What a day! Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow yesterday meaning there is more winter to come! Also, I learned that Ground Hog's Day is the mid-point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. So enjoy the snow and the increasing amounts of daylight with it! We started as we always do, coloring inside or playing in the snow outside. Today, Emily was at an AmeriCorps training, so Rae, our education intern for the spring, joined us.She and some friends were exploring a snow shelter that Audubon's homeschool group made the day before. It fits 1 kid comfortably or about half of an adult uncomfortably. We also had a new friend with us too, so after we came in for morning meeting, we got to review what we do at Forest Preschool and reintroduce ourselves. We put on our coats and headed to the porch to fill up our bird feeders. Those birds ate all the food this week! We had to fill up all of the feeders! After a bathroom break we got suited up to have snack at Forest Camp. It was a pretty "warm" day but we got chilled from sitting while having snack. Debbie asked the best way to get warm when outside and we said "Moving!". And so, we learned the Jumping Mouse Song. This is a song that a friend learned from another forest preschool who was happy to share some information. It is really easy to learn and the best part is you can change the words to any animal you want BUT you have to jump the whole time. It goes like this:

Weeeeee're mice, mice, mice, mice, mice, mice, mice

Whooooooo jump, jump, jump, jump,jump,jump,jump

Weeee're mice who jump

Weeee're jumping mice

Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump!

It turns out that preschoolers have a lot of energy, so even though Debbie's calves were burning, they wanted more jumping! Which is good. We warmed up enough to go play "What time is it Mr Fox" in the garden.

After a few rounds of finding out that it was "Lunch Time" we scurried back to Forest Camp to pack up our things and head back to the barn to warm up and have lunch. As we ate we listened to a story about Sparky the Fire Dog who helps people make sure they have safe homes and fires and have a fire plan. We talked about what we would do if there was a fire at the barn and decided that since our number one rule at Forest Preschool is to stick together we would go together to the big rock near the kiosk. We will practice this next Friday when we have our first fire at Forest Preschool this winter.

After lunch and story we made some stamp art with the stamps we made last week and made nice new ones to take home. Then we settled in for our thank you circle and said goodbye!

See ya next week!