Forest Books!

We have started an important part of our Forest Monday routine: Forest Plans and Journals. They go together to make a Forest Book, which will have each student’s plans and journal pages for the whole year. Before we go out, each student makes a plan for what they want to do, find, or play in the woods. After we return, they write a journal page about what they actually did. Sometimes they did their plan, sometimes they didn’t!

In our plans and journals, we are working on drawing clear pictures that show details, adding labels, and writing the date. Many kids are also starting to try and write sentences too.

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Isla’s plan was to “climb on the fort.” 

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This is Isla’s journal. She and Charlotte did climb on it, and Mrs. Johnson (Avery’s mom) told her to stop because it might break! 

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Gregory’s plan was to play Nexo Knights. He wrote it up the side, so I helped him make it easier for other people to read.

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In his journal, Gregory wrote about the most significant part of his Forest Monday: That he and Henry chopped up a huge semi-rotten log and pulled all the branches off it!

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Ainsley’s plan was to lie on the big log.

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In fact she played in the fort, where there were pine needles.

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Charlotte wanted to climb in the tent (fort).

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Though she played in the fort for a long time with Isla and Willow, she chose to journal about her Sit Spot. It is next to Paisley’s. 

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Isaiah also wanted to play Nexo Knights with his friends including Paisley.

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In his journal, Isaiah wrote about the big log where everyone played. 

After the Storm

After missing school for a week we were so glad to be back in our woods. It was our first rainy Forest Monday, but that didn’t stop us from immersing ourselves in the mud, pine needles, and leaves. Now that it is hunting season, we are all wearing our blaze orange.

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Playing “Sleeping Hare” in preparation for Sit Spots. If you stay still, the coyote won’t find you!

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Isla really looks like she is sleeping!

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This was one of the newly downed trees from the storm. It takes a looooong time to climb all the way along it. We found lots of places where squirrels had left the remains of their pine cone meals. They leave little piles of the pine scales.

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Some kids discovered that the tree had fallen right over the stream. They found water flowing underneath all the branches.