This morning's Forest Kindergarten took flight, when the children noticed a nearby tree full of turkey vultures.  We watched them for awhile--some were circling above the tree, testing thermal currents, while others rested and stretched their wings out to catch the morning sun.  Some of the children walked over quietly to see how close they could get.  I was so busy taking pictures that I wasn't able to call them back, when the first few birds took flight and soon the entire flock moved.  We didn't know it at the time, but we would catch up to them later, or perhaps they to us.  

     Before we left for our hike--to The Rocks this week, the children decided--we saw a crow chasing and harassing a cooper's hawk.  The hawk landed in a nearby tree, before taking off to the woods across the meadow from our own 100 Acre Wood.  The crow had lost interest by then.

     Once we reached the rocks, the children climbed immediately to the top.  There overhead, circled a large group of turkey vultures, very likely the group that we had seen in the tree earlier that morning.  I wished I had thought to take a picture, though I'm sure neither a photo nor words can properly convey the beauty of the woods on this crisp, sunny, fall morning with the light filtering through an increasingly sparse canopy of yellow, orange, and red leaves to an increasingly thick carpet of colored leaves below, with the black undersides of the vultures wheeling above.  It is another of those times in which I know I must have the best job in the world!

     After we returned to our forest classroom, some children made another discovery.  Hanging on a low tree branch was the remains of a gray squirrel.  The children decided that a bird, probably a hawk, must have dropped it, when it was dining above.  Some of the children, remembering Mocha's grave, decided that the squirrel needed a proper burial.  They found a spot just off one of our main trails.  They decorated the grave with leaves, twigs, and fittingly, walnut shells.  One child found a broken piece of clay pottery to use as the stone.  They plan to bring a piece of chalk back to inscribe the stone with the name "Nutkins", a very fine name for a squirrel. 

     Color day celebrations continue in Kindergarten.  For white days, the children wanted to eat bananas and drink milk.  They loved singing Raffi's "Baby Beluga".  They enjoyed the books, It Looked Like Spilled Milk and Great Cat.  We switched out our usual paper at the paint easel for large pieces of black paper, so that white paint would show up better.

     Following white days, we mixed all our previous colors with white to create pastel shades for pastel days.  Inspired by an egg coloring kit one child brought in for his pastel display, the children wanted to color eggs.  We hard boiled the eggs, and the children colored them several lovely pastel shades.  Then we ate them for snack, though some children saved their colored eggs and ate some uncolored extras we had set aside. 

     This week we began with silver days.  Using aluminum foil and our baskets of tubes, containers, and other usable trash, the children spent two days making model robots of various sorts.  The robot making even extended into gold days, when one avid robot maker brought the gold display, along with extra gold metallic wrap, gold beads for everyone, and golden yarn.  We sang "I Had a Little Nut Tree" and "Make New Friends".  The children even began singing "Make New Friends" as a round.  They were very pleased with their success.  They heard the stories Rumpelstiltskin, Princess Furball (one of my all time favorites), and King Midas. 

     On Wednesday, our friend Phil arranged for a storyteller to visit our school.  The Kindergartners sat with their Older Group partners to hear The Fairy Queen of Avalon sing, tell stories, and answer questions about fairies from the audience.  She even had the children on stage to help with a dancing song and in acting out a short story.  Several Kindergartners participated in the dance and the play.  The children also had many questions to ask, like, "How big are water fairies?" and "Does the tooth fairy live in Avalon?"  (The answers were--all sizes from very small to human-sized and no--she is mostly out doing field work.)

     Forest Kindergarten continues to be a highlight of our week, and even squeezed in an extra Forest Kindergarten day last Thursday, at the children's request.  We had our first visitors when the Older Group came to visit.  They use the 100 Acre Wood for their Enchanted Forest skits.  When I asked the Kindergartners what they wanted to tell the Older Group (OG), before they used the space that we use for our forest classroom, this is what they had me write:  "Do you want us to show you around?  Don't litter.  Don't change the lean-to or fire pit."  The children enjoyed showing their partners and the other OG children the areas we have been using.  The following Monday we took another long hike past The Rocks, The Cave, The Eye, and through the Lemon Squeeze to The Meatball Rock.  Several children tried climbing the rock without shoes and even tried hoisting each other up.  So far, no one is able to scale the mighty Meatball.                                                                                   

     Color days are continuing in Kindergarten. We finished celebrating primary colors last week with blue days. We even used dried blueberries in our trail mix for snack on Forest Kindergarten day. Blueberries and blue corn chips were the only blue foods the children could name. They decided that the corn chips were really more purple and asked to have them again for purple days this week. We read Blueberries For Sal and sang "Lavenders Blue", and even divided it into parts between the "dilly dilly" part and the regular verses.  One of the children's favorite blue day activities was making blue goo with glue, liquid starch, and blue food coloring. 

     For green days we mixed yellow and blue tempra paint and painted with yellow and blue food color in shaving cream.  The children planned a make-your-own salad snack with many green vegetables, including snap peas, spinach, lettuce, and broccoli.  We also ate green grapes.  We sang "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" and "Little Green Frog".  The favorite green day stories were Grandpa Green and Green Wilma.

     During purple days we found some purple flowers on our Forest Kindergarten hike.  The children requested shaving cream paint, so we mixed blue and red food coloring in with it.  This was a very popular activity, and the table was quite crowded with some jostling over space at first.  Eventually, one Kindergartner suggested, "Let's cover the whole table and make one big picture!"  Everyone quickly agreed and soon the whole table was covered with light purple shaving cream.  It was the first whole group effort this year, as they are beginning to get to know each other better.  For snack we made purple cow (ice cream, frozen grape juice concentrate, and seltzer water), ate purple concord grapes (a taste adventure with their tough skin, seeds, and tangy sweet taste), and of course had blue corn chips.  We sang "America the Beautiful" and read selections from our Harold's Purple Crayon collection.

     For brown days we walked through crunchy brown leaves on our way to swimming.  Phil, our Wednesday Kindergarten volunteer, helped children add words to their illustrations in their little brown books.  Three Kindergartners shared their books with the group at story time.  We made cinnamon buns (an all day project, as they needed to rise two times!) and used all our previously mixed paints together to make brown.  We read The Tree and All the Colors of Me, which explains how our skin gets its different shades of brown from our ancestors, the sun, and melanin.  We sang "Home, Home On the Range" and "Little Brown Ponies".  

     Last Friday's Grandfriends' Day was lovely with just a few sprinkles of rain at the end.  The children enjoyed showing grandparents and other special family and friends our room and the playgrounds.  The Older Group and Younger Group led the singing and played accompaniment for the song we had all learned, and the Younger Group performed a readers' theater version of Stellaluna.  Everyone had a chance to do a clothes pin doll craft together or do some more exploring of our room and playgrounds, before we all had tea and treats, served in the art and science room. 

     Forest Kindergarten continues to be a wonderful start to our school week.  Last week the children opted to spend the entire time in our forest classroom.  There was lots of exploring, as new paths open up with the change of the weather and plants.  We added to our lean to, using two wooden pallets as the frame now.  This week we brought the a-frame tent from the Kindergarten room (where it was languishing in a corner).  The  children decided to use it as one way to enter the lean to.  This week we took a long walk--all the way to the Meatball Rock by the Trailside Museum and back by way of the bike path and the Women's Park.  We found lots of seeds and several caterpillars.  The children are very eager for the weather to turn cold enough to warrant a fire in our fire pit and to get started with whittling.   

     As the leaves change color and fall begins, Kindergarten begins an exploration and celebration of colors.  We began last week with red.  The children created a display of red objects with items from our classroom.  They requested apples and red peppers for snack.  We had strawberries, as well.  They planned to make individual pizzas with red sauce and pepperoni for those who wanted it.  Several dough makers mixed and kneaded the dough for the crust on Tuesday morning.  Each Kindergarten topped their own pizza, and we baked them for a much enjoyed afternoon snack.  The children's favorite new song is "Little Red Wagon", and they modified "Little Grey Ponies" to "Little Red Ponies" in honor of red.  Two stories the children especially liked were Jamberry and The Giant Jam Sandwich. 

     Monday was Forest Kindergarten, in addition to being the start of red days.  We hiked down to the creek, where the some of the children worked in their sketch books, while others walked the banks of the creek or explored the concepts of shallow and deep by attempting to step on stones, some partially submerged.  Back in our forest classroom, we talked about building a lean to.  Our fire pit is outlined with stones.  While we were on our hike, a couple of parents delivered some wood for possible construction or firewood.  We have an area now designated for firewood storage near our fire pit. 

     Sadly, as we were saying hello to fall and color days, we needed to say good bye to one of our guinea pigs, Mocha, who had been sick and died over the weekend.  We buried him near the garden on Monday afternoon.  Some of the children helped dig the hole.  Everyone gathered for his burial, and many Kindergartners had a kind word to say about him. They have been giving Pistachio, our remaining guinea pig, daily attention, as he has always lived with his friend, Mocha. 

     On Wednesday we walked to the Antioch College Wellness Center to check out the gym and the pool, where we will be playing and swimming on Thursdays.  The children were very excited for our first gym and swim day on Thursday.  Thursday was also our first yellow day.  Once again the children gathered items to create a yellow display.  We ate bananas and yellow peppers.  This is a pepper eating group!  We sang "You Are My Sunshine", "A Tisket, A Tasket", and "Five Little Ducks".  The children also enjoyed some selections from The Stories Julian Tells.

     On Thursday morning, each Kindergartner made a sandwich for afternoon snack, after swimming.  The question of the morning was, "When will we go swimming?"  It was hard to wait until after lunch!  When we arrived at the Wellness Center, the children played in the gym, until it was our swim time.  After changing in the locker rooms, we met our Older Group partners at the pool.  I will definitely bring my camera next week, because the smiles during swimming were some of the best and biggest I have seen from this group so far!  There was lots of underwater swimming and jumping off the side to partners.  The children were very glad to have their sandwiches to eat, when we got back to school!

     Our Older Group partners joined us on Friday to sing a song that we have been learning for Grandfriends'Day.  The Kindergartners love their partners and are looking forward to swimming with them again next week!