November 18, 2016

It was another glorious day in the forest! It was hard to believe that it was the end of November! We took full advantage of the weather and stayed out as long as we could! Today we had two amazing parent volunteers come and help out during Forest Friday! Thank you Mrs. Wild Turkey (Cassandra DeMond) and Mrs. Red Tailed Hawk (Melissa Perrino) for spending time in the forest with us today! We loved the bread on a stick! Enjoy the Thanksgiving Holidays everyone!

Today during Forest Meeting Red Squirrel was looking at the thermometer. It was sunny and unusually warm for November. He even had to take his jacket off!

Vermont Frog was digging in the dirt in her sit spot. It looks like she was digging a hole. Today during sit spots we were pretending to be salamanders and using our hands to notice what was the same and different about our spot.

We had a very special visitor to our forest today. Our principal, Silver Fox, came up to see what the kindergartners and first graders were up to in the woods. Silver Fox and Red Tailed Hawk were digging together at his sit spot. 

Bat found some sticks at his it spot.

Mrs. Red Tailed Hawk is eating snack and talking to forest friends. We had cheese sticks and banana muffins for snack today.

Dirt City is a special place that we discovered near our site.  There is a whole bunch of dirt and some knocked over trees. We get to knock down dirt with sticks. There is also a tree that we can walk on like a balance beam. We marked off some hazards to keep us safe. Dirt City is our FAVORITE place!

Grey Squirrel was creating a fort in the dirt. He wanted to make sure there were no snakes hibernating in his new place!

Red Tail Hawk, Bald Eagle, and Robin were walking across the bridge leaving Dirt City.  We were holding our stick toys.  We were playing army.

Dirty kids are Happy Kids! Newt loved playing in the mud today!

During one of our stations, We made bread on a stick with Mrs. Sparrow. We had to wrap the bread around the stick. We roasted it over the fire. I bet you have never made dough on a stick in nature before! It was delicious!

During Ms. Black Bear's station, we were practicing our observation skills to create a scientific drawing of a plant. We had two choices, ferns or little pine trees that were growing low to the ground.   We drew exactly what we saw using our senses, especially our eyes to see and our hands to touch.

Painted turtle was working hard to get her drawing of pine needles just right. Everyone worked so hard on these drawings and are excited to keep working on them next time.

Miss Karner gave us pointers while we were drawing! Thanks Miss Karner!

The ferns were much harder to draw but we tried our best said Red Backed Salamander.

Mrs. Wild Turkey Enjoyed helping all the students cook their bread on a stick! Wild Turkey really enjoyed having her mom join her in the forest!

We had tea and read a book in the teepee with Mrs. Woodpecker and Mr. Connor. The tea was delicious. The spider was tricky.  During Stations, we found Anansi crawling around in our bucket and wondered if he was trying to play a trick on us!

Mrs. Panasci lead us in some balancing exercises! We had to balance on one, two, and sometime three body parts! Some of us fell over! We laughed! It was great fun!

Flying like an airplane! Go Mrs. Panasci Go!

Mrs. Red Tailed Hawk enjoying a leisurely lunch around the fire with Red Tail Hawk and his friends.

Back at Dirt City Newt, Red Back Salamander, and Grey Fox  were exploring the trees by climbing them, moving them, and using tools to dig holes in them!

Skunk had the most amazing day today! Look at me, she said to Mrs. Sparrow. Nothing beats playing in the dirt! 

November 4, 2016

Thank you Mr. Raccoon (Jerry Tucker) for spending the day in the forest with us today! We appreciate you helping tend and create the fire that kept us warm. Thanks also for playing with us on the rope swing and hanging out in Dirt City!
       The kids had so much fun playing in the dirt that came time for lunch they were pretty well coated. As we began eating, one of the students got some dirt on her sandwich to which she stated, "I can't eat this... I am not a dirt-a-terian!" I had to try so hard not to burst out laughing as she was quite serious! Enjoy our day!

Kindergarteners decided to come up the steep hill trail today! They met the first graders at camp. The first graders had gone up early to start the fire and get the site ready for the day!

IT was cold and wet today! We were glad to be able to sit around the fire to enjoy our snack today after sit spots!

Mrs. Sparrow had baked us some yummy apple cinnamon muffins! We liked them so much we asked for seconds.

During exploration time some students found squishy brown growths growing on a broken tree branch. We were so curious about what these were. We decided to take it back to school and look it up! We will keep you posted.

Here is a picture of our teepee! Mr. Troy, one of our custodians, made it for his hunting camp but will not need it until  next spring. So, he brought it up to our site and put it together. We read a story and had tea in the teepee today!

This was    last day at Forest Friday. He had to move to a new school. We miss you! Please come back and visit!

Moose is exploring the massive rootball of a tree that we found in Dirt City! The kids are so excited to explore all that Dirt City has to offer. We used sticks to dig out some of the rocks today.

During stations, Ms. Black Bear was reading a story, Anansi and the Moss Covered Rock, about a tricky spider who convinced animals to walk with him in the forest and then he stole all their food. The kids loved drinking tea and listening to the story. Later that day, the students found moss on rocks all over our campsite!

Skunk, Painted Turtle, Woodpecker, and Grey Fox  enjoyed making and eating s'mores today during stations!

Chipmunk loves S'Mores!

The students enjoyed trying to keep the balloon in the air for as long as possible without popping it! Mrs. Panasci always has fun games and activities for us to do in the forest!

Mr. Raccoon made a fire for us today to keep us warm!

It is amazing the trees are still standing after we climb them!

My Dad played with me on the rope swing! IT was so fun, said Raccoon!

I will leave you with the quote of the day that was overheard as Bobcat, Red Tailed Hawk, and Bald Eagle were deciding on their play... "You can't be 29. That is a grown up number. You can be 12."