Sticks and Stories

A new week and many new discoveries for the Forest Dreamers!

Our week really focused on storytelling. It was a BIG hit with our class! We discussed our own unique, special gifts that each one of us possesses and heard folk stories regarding this theme. Miss Paula told an old folk story about a team of animals working together to help a wounded deer. She drew out the story as she was telling it, and we used the pictures to be able to re-tell it together! Miss Sophie brought one of her favorite stories- Anansi  the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott. We loved this tale so much, we decided to dress ourselves up in paint and act out the story! We even recorded it! We have some talented little actors in our class and Miss Paula was a pretty funny Anansi!

On Tuesday, we explored the stream, but didn’t have to go far, we found out that there was a part of the stream that ran parallel to the meadow very close to our usual stomping grounds.  I wonder what other new areas of Irvine we will find…

Miss Sophie, the plant and animal expert in our class, taught us about Quercus Alba which is a really fancy way of saying White Oak. We also found some Nightshades in the meadow which in this case, was a fancy way of saying ‘Meadow Tomatoes’.  With all of this new information, its a good thing we have our journals!

Thursday, we added onto our ongoing discussion about sticks. We talked about how Native Americans used sticks and rocks as tools for hunting. On our way down the trails, we searched for ‘spear-like’ sticks so we could practice hunting. We then ended up at the barn around the fire ring pretending to be Native Americans! Some hunted ‘wild game’ with their sticks, while others collected plants and other various meadow items for imaginary soups, clothing, blankets and medicine. One of our friends  discovered that the burned wood from the fire ring could serve as a tool for drawing pictures to make stories! The creativity from our class is astounding!

Carry on, FD Tribe!