September 30, 2016

We are walking up the hill. Bald Eagle is carrying a stick.- Milk snake and Mouse

 We had another amazing day in the forest!  This was our longest day yet.  We were able to spend THREE hours in the forest today! We began our day with our Forest Meeting and greeted each other with our forest names. Some of us were cold because we did not dress for the weather. We won't forget next week! We then discovered our sit spots. Our sit spot is our own special place in the forest where we will go every week to observe all the changes of the forest. After sit pots we had snack. We were SO hungry.

Kindergarten and first grade stretched with Mrs. Panasci in the forest.

We are eating snack. We were playing.- Red Fox and Mink

 After snack, we split into two groups to do stations. Ms. Eckert and Mr. Connor taught us about fire safety and Kelly Kettles. We searched for tinder, mouse tails, and chickadee sticks to help start the fire. We couldn't wait for the water to boil so we could drink our hot chocolate! Mrs. Koski and Mrs. Woodpecker had the students go on a nature hunt and played games in the
forest together. We played a fun game named, Pop! It was the best!

When stations ended, we had time for forest choice time. We climbed trees, played on the ropes course, made forts, and many other things! This is our most favorite time in the forest. We are so lucky to be able to do this every week!

Mrs. Panasci and Miss P joined us up in the woods too! We had music and movement together. It was a blast. We stretched, sang songs, and danced! I think the teachers were having just as much fun as the kids!

At the end of the day we gathered again in Mrs. Koski's room to write this blog. We worked together to describe what was happening in the pictures on this blog. It was amazing to see the kindergartners and first graders working together to come up with sentences about their time in the forest. Each photo this week has a caption that was written by the students. They signed their writing with their forest names! Too cool!

We hope that you have enjoyed our blog! We can't wait to get out in the forest next week and share our adventures with you! Don't forget to check out the video links at the bottom of our post!

Ms. Eckert and Mrs. Koski and the Woodland Warriors of LES

We are hugging Ms. Karner. We are waiting to switch stations.- Possum and Wild Turkey

This is our Kelly Kettle! We are so excited to make hot chocolate.

We had hot chocolate. Mr. Connor made a fire. Then he poured it in the cups.- Chipmunk and Vermont Frog

We are watching the fire. We were making hot chocolate.- Painted Turtle and Cotton-tailed Rabbit

We are working on our fort. It was fun.- Bald Eagle, Red Tailed Hawk, and Robin

We are building a fort.- Coyote, Cotton-tailed Deer, and Morning Dove

Newt followed his forest plan and climbed a tree.

Bat and Red squirrel picked up a big stick.

Newt likes music. We are singing. Ms. Palakowski is singing too. - Grey Squirrel and Newt

"We had PE up in the woods. WE were dancing and singing with Ms. P,"- Raccoon, Red Back Salamander, and  Grey Fox

Ms. Palowkowski read us an amazing story about a Blue Cockatoo!

Please check out the following links to our Music and Movement videos in the Forest! It was so much fun!

Here the Happy River
 
 Dance and Stop

 Music and Movement

September 16, 2016

We had another successful day in the Forest! The kids are so excited when they get to school. It has been wonderful watching their thinking become more creative and their forest plans more articulate.  Friday is our most favorite day of the week. This week we spent about an hour and a half in the woods. We started in the classroom creating our forest plans and then hiked to the woods for our snack, game, and forest exploration.  Enjoying reading about our adventures!

Mourning Dove, Coyote, and White Tailed Deer are having snack around the campfire.

Robin, Bobcat, and Bat are enjoying their snack too.

We sorted and categorized bugs today. We put them into four groups. We made a crawling group, a flying group, a caterpillar group, and a chrysilas/oddball group. We looked for the bugs in the woods. We needed to pick them up gently because if we dropped them, they would fall and get hurt.

Painted Turtle and Grey Squirrel were talking about how ladybugs both fly and crawl, so we could put them in both groups.

Coyote has playing in the dirt. She was making a dirt pile. She loves to play in the dirt.

Robin was standing on a stick, so that he could put more sticks on the fort. Bald Eagle said, "There is so much more building to do. We are not finished yet."

Skunk was building a ladder out of sticks.

Mink is picking up a large stick to help Bobcat and Robin build their fort.  Great teamwork.

Turkey is standing on the wire and jumping up and down. He looks so happy.

Red backed salamander is climbing a tall tree. He was trying to climb as far as he could go. Raccoon and Painted Turtle are waiting for a turn to climb the big tree.

Chipmunk spent a long time looking at the trees. She found her favorite and drew a beautiful picture.

Vermont frog is crawling on the ground looking for bugs.

                      Mink is climbing a tree to see how high she can go. She thinks she can go even higher.

Painted Turtle was walking on the wire with help from Mr. Connor. It was very hard to do but she stuck with it.

Bat is hanging out in a tree, but he is not hanging upside down because he wants to be safe.

Wild Turkey was trying to get up the tree. She stood high up in the tree and she was hanging her feet and sitting on a branch.  Don't be afraid mom! I am safe!

Moose was walking down the hill with her walking stick.

Reflections about Forest Day

"It was fun. I got to climb a trree."
"I liked climbing the tree that had its own ladder."
"I almost made it across the tightriope. The first time I only went two steps, but I kept trying and made it farther the next time"
"I built a fort."
""I am going to keep building my fort. We are building another room."
"I like the rope swing. I like to swing back and forth."


We are so excited to keep learning with our Woodland Warriors! Stay tuned for the next time we head outdoors. Rumor has it the PE and Music teacher are going to join us!

Ms. Eckert and Mrs. Koski

Into the Woods September 9, 2016

Today we went into the forest for the first time! We were so excited when we got to school. To begin the day we all came up with a plan of what we wanted to do or see in the forest that day.  Then, we chose our animal names. Make sure to ask us what are names are! We all love our names!

Raccoon wants to see a ladybug in the forest today.

Moose wanted to roast marshmallows.

We were walking up to the forest. We were happy.  We were walking in a big line and played Fox and Mice. Ms. Koski was the fox.. We were the mice.  She ate ten of us and then eleven more.

Weasel and Grey fox were walking up the hill with our feet. We made sure to hold our buddies hand as we went into the woods for the first time.

We walked across the scary bridge. Wild Turkey was wondering where all the water was!

The walk to our forest classroom was hard, said Grey Squirrel. We were all so hungry when we got to the top. We sat next to the fire and ate snack.

Chipmunk and Opossum enjoyed their snack. Yum!

We sang on a rope while we were standing on a wire. It was hard to stand on it, said Red Backed Salamander.  Raccoon said many people fell down.

Bald Eagle, Robin, and Bobcat pulled out a big tree from the pile. They couldn't wait to build a fort!

Newt made a forest plan to climb a tree and he did!

Red Squirrel was holding a massive stick. He tried to make the trees fly.

Pileated Woodpecker climbed a tree.  She looked to see if she could climb higher. She decided that she had climbed far enough on that tiny tree.

Raccoon also climbed a tree.  She looked for different animals and birds in the tree. She did not find anything. Next time she wants to climb higher.

Bald Eagle, Red Tail Hawk, and Robin were building a fort. I can't wait to see it when they are finished.

Raccoon helped Bald Eagle put a big stick up on the fort.

Our first day in the woods was a success! We are excited to spend more time in the woods this week. We will get to pick our sit spots.

Mrs. Koski and Ms. Eckert

First Friday Outside- September 2, 2016

 Today we went outside and ate snack. It was our very first Forest Friday Day.  We were feeling amazing because we got to play. We were on the baseball field at our elementary school in Vermont.

 We were practice standing around the fire and not stepping in it because if we did we might get burned.

 We played a running game. This game had animals in it like chipmunks, blue jays, and people. We played this game to look and observe like animals. We also learned that when Ms. Eckert hoots like an owl we all need to come back to the fire, so we are safe. We will keep practicing.

 We are running back to Mrs. Koski and Ms. Eckert because they made a hoot like an owl. We were racing back to the circle as fast as we could.  Ms. Wendy joined us and she was flying like a blue jay.

 We were sorting the bugs into different groups. We sorted them into  crawling groups, jumping groups, flying group, and digging groups.

We were walking to pick up the bugs.  We picked up the bugs by putting our hands under the bugs and scooping them up gently.

We hope to find some caterpillars or any kind of bugs to bring inside our classroom.  We hope that we get to drink hot chocolate and roast marshmallows.  We are curious about how to light a fire.  We are excited to make tea.

We are excited to pick out our animal names.

Thanks for reading our blog!

Ms. Eckert's First Graders and Mrs. Koski's Kindergartners