allowed children to get into the water in the trench. Students continue to identify and collect wild onion with great delight. Today we had a short closing circle at the edge of the forest where we passed a “special message” around the circle. It was a warm and sweet moment watching each child whisper solemnly to their neighbor “I like doing forest kindergarten with you”. We had a late lunch and found a favorite tree at the Visitor’s Center had been dramatically pruned! It was a great day, and the warm sun and new sprouted grass lifted everyone’s spirits.
