What wonderful snow we had this week. It was light and fluffy and we still had warm weather too!
We met up with the Burrowing Owls for a change today (they are a grade 4-6 class that runs at the same time). They showed us an eye-spy style game where you have to find small objects in a small area with the help of a map. A great step in learning navigation skills and spatial thinking.
The Squirrels got to each pick a small object like a paintbrush or a pair of scissors to hide in the area. Then one of the teachers would put a pushpin on the map where you hid it. It was a fun challenge to not look at your object and keep a poker face while the Burrowing Owls searched.
We could not resist a sledding break with all the great snow. Today we had some (empty) chicken feed bags for sledding and they worked great! Squirrels and Burrowing Owls alike came shooting down the hill on them! The Burrowing Owls even had rigged up a train of chicken feed bags attached together. It was not very successful at first because they sideswiped a tree (everyone was fine). The Squirrels kept sledding while the Burrowing Owls hid us objects to find. Then it was our turn to search high and low. Some of the objects were really tiny beads and everyone ended up crawling around looking by the end.
We decided to go back to sledding. We went to a steeper hill with no trees this time. And the Burrowing Owls train worked! Lots of squirrels even ended up riding on the train! The hill was steep and slippery and hard to climb. Eventually some ropes were rigged up and the Burrowing Owls helped us climb. The Squirrels loved playing with the older children and were sad to leave. Thank you for having us Burrowing Owls!
We walked to our drey and started our snack. We also mixed up our ingredients to make soup for a group treat! Once the snack was over we split up: some of the Squirrels practiced lighting matches and others learned to chop wood.
Mr James started the fire for our soup and some children watched and helped, some kept chopping wood with Mika and others practiced building and lighting a second fire with Celine. We also had some children learning to use flint and steel. Soon the soup was ready and it was delicious! Thanks for sending some ingredients from your homes too.
It warmed us up and almost everybody went back for seconds, definitely a good sign. We cleaned up and walked down the hill in time for a few rounds of What time is it Mr. Wolf? See you next week Squirrels!