Connection and creativity was the road we travelled today. Letting our noses lead the way, our ears sharpen, eyes zoom in, and hands explore texture and shape. Taste was easy as we have the best lunches of any school bar none! Early crab apples were another thing altogether!
Creativity is a good place to start in opening our minds and senses. These kids wished to showcase some of their talents and we jumped right on board. Check out the art, dance, music, knitting and sculpture presented to a very appreciative audience.
Our program weaves in reading and writing throughout the day. Our sensory hunt template used some word repetition which gave our early readers a starting point. What two words started each task. (Find something…). What were the senses you used on this hunt and what things did you find for each. Ask for specific examples for sight, taste, smell, sound and touch. For example, find something that has a pattern. This activity really brought our teamwork out, and challenged memory as the ‘sensory detectives’ were ready to challenge a full card with questions for both teammates. Strategies like adding pictures helped jog memory. Did your child choose to do this? What was the prize at the end?
Grey Squirrel was ready to link to our theme with an amazing book about what poetry can be inspired by. Ask about the animals in this story and what they felt was poetry in their world. Thank you Grey Squirrel for planning a really cool art activity to make sure our nature school kids had a fun gift for the dad’s in their lives. Here’s wishing all our father figures a very special day on Sunday.
We say goodbye to Mrs. Eastman for this year as she is attending her son’s graduation next Friday. I hope she knows how much the library programs she plans for us add to this community based nature school. It has been SO MUCH bigger and better than I ever imagined. We appreciate all you do for us Grey Squirrel.
If anyone asks you what makes Coyote Nature School programs in Harrington unique, it's an easy answer, 'community'. We are so fortunate to have the support of the Harrington and Area Community Association who partners with us and is always ready to get involved. Our recent mapping experiences were made possible with Harry (Hemlock) providing his naturalist talents and knowledge of the community for one of our older nature school students and a friend from the community. This is the kind of enrichment we strive to provide all our young minds.
Our afternoon looked like a trail of scent, sound and colour as we collected ‘juicy’ words from these encounters with our senses. See if you could get some colourful stories about; sound mapping, surprise texture bags, smelly cocktails, and colour walk. What is your child's special colour? (look for an orange name tag).
Our day ended before we got to the poetry of the matter. We sent a template home and asked if our group could look at the word bank of sensory words and create a poem to share next week (will be emailed). You may have a ‘Colour Poem” outline which focuses on all the senses or one with boxes to add an acrostic poem with single words. This allows everyone to access this poetry task at their level. Reach out if you want more instruction on this poetry project.
Tamarack and I are grateful for another day of learning with our Heron’s. After all the preparation and anticipation for each new day, we always simply have so much fun!
Solo time in the forest is important too. It gives space for reflection about the world around us.
Next week will bring our group together with fun and ceremony as we ‘live on this land', Turtle Island. Keep your senses open until we meet next week Forest Friends:)
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