Forest Day Oct 8

We met our first challenge of the day on the trail. A medium sized branch had fallen across our path. The children had a few ideas of what to do. In the AM they decided they could walk or dance or climb over it and in the PM they decided they would jump or walk over it. 

In our classroom we were busy finding critters again. There were earthworms, centipedes/millipedes, a spider, and even a walking stick. In the afternoon we found a few woolly bear caterpillars and Mrs. Hruby found a snake. 

 Spider in the box and they kept peeking in and then closing the lid.

 Walking stick--look closely

 More walking stick

Both groups decided to build homes for the critters. In the AM a house was built of pine needles, pine cones, dirt, and leaves on the big rock for the worms. In the PM the caterpillars moved into a large branch home over a small hole. 

In the afternoon many children found they could dig with sticks or their hands. Soon we started to hear talk of buried treasure, X marking the spot, and pirates. 

In the morning many children worked on solving problems like how to climb up on a tall stump. A small log was rolled over and repositioned a few times as different children experimented with climbing up. All were very proud when they figured it out for themselves. 

We also had fun using our muscles for moving logs, balancing, rolling, and running.

The best part was hanging out with our friends.

One standard addressed today was:

Exploration, Discovery, and Problem Solving  A. EL. 3 Applies problem solving skills.