A Day in the Glen
Oftentimes in Forest Dreamers, we leaders struggle with the decision to let the children decide our day. Today, the children were VERY focused on the area surrounding the Glen and nowhere else. We had a small crew today and they seemed very content to spend time exploring and investigating the forest floor.
Tuesday consisted of:
Food Truck and Spicebush rescue
Shredded chicken and fire starter
Teepee construction and destruction
and…salamander searches!
Somedays you just need to slow down and take a deep breath. I think everyone enjoyed a day of place-based play!
Checking out the Headwaters
Thursday was a beautiful day and everyone was eager to search for some water! We decided to follow up with our previous play at the “headwaters” of Irvine’s streams and ponds. We grabbed our nets, containers, and bags and headed out in search of water and tadpoles.
One of the most exciting parts of being outside every day is that there are new things emerging all the time. The birds are starting to find their spring voices and we quietly walked down the valley wall trail searching for the pileated woodpecker that greets us every morning. At the ponds, the children gently walked around searching for tadpoles. They were not disappointed!
With the promise of more animals and insects, we finally reached the stream. Several of our friends used the roots to climb the steep embankments, shouting, “I did it. I did it. I really did IT!” Other children grabbed some nets and spent the class catching and trying to identify macro-invertebrates. I think our favorites were the crane-fly larvae and the colorful striped stone-fly! All in all, the streams at Irvine are very healthy.
