Hello one and all, welcome back to the best nature program of all! Dust off your jackets, layer up and join us for a day in the life of your Knee High Naturalists.
A beautiful, sunny morning welcomed us to class for our first day back in the New Year! We all arrived with smiles and plenty of layers, so excited to see our friends and catch up after a long break. We couldn’t resist reaching for the snow paint as soon as our back packs were off, testing out the new colors and quickly redecorating our morning meeting space. We also tried our hand at ice fishing using magnetic fishing poles to catch all sorts of native fish! We yelled with glee as we reeled in salmon, giant pike, trout, delicious sunfish and other fun fish like muskies, white fish and suckers. We cheered on our friends and celebrated as every new fish was tossed on the pile—it was hard to pull ourselves away to start class!
We settled back into our routine like we were never gone, quickly picking up our toys and cones before settling in on the blanket to go over our day. We reviewed our daily chart with ease and quickly joined in for a beautiful rendition of our Good Morning Song, one friend said she sang it before she even left home today! We packed all of our gear up in a big sled and made our way to the pavilion, ready to enjoy the wonderful winter day! We unpacked our gear, took off a few layers and settled in for snack at the warmest, sunniest picnic table we could find. We were excited to show everyone the delicious food we brought and snacks the we packed! As we munched and crunched, we talked about what we did over the holidays, our favorite fruits and caught up with each other.
During snack, we also worked together to create a Class Agreement—a set of rules or actions that make us feel safe, seen and welcomed in class! We decided quickly that kindness was a must, we want others to treat us with kindness and we want to treat them the same way. Nice was also a must, we want to be nice to all living things we see in class and tools that we use! We decided it’s nice to be/feel heard when we’re telling a story, communicating a need, etc. during class, so we added listening ears to our list, too. Finally, taking turns is essential, especially when we’re using our favorite tools, climbing trees, doing the weather for the day and so much more! Our question of the day was Would you rather spend your winter in a tree or underground? We were split pretty evenly on our location of choice, noting that a tree would be a fun, but slightly chilly place while underground could be fun because of all of the animals that spend their winters underground, too.
We colored, flew paper airplanes, slid down snowy rocks and painted the snow until we were all ready to rock and roll. We took turns talking about the weather, the season and the temperature before taking a vote on our activities for the day. Our options were to hike and look for signs of animals, climb trees and work on our fort or go sledding and begin our igloo construction…the decision was unanimous—igloo construction would begin! As we made our way over, we found rabbit tracks leading into the brush, we identified a tiny mouse track by the tail mark and even found deer tracks. We grabbed our sleds and began the fun, quickly remembering sledding rules and offering to help push each other or ride with a friend. Some of us went down on our own for the first time in a while, feeling so brave! Some of us raced our friends on parallel sled tracks and some of us learned how to push ourselves down the hill.
We had small plastic totes and found a good spot for our igloo in a spot that will have warm, wonderful sun during class. We figured out the best size and mapped it by making our own tracks around the circle before tightly packing snow blocks and arranging them around the circle. We learned that we need to fill the gaps between the bricks with more snow to make it stronger, this is called chinking. After chinking, we smooth down all the sides, making sure our snow blocks were very strong and ready for another layer of snow bricks next week. Eventually, everyone abandoned sledding and joined the construction crew, taking turns making snow blocks, helping fill the totes, chinking as new blocks were laid and offering support. Before we knew it, 30 minutes flew by and it was time for us to head home! We packed up our supplies and made our way back, so excited to tell our families about our first day back.
Thank you all for an incredible first week back, it was so nice to see everyone again, catch up and spend a beautiful day outside together. We can’t wait to see you next week when we become Ice Investigators and exploring all things ice related!
