Squirrels, April 8th

These squirrels are getting super speedy at heading up the hill to our regular spot. Perhaps it's the sun, the lack of ice and snow or that their endurance has grown over the winter.

The theme for the day was obstacle courses and solar eclipses. We started the climb up the hill with a little obstacle course drawn out with chalk. The squirrels then took their own pieces of chalk and created their own obstacles for the group to complete.

Once up the hill we settled down for a story about taking the moon for a walk and had some good discussions about the different stages of the moon and what happens when the moon goes in front of the sun!

With lots of energy we set out to building our own obstacle or as Jono would say 'beastmasters' course. Each squirrel chose different loose parts and created their own obstacle to be part of the course. We had sliding challenges, slack line, aiming golf balls into a bucket, a color coordinated dance challenge, jumping and balancing challenges. It was fun to make and fun to try and master!

For the last bit of class we made and decorated pinhole cameras to look at the partial solar eclipse. We also practiced how to angle the camera to capture the light image and how not to look anywhere in the direction of the sun. It was discovered that the cameras made great kazoos before we poked the hole in them so we might be making kazoos next week and practicing our parade skills!

On our way down the hill we challenged ourselves with staying in a group and arriving at the same time - something that we are working on!