Paisley’s plan: “I want to see tracks and the hole and scat.” In Morning Meeting we learned about ruffed grouse (or partridges) and how they leave a hole in the ground where they slept overnight. Paisley is working on putting a whole sentence on the paper and spelling her snap words right!

Avery’s plan: “I am going to find some water.” She used spaces between her words, spelled snap words right, and put a period at the end.

Willow’s plan was also to find a grouse hole. She wrote “hole,” “sit spot,” and “me.” Her picture helps tell her story clearly!

We certainly found water! All of the little streams were flowing.

Dakota found a hole in the field. Could it be a grouse sleeping hole or is it something else? We didn’t find any scat in it.

Ainsley made a slide in her Sit Spot and she kept on bashing into a stick. She says it didn’t hurt.

Dakota found  new tree to climb at his Sit Spot.

Gregory helped Mr. Frank saw some dead branches for the fire. Here is the one he sawed.

Journey and Reuben were our First Grade Leaders. They were scraping the bark on a tree.

The big hill was a fast and slippery slide today. We had a lot of fun on it!

 The whole class and the First Grade Forest Leaders came out to slide. Isla was going crazy down the slide and yelling. Ian was excited on the slide. A lot of us bumped into trees. Avery was screaming too because it was fun. We also slid into the mud at the end and we got messy. Willow made her own slide that was so fun. It was smaller and had no mud. Olivia was screaming too. Henry and Gregory made their own slide.

Did you know that Journey is Gregory’s sister? 

A few of us got our feet soaked and very cold. Ian made up a song about his boots, “My boots are a swimming pool!” and sang about all the animals that came to swim– a mouse, a crab, some fish. It made us all laugh. We took off wet socks, dried our feet by the fire, and put on fresh wool socks. That helped!

We love Forest Monday! Especially when it is warm and sunny. Ainsley also wanted to say that she saw some tracks on the playground that looked like dog tracks. 

Paisley’s Forest Plan: “I will see a bird and bird tracks.” Paisley did an excellent job labeling her picture and writing a letter for each word in her sentence.

Avery’s Forest Plan: “I am looking at the woodpecker.” Avery is working hard on keeping her handwriting neat. She drew a lot of details in her pictures, including the woodpecker and the hole it pecked through the tree. She drew moss on the other tree.

Willow’s plan was to find a ladybug. She labeled her picture with the sounds she heard: “Ladybug,” “head,” and “back.”

Charlotte wrote: “I am going to listen for a woodpecker.” She put spaces between her words and learned to spell the word “am.”

Here is Dakota showing his Forest Plan.

Dakota’s Forest Plan: “I am sledding and doing a somersault.” His picture clearly matches his words and he used spaces between his words.

Josie was a First Grade Leader. She played in the woods with us.

We were all hiking to the woods. It is always really long and tiring. But do we give up? No!

Dakota was hanging on his tree in his Sit Spot. He was swinging.

Here is Avery and her mom, Mrs. Johnson. Avery was in her Sit Spot and she was leaning against her mom.

Here is Willow in her Sit Spot. She was laying down with her stick. She was listening for a woodpecker.

This is Ricky, another First Grade Leader. He was eating his sandwich by the fire.

These two girls were looking up in the tree at something. They thought it was a beehive.

These are turkey tracks. We can tell because they have three parts.

Paisley and Ainsley were rolling down the hill and having fun. Henry and Gregory did it later and he ran and kept on slipping down.

These are woodpecker holes. They were looking for bugs in the tree to eat.

Henry, Gregory, and Dakota were playing rescue deer on top of the roots. If an animal tries to kill a deer, the deer rescue team would shoot the bad animal. And then the team would go get the deer to rescue it.

Gregory was climbing.

Willow is doing some math work with snowballs. We are working on subtraction. We took apart a group of snowballs. Willow took apart 5 to make 2 and 3.

Dakota took apart 5 to make 2 and 2 and 1.

Avery was climbing on the big pine and she was way on top of the branch. She felt a little bit scared but she liked it. She was standing up straight with no arms holding on.

Henry’s plan: “I see a deer.” He labeled his picture and used color to make it look realisitc.

Isla’s plan: “I am going to play bear cave.” We learned this morning that black bears are giving birth to their cubs in early February.

H

Willow’s picture shows all the things she is going to do in the woods. You can see deer tracks on the left side with labels, the fire area, and a squirrel. She labeled her picture and included a lot of detail.

Gregory’s plan: “I am going to find a real deer.” He labeled “water,” “deer,” and “me.” He is working on spelling snap words right like “to” and “a.”

Aisley and Paisley found some deer scat.

Here is the deer scat. It is shaped like ovals, little beans or eggs.

This is Ian with the river (wetland) in the background. The ice has melted. The water was flowing pretty fast. And at Avery’s Sit Spot she heard the water rushing.

The First Grade Leaders were helping work on the tent (fort) some more. The sticks were falling off.

Ian, Gregory, Henry, and Willow were discovering what the water was doing.

Henry was helping a friend here. She had wet mittens so he gave her a pair of his extra ones.

Willow found a mushroom. She found it down on the hill where a tree was knocked down. She picked it off. It was dry.

Paisley was climbing on the tree that was knocked down. She was hanging from it.

Avery was kneeling on the high part of the tree. A little while later, Henry was behind her and he was standing on a stick that broke. Then Avery fell down a little ways. It was scary and she got a little bit hurt. She cried a little.

Here is everyone climbing on the big pine.

Today Ainsley fell on the ice in the woods and hit her eyebrow. It was a drag and it hurt a lot. But here she was climbing and feeling good!