The Kindergartners have had several wonderful winter mornings in our forest classroom in January. We've had snow twice! The children have loved observing animal tracks, as well as making many tracks of their own. They requested a hike down to the creek, so that they could slide otter-style in their snow pants. They've been able to check their theory that "moving water doesn't freeze". We hiked to the cave and found icicles approximating stalactites and stalagmites. We've had fires each Forest Kindergarten morning this month. The children collected and sharpened marshmallow sticks and roasted marshmallows to celebrate our first substantial fire. We have cooked oatmeal twice on our camp stove. Most recently, a parent helper tended our fire, while we were hiking, so that we had enough coals to cook over on our return. We made bannock bread and cooked it on sticks, which the children helped collect and whittle. One Kindergartner declared it "the best thing I've ever eaten!" Everything really does taste better when you cook it yourself outdoors!
The children have also been enjoying the start of our celebration of letters with Letter Days. So far we have celebrated Tt, Mm, and Bb. The group decided that they wanted to merge name days with our letter days, so when someone's name starts with the letter we are celebrating, that person gets a day to plan a special activity and snack for the group. For Bb days, in addition to the wonderful bannock bread they made in our forest classroom, the children have been working with fuse beads and decided to have a bear and babies day. Children brought bears or baby dolls from home or borrowed one from our collection at school. We chanted "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" and sang "The Teddy Bears Picnic". We also read Beady Bear, Corduroy, and Brown Bear, Snow Bear.
If you've been to the school lately, you may have noticed our word collections on our classroom door. The children are beginning to notice and think of words that start with the day's letter throughout the day, so look for ever-increasing numbers of words to be appearing in our collections. The children are looking forward to ice skating next week for Ss days and are beginning to talk about Valentine's Day and Lunar New Year, which are coming up in February.
