It’s the last week of 2024 Forest Playschool! The students were very excited for the holidays coming up and all the fun that comes with them. One student even said he wanted to catch Santa and his reindeer with a netgun! (If Christmas presents don’t come this year, we’ll know why...)
This week’s animal-to-find was the eastern coyote. Eastern coyotes are different from their western relatives; they are larger in size and, on average, 26% wolf and 10% domestic dog. Grey wolves used to live in New England until the late 1800’s after hunting, trapping and habitat loss led to their extinction. But now the only traces of them are in our coyotes.
On Wednesday, the weather was cold and rainy, so Wednesday’s group decided to eat snack and lunch indoors as well as partake in creating snowflakes; the kids colored coffee filters with markers and had Emily and Truman cut holes in them to form symmetrical shapes. The group did spend half of the day outside searching for our coyote cut-outs and free playing at Forest Camp.
On Friday, the weather was far more forgiving so we were able to do snack and story and lunch outside at the picnic tables. We also hiked to Mossy Rock where we enjoyed climbing the giant boulder and playing with logs and sticks.
The student’s enthusiasm and curiosity for the outdoors has led to a super fun year from playing in the water at Beaver Pond to planting acorns in the woods outside the center. We thank everyone for joining us in our outdoor adventures and can’t wait to see our students return in January. Happy holidays from Audubon Vermont.
