It's all new! Well, all the good stuff is the same:

• outside as long as we can stand it
• Nature-based, emergent learning
• making connections to this wonderful place with call the Green Mountain Audubon Center and to each other

What's new?

• An extra hour each day!
• Cooking over a fire and light food prep altogether!
• Picnic lunch at Audubon!

This gives us more time to explore, more time to spend with each other, and more time to build/dig/deconstruct/hide/and BE outside. So for our first session, we started on the lawn and in the open barn with some free play and a chance to meet each other. Then we had our first Morning Meeting, getting to meet each other and hear about something exciting we did from the summer to now. Some of us shared that we went camping or visited family and some of us shared what we had for breakfast that morning! But we all shared. As the year goes on, this will be our space to share about ourselves and update each other about what we do when we are not at Audubon. Its a great time to bring in those cool nature finds from the week, too! Then after a bathroom break we headed out to forest camp. We learned the now well-worn path to camp, went through the magic arch, and got right to work! We needed to move our fire circle to a safer (see: flatter) spot. So we lined up and rolled our stump chairs down the hill! Then we rearranged them into a nice circle and had snack at our new spot, while Debbie told a story about one really responsible llama and one not so responsible llama, who have different ways of taking care of their home. And forest camp is going to be our special place in the woods that we get to make our own, so that takes responsibility! After snack, we got to work! We cut down a tree! We needed to make a nice clear area for our new fire circle and a maple sapling was too close. With Debbie's help, we each had a turn to use the bow saw. Then we all stood clear while Debbie and Jamie guided the tree to the ground. We all helped carry it out of the space and most of us thanked the tree for making clean air and kissed/smelled the stump (it smelled good!) [[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"9556","attributes":{"class":"media-image alignnone size-full wp-image-1040","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"2304","height":"1728","alt":"img_3657"}}]] Next, some of us searched for rocks to build a new fire ring and safety ring and some of us took an old fort down that was too close to the trail. Before we knew it, it was lunch time! We decided to take our lunch up to Mossy Rocks for a picnic. Then we could eat and play somewhere new.   And then, it was time to go home! It was a wonderful start to a new session of Forest Preschool! See you next time!