Squirrels - March 12

Finally we had a warm, spring day to play! Everything was muddy and wet, the perfect conditions for fun! The squirrels discovered that the hole in the ground was full of water good for stirring and floating things in. Alden even used it as a wading/jumping puddle (or lake!). The first order of business was to find a dry spot for the backpacks and wagon. We found a good spot on the hill for our home base and set up mud kitchen. There was a little river of water flowing down the path good for scooping up water from and plenty of mud. The squirrels were also thrilled to discover that there was an abundance of pine cones unlike our usual spot. We enjoyed some free play with the kitchen and in the water. Some of the squirrels wanted to build a fort with some sticks they found so we strung up a tarp in between some trees. The little group of kids enjoyed some storytelling and conversations taking place. The teachers brought a wooden letter that starts their name that we painted and coloured and did a mapping activity with them. On a map we had several landmarks like our fort and backpacks and the wagon. Everybody hid someone else's letter at a landmark and put it on a map. The kids have to find their letter by reading the map and figuring out what landmark to look for it at. It practices our mapping skills and makes it a game! Witt wanted to play blob tag so we played, lots of people like being the blob and when they couldn't catch Mika they came up with a plan to trick her! We also played Coyote, Mouse on the path and everybody had a turn being wolf during what time is it, Mr Wolf? We finished by doing some carving, something we are going to move into now that our hand won't get cold. Using gouges we carved soft candles practicing different ways of cutting it with the gouge and sanding it smooth.