Outdoor Dec 4

We started inside with our morning circle, moving energy and discussed how there is no "bad" energy or "good" energy...simply energy that moves or doesn't move. We discussed how it is our responsibility to move our energy, say what we need to and express ourselves, otherwise our feeling get trapped and create pain or issues later on. We breathed, moved, tapped and made lots of noise together to move our energy. When we felt ready, we sang our 7 direction song to call in new energy and fill ourselves up. Our animal cards were spot on and students reported seeing colours and shapes during their sit spot time.

After circle we read "The Big Big Maple Tree" and connected our knowledge that roots grow before leaves and we never see that. Oakley found a Clementine seed in his lunch, and Lola had an avocado seed that we decided we would start experiments with after lunch to see if they would grow for us.

After snack and story, everyone had free play time with the dollhouse. Listening to everyone play together was beautiful...and somehow a monster truck got into the house!

After play time we had our lesson for the day. Today we discussed what is possible to forage in winter and made guesses on our scavenger hunt cards about what we might find and what we might not. We also learned a bit about shelter building in winter and compared that to animal homes we know. Everyone agreed it would be too hard to dig a burrow right now because the ground is frozen, and that is would be unsafe to build a squirrel home because we don't have access to dry leaves and it would be too high up in a tree. Everyone agreed a snow cave would be appropriate and I introduced a second snow shelter called a snow taco (they loved the name) that we can build another day. I asked students to recall how we build fires outside when it is wet. The important parts were guessed as we all remembered. I introduced the pipe cleaner fire building that we would complete after lunch.

On our hike, we didn't get very far! We brought out tools to dig in the snow and spent our outdoor time digging a cave big enough for Sprouts to sit inside in the biggest snowbank on the parking lot. We dug, slid, jumped and played in the snow for 2 hours before we decided it was time to head in for lunch. So much fun!

At lunch, Lola had help to reveal her Avocado seed when her avocado was cut up for lunch. The seed was washed up and dried then added to a dark jar, with a little water, then placed in the warmest spot in the kitchen to sprout. It should take 2-4 weeks, so we will check in on the last day before winter break and again after the break to see if there is a crack in it. Oakley planted his clementine seed in a little pot of soil that got watered and placed in our greenhouse to see if it will sprout for us as well. We will keep an eye there too. We also chose to enjoy some cookies after our lunches that we made last week. They were delicious!

After lunch we played a few rounds of music chairs, had a competition with Oakley's monster truck, built our pipe cleaner fires in our own ways, then spent the remainder of our time together playing with the dollhouse.

We ended the day with our sharing circle where we didn't share what we foraged, rather we shared our favourite parts of the day 🙏

Create a fantastic weekend everyone!