It is our last week of forest playschool! We have had such an amazing semester with a fantastic group of kiddos. It is always bittersweet to say goodbye, but I know that our students will go on to do amazing things, whether they will be returning to Audubon in the fall or moving on to another program. We had a butterfly theme this week, symbolic of our students spreading their wings! We hid 26 monarch butterflies throughout the front yard for our morning activity. Our students were able to easily identify and find them all! The books we read this week were: I Wish I Were a Butterfly by James Howe, Monarch Butterfly of Aster Way by Elizabeth Ring, and Why is the Grass Green? A Just Ask Book by Chris Arvetis.
On Wednesday, we all planned our last day together during morning meeting. We chose to start our day with coloring. We enjoyed some free coloring in the shade of the front yard before lining up to hike down to Beaver Pond. At Beaver Pond, we searched for tadpoles, salamanders, and frogs! We also got to see how much the pond has changed since the last time we visited, thanks to the beaver. We hiked back up to the barn to have lunch at shady forest camp! It was a super hot and sunny day today, so we made sure to take lots of water breaks and hang out in the shade whenever possible. After lunch, Emily and I had a surprise activity planned: making native seed balls! We each got a handful of mud and some native wildflower seeds to put inside them. It was then time for thank you circle and pick up!
On Friday, we decided to hike down to Beaver Pond one last time this session. Before heading down, we made our native seed bombs! We love doing this activity with our students, and hope that the flowers bloom as bright as they do. We sailed through bathroom breaks and got down to Beaver Pond with plenty of time to explore and play. We searched for critters, played in the mud, and even got to see the beaver swimming around the pond! We brought our lunches down with us and ate in the sunny sugar house field. After lunch, we had some playtime at the field, climbing on fallen logs and running in the grass. We hiked back up to the barn and held our last thank you circle of the session before pickup.
Thank you all so much for such an amazing winter/spring session! It has been a joy to teach your children, discovering and learning alongside them each day. I cannot wait to see how far they all go!
Wednesday 5/22
Friday 5/24
