We were sad to say goodbye to the woods today, but are excited for summer!
Have a great summer! And don’t forget that the woods are yours to visit as much as you would like this summer.
Author: bhmforestdays
The Joy of June
This week Mrs. Johnson’s class joined us outside. We had a blast in the warm, dry, June weather. And there weren’t even too many bugs!
Hadlee: “I am gonna look for deer scat in the field.”
Grace: “I want to find roly-polies with Elliana.”
Elliana: “I am looking for snakes with Cameron, Zoey, Alec, Elijah, and Jake.”
Alec: “I want to find three salamanders underground.”
We thought that our tree buds would have grown into leaves by now. We were right!
Many of us played Hide and Seek. Silas found a great spot!
Holden found a stick that looked just like a bow and arrow.
Eleanor and Alec were at the center of the worm and slug hospital operation.
Camden and Carlos played a game where they stood on one side of the ravine and threw sticks into the mud on the other side. They got points if they got their stick to stay in the mud. You can see all the little holes!
We are getting really good at climbing little trees!
Our debrief. The robin’s nest was the big find of the day! We are writing a class book about it.
Rainy, Sluggy, Lush Forest Monday
We saw and heard so much during Sit Spots today. The woods were lush! There were tons of warblers and other birds flying around and singing. A chestnut-sided warbler came right up to our fire circle: “Please, please, please, please-ta-MEET-cha!”
Alec. It was a great day to play in the stream in one of our ravines.
I believe Elijah was a Megalodon.
Hunter and Grace. A few of us got stuck in the mud!
Leah, Eleanor, Willow (our first grade leader, but it feels like she never left the woods!), and Celia. They were escaping the Megalodon.
Elliana. Earlier she took a full body tumble into the stream!
Cameron, Willow, Leah, Jacob, and Zoey with their slug houses. They had over ten slugs!
Celia found a comfortable tree.
Cameron: “We found slugs and made homes for them. And we got them on trees and logs.”
Elijah: “I found a slug and a worm on the basketball court and we walked on the basketball court.”
Zoey: “I got dead leaves for the slugs. I found one slug.” (And then she added “on the ___” and I can’t tell what that word is! Hill?)
Leah: “We went to the ravine and played run away from Elijah.”
Elliana: “We ran away from Elijah. We ran under a tree.” She didn’t quite finish her picture, but worked hard on what she did get done!
is
Eleanor. Apparently this game is common or important enough to deserve an official name.
Jacob: “We made a house for the slugs.” And he labeled “wood” and “sticks”
May the Forest Be With You
We had a fabulous Forest Monday with Mrs. Johnson’s class too. We’ve missed them and are glad they can come out with us again. Mr. Frank was back too! Better a late post than no post.
Hunter: “We played Star Wars.” Colton: “We ate lunch.” Leah: “We climbed a log.” Kenzie: “This is me and Eleanor and Elliana. We played baby birds. It was fun.” Finn: “There were a lot of bugs.” Jacob: “We saw all of the water.”
Grace: “Me and Grace and Hadlee played baby birds.” Cameron: “Me and Jacob made a house for the worms.” Hadlee: We played birds. some people used their jackets for wings.” Elliana: “My tree had buds and leaves.” Celia: “We played birds.” Eleanor: “We climbed trees.”
This is how you can safely break a stick!
Silas and Mason broke a LOT of sticks.
Mystery goo… seriously a mystery. It looked like frog eggs but with no eggs inside and was halfway up the hill from the wetland. ????
Lots of birds were out today. In big nests… (Elliana, Grace, Leah)
… and making small nests (Brooklyn).
Eleanor was a bird who could whittle.
Without Grundens it was easy to do a lot of climbing and not worry about them getting holes. (Grace, Hadlee, Trinity)
Emmalin and Camden were exploring a new apple tree. Emmalin got really high!
And our good old climbing pine (Zoey and Finn, and Mr. Frank back in action!)
Even Mrs. Johnson climbed! (with Jacob). Ten minutes after this picture was taken, when she was trying to get down… “Avery! Avery! (the nearest kid) “How far away is the ground?” Avery: “Really close!” Phew.
We just love the spring!
Hands Up for Green!
Today was one of those days when you don’t ever want to go inside. Warm and dusty, a bit windy, green buds just beginning to pop, and especially glorious after so much rain last week.
Eleanor
Hadlee: “I want to find birds in a nest.”
Colton: “I hope to play with Hunter in the woods and I want to plan to see the birds.”
Celia: “I want to find chickadees with Eleanor.”
Grace: “Me and Hadlee will find a bird on the tree.”
Cameron: “I want to find a blue jay in the trees!”
Jacob: “I want to hear a blue jay.”
Kenzie: “Me and Leah and Elliana and Ms. Atkins are going to get sticks to make a fort.”
Hunter: “I hope to find birds with Colton. I will use my binoculars.”
Leah: “I want to find birds in the field.”
What we actually did. We also heard and saw crows and chipping sparrows, but none of the other birds we had hoped for.
Finn: “There are leaves!!!” Sometimes you just gotta use binoculars to look at things close up too.
A blue jay in his nest, with his eggs (pine cones).
And a mother chickadee feeding her babies worms… (for pretend!)
Making a worm home / castle.
Castle getting taller.
Worm that broke when we weren’t careful with our digging. We decided that we couldn’t fix it in the end, and sadly it will probably die.
Kenzie’s fort!
And real binoculars are REALLY fun to use on close up things. We also practiced on far off things.
Eliana’s arsenal of guns during Cops and Robbers. (Also don’t you love her clothes pairing? T shirt with balaclava. That is spring weather for ya.)
Alec: “Listen to the sound this mud makes.”
The wasp nest that Celia’s grandmother gave us last week. It was so cool to peel apart and look at the layers! If Zoey had the super power to make paper with her mouth like a wasp she would be called “Wasp Kid.”
Sometimes we have to play on the same log all together. I honestly have no idea what the game was this time!
Elijah: “Hey! The grass is green!” Hands up if you love green grass!
Spring Changes at Last!
Friends hunting for a real or pretend snake… not sure which.
Eleanor in one of the houses. She is a baby.
And we went down to the wetland, at Elijah’s request.
Wetland play!
After we come in, especially after a damp and muddy day like today, it is so cozy to settle down and read. Did you know that this whole class of Forest Kids are also avid readers?
When was the last time you had a picnic while it snowed? In April?
This week we were working on using Fundations lines in our writing in order to neaten up our handwriting, to make it easier to read. These writers did a pretty good job staying in the lines. Bonus to those who used lowercase letters!
Colton: I hope to see a bird. I will look in the woods.” (finished on the back).
Leah: “I want to find a snowshoe hare rabbit with Eleanor.”
Hunter: “I hope to find buds and icicles. I want to find them on my tree.”
Cameron: “I want to find garbage. I want to put it in the garbage.”
Finn: “I want to find new tracks.”
Celia: “I want to find a deer track with Eleanor and me.”
Hadlee: “I want to find deer tracks.”
Eleanor: “I want to find deer tracks and scat under trees with Celia.”
The famous fly. We got a lot of mileage out of this little guy!
We were so happy to have “saved” the fly! Can you find it? (Hint, same mitten as before.)
Snow Mostly Gone
Hunter: “I hope to find buds on the trees. I think they’re bigger.”
Hadlee: “Me and grace are gonna find deer scat on the ground.”
Leah: “I want to find green stuff in the woods.”
Eleanor. That is “ice that has patterns on it.”
Celia: “I want to find feathers in the field.”
Elijah. That says “a black snake.” We looked and looked, but didn’t find any and decided it was probably too cold still.
Grace. That is “deer scat.” Luckily we find it every time!
“There is no snow left!!!”
Our ice sheet in the woods was gone too. Just a little ice left in the deepest part of the ravine.
We found these last week too on the edge of the woods. Sarah from CREA thought they might be owl pellets.
Elijah: “Look, a deer has bitten this bud off.”
Green! We found these tiny leaves tucked under dry grass in the field.
And Elliana found green ferns too!
We went down in the wetland and had to cross some small streams flowing through the frozen mud.
And then the bigger stream was flowing too! We found a thin ice bridge.
Spring!
Apologies for no post last week. I’m having issues loading pictures onto my home computer here… So hence only a phone picture this week too. Hope to resolve that soon!
Feels Like Spring!
My mom, Jenny Atkins, was visiting today, and came out to help in the woods. So thanks to her for many of the pictures today!
Notes about the story of our day.
Fox tracks on our hike.
Share time after Sit Spots. Kids noticed things like the fact that sticks were buried under new snow, that it was sticky packing snow, the wind, and the sounds of their own breathing (that one was Hunter).
Lunch. Warm enough to comfortably have hands out of our mittens!
Sliding was getting rough, so we made a new plan for going one at a time and waiting in line.
Sliding!
Leah’s lichen.
Shoveling was an important job today.
Eleanor’s dad was our other fire tender today, and he brought her little sister Margaret too (the one looking at Elliana). We celebrated Eleanor’s birthday.
Hadlee is our new Forest Kid of the Week! She is doing a great job staying within sight of the teacher (Responsible), listening to her friends share (Focused), and playing with everyone (Caring). Go Hadlee!
