A Day for a Climb

We didn't plan it, we just set out to see what we could see and do what we could do. The children chose a few favorite spots before we set out, including "the play place" and "the sawdust place."  While we were playing, we noticed that there was one particularly adept climber in our group, up a tree,  and all of the children insisted in a try!  WE (their adult friends!) insisted in being spotters. Everyone who wanted to had a climb, and of course we took pictures:o).  At the "sawdust place" there was more climbing, closer to the ground, and exploring.  We found a bone (!) which, although the children speculated that it might be a dinosaur bone, when we showed the science teacher she helped us to notice the hollowness of the bone and the little scratch marks from mice gnawing, was identified as a turkey bone. We were very happy about the snow that fell while we walked, and there was lots of tasting!
Until Next Time,
Michele

the climber

interested!

how to go up

then down

up!

up!

these two had their own game going on, no need to climb!

this one needed a bit more assistance to go up!

focused on being up!

this is trust!

catching the snowflakes

delicious and worth waiting for!

look what we found!

sawing

lower levels of climbing

icy boots!

there's a log! climb on!

 brrrrrrrr! Out we go. The children bundled up quickly to get out to the woods! We walked and stopped and looked and climbed and poked and talked. In the end, we found the ice that we had left to freeze a couple of weeks ago, but the wind had moved a few and all we found were the pans. We carried the ice successes to the little tree by the school to hang them up, and hustled inside for snack and journal coloring.
Until Next Time,
Michele

poking

talking

walking

"this looks like popcorn"

holding back branches for my friends to walk by, and forging a new path

over the bridge

ice success! naturally.

wet mittens!

beginning a design

 Planet Parker headed out to the frosty wet forest to spend some time there. It was wet! We found a lot to check on, including little bits of things, drops of water on branches to knock off,  and wet snow. We'll have to check on our ice again next week...it isn't "done" yet...

Until Next Time,
Michele

looking closely

something to explore

I found this

touch

trying our balance!

ICE?

I found this

heading in

icy stuff!

we are soooo ready to go!

a different way to get down the hill

ice!

 We spent a wonderful afternoon in the forest, looking at, touching, and hopefully making ice. The children bundled up and we headed out ready to look and explore. We visited our familiar favorites with some extra close looking in between times (and many smiles)

one at a time over the bridge....look at the ice!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frost#Advection_frost

At the end of our walk, we placed special pieces in a pie tin, added water and a loop of string, and we hope to find ICE soon!

Until Next Time,
Michele

ice crystals under the leaves...hoar frost?

digging for ice crystals

a bird's nest!

if you look closely, you can see snowflake crystals

this is the iron wood tree!

our favorite familiar tree

 frost crystals

gathering items to make an ice picture

arranging the materials

waiting to freeze......