Nature is rich in beauty and colourful materials to excite that creative passion. We know the land as a place to play, but it is also a place that inspires us to express our feelings.
The sun was shining brighter in Harrington with a visit from our dear friend, Coyote! She loved seeing how much everyone had grown and wanted to find out how we were doing. We loved when she joined our activities in the morning and shared more of her wisdom about nature with us. We are looking forward to seeing her again soon (with Rosie:)!
Some people rake, while others love to jump in them. If you’re thinking ‘autumn leaves’ then you’re right. We can hardly wait until all of them fall to the ground! Leaves, flowers, and other natural materials are great to create land art designs. We used a white sheet as our canvas and sticks to frame it all in. It might be fun to see what other designs you can come up using the leaves in your yard. I bet your neighbours would happily donate some of their leaves to such a good cause!
On the west side of the pond, we were so happy to see our tree friends again. We gifted them with a beautiful rock with their name on one side and our nature name on the other. Some of us began making ‘home improvements’ to our tree spaces by using dry grasses and small sticks to create a low fence around them to make them feel safer. What other ways can you think of to make your tree feel special?
The leaf and tree match-up activity kept us moving and looking more closely at the details of leaves. We decided that the best way to identify them is to look at their shape, the kind of margins (outside edges) they have as well as their size. You can use this information and a kid-friendly tree guide to help you figure out who the tree friends are in your yard.
We talked about how and why leaves change colour.. We know that less sunlight in the fall cause the leaves to stop making chlorophyll. When this happens, the other pigments begin to be revealed. Do you remember what other colours of pigment can be found in leaves? Beaver showed us an experiment she did at home which allows you to see the different colours found in different leaves. Everyone was excited to receive the materials needed to do this experiment at home. Remember to take your filter strip out and dry it before bringing it on Friday so that we can compare our results.
Just before lunch, we ‘picked’ our way around Butterfly Hill, collecting fallen leaves and honourably harvesting a few wildflowers for a second art project in the afternoon. A lot of planning went into these nature masterpieces. It was interesting to listen to the decisions the partners made about where to place the items and it was even more exciting to see the expressions of joy when they turned the frames over and saw their finished pieces! If you were the lucky pick-up person, you were able to witness our ‘nature art gallery’ on the front steps of the hall.
The active game we played was called ‘Don’t Steal my Leaves’. All players/trees were ‘It” and each player tried to tag another player who then had to surrender one of their ‘leaves’. If both players touched at the same time, we used good old ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors’ to break the tie. How did you do in the game? Do you remember which person/tree ended up with the most leaves?
During library, Grey Squirrel shared some poetry books with us which focused on using all of our senses to capture our experiences in nature. We learned that poems didn’t have to rhyme but did use lovely language to paint a picture with words.
We were so inspired that we went right to our nature notebooks and created poems about fall. Everyone took turns sharing their poems and each person took our breath away writing lines such as “Colourful leaves sprinkle to the ground as animals tuck in for a gentle nap.” or “Earth is our treasure and that’s all we know.”
If you remember your poem, make someone’s day and share it with them. Maybe you are feeling so inspired that you want to write even more poems! Here's an absolute beauty by Water Bear.
Another visit to Mystery Forest proved that there really is no mystery about it! Its pull is that it is a place where everyone’s imagination can take over. Trees become shops and houses. Sticks become brooms and coat racks. Your friends become customers, neighbours, and even your boss! Instead of Mystery Forest, maybe we should call it “Magic Forest” because when we spend time there, time stops, Harrington disappears, and for that period of time, we have the chance to get lost in the world of make believe! See you next week, believe it our not:)
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