Outdoor October 2 & 3

Thursday

Our morning began with the surprise of a new Mushroom friend that we identified as Deer Mushroom (Pluteus cervinus) growing. Students decided to call our new friend Deer and we learned that tree stumps are fantastic places for mushrooms of all kinds to grow. Free play ensued while everyone settled in, and many students utilized our climbing tree.

During our morning circle, we practiced many energy moving actions today, like Magic Hand, Purple Bubble, dancing, wiggling, stomping, big breaths, and screaming. Everyone LOVED the screaming and noticed that their body felt better afterward. We had a successful sit spot today and students shared their notices.

During snack I read two stories: "Little Squirrel's Special Nest" and "Compost Stew". We discussed how some animals stay and sleep for winter and other animals might travel elsewhere. We discussed looking for ducks and geese, however our interests were different once we got out for our hike.

Our morning hike, turned into a half day hike as we discovered many things along the path to a space to build some forts we had found on previous days. I provided a clue about where that was: After the little patch of Coltsfoot. While we travelled there, we noticed Self Heal and picked 20 leaves to dry for potions later on, and a very healthy Narrow Leaf Plantain that we collected two leaves from. We found a Ball Gall finally too!! We had been looking for some time and realized today that we might have been looking too early in the season. The May Fly with overwinter in a Ball Gall that is created by the Golden Rod Stem after a may fly lays it's egg there. We also noticed something new we had never seen before growing on Fleabane right beside Golden Rod. We used our app to identify this plant and learned that is is called Great Dodder. It is an invasive non-native species, and like many invasive species, it has medicinal value especially for liver supports. I have something new to learn about now!

We found Cat Tails, and two Coltsfoot patches before we found the Spruce fort area under some trees. While Jude and Corbin climbed as high as they could, Lola, Oakley, Mila and I build little shelters. A sturdy fairy house was built from sticks, pine cones and leaves, and a very special Bug Hotel was created, while sticks were collected for a bigger shelter on another day. An Ant and Tree Flea were noticed visiting the Bug Hotel.

Our mission this morning was to build a shelter using our tipi tool. We ventured into the strawberry field to find big sticks for our shelter. First we found a Puffball Mushroom! Then we found two sticks and improvised with a low branch from another Spruce Tree after we noticed hundreds of wild grapes hanging low and heavy with fruit all over the tree. Lots of grapes were eaten today and we discussed what we might do with the abundance of grapes. Jude and Corbin decided that they would make grape jelly tomorrow at school and came back with many grapes to prepare.

After returning for lunch everyone played with creative tasks and life cycle games unstructured while we were inside. After lunch Denver stopped in to drop off some tables at the church and everyone got to say hello and help by holding doors open for him. The group decided to play in the backyard, where we engaged in "walkie talkie games" - I radio students instructions and they follow them. This had them doing push ups, jumping jacks, spinning, running and doing the Hokey Pokey until parents and guardians arrived to take everyone for weekend adventures.

Friday

Today began with morning circle and there was a LOT of energy to move! Suggestions for moving energy were running, jumping, log hopping and making music with our rhythm sticks on the logs. Once we have all the energy moved out, we sang our seven directions song, chose our animal cards and enjoyed restful and insightful sit spots.

Our morning story was not a story at all, it was a recipe! I sources a recipe for Wild Grape Jelly and shared it with the students. We read through the many steps required and they were not deterred! We set out with a bowl to collect 10 cups of wild grapes to make 1L of Grape Jelly. After some playtime high up in the Spruce Tree with walkie talkies, we ventures back to where we picked grapes yesterday. We picked for 30 minutes, then visited Potter's Creek to rinse the sticky purple juice off our hands. After, we checked out the Prickly Pears and headed to the second Grape picking spot. Students climbed the old fallen Willow tree that supported thousands of Grapes. When our bowl was full-ish, we rinsed our hands again in the Creek and started back.

On our way back, another Tree was climbed and at the base we found two Strawberries!!!! I've never heard of Strawberries in October before, however I cannot say that anymore! Both students ate the two strawberries and said they were very sweet and tasty <3

After our lunch break inside, we cleaned our Wild Grapes, counted how many cups we had (6), mashed them, boiled them, strained them and measured out 4 cups of concentrated Wild Grape juice to make jelly with next week. We will be using an Apple from the school Tree for a natural source of pectin and honey as the sweetener. The juice will sit in the fridge over the weekend and while it does, tartaric acid crystals should form. These crystals can really hurt the digestive tract, which is why we didn't go ahead and complete the jelly today. The juice will be poured off the crystals and we will make the jelly from tartaric acid free juice <3

After we packed away our juice for next week we headed back out to the park to swing on the swings and we brought our tree climbing gear to find a tree that we wouldn't be able to climb, and climb it. We saw minnows growing larger at the Creek, and a Marshmallow plant that is going to support making natural marshmallows next week too. Back in the school yard, students played their gaga-ball game.