It's always funny when our Friday and Monday morning meeting leaders choose nearly identical plans for our day without any communication, but that's what happened this past week! Both groups chose to do a spooky coloring craft and go on a hike to lookout rock. Emily and I had planned for both groups to carve pumpkins this week as well.
Both groups started their day searching for bears, squirrels and birds around Forest Camp.
Friday
After morning meeting we ate snack inside the barn because of rain and spent some time coloring in pumpkins. Emily and I asked the playschoolers to design four pumpkins so that we could cut them out and laminate them. Next week we will hide our pumpkins in the morning to start our day! The students were very excited about the possibility of finding the pumpkin they colored in.
As I mentioned, our morning meeting leaders for Friday and Monday chose the same activity and hike - but, we had very different weather and hiking routes to Lookout Rock. On Friday, we took the long way. We started on the Hires Trail from the barn parking lot and came back down the hill past forest camp. The playschoolers did an awesome job hiking in the rain! We couldn't see Camels Hump or Mount Mansfield from the top because of the clouds, but we still had fun sitting and chatting on the rocks.
After our hike, it was time for lunch in the barn. Our final activity together was perhaps the most exciting because we carved pumpkins! Don't worry, no playschoolers were wielding knives. Emily and I did the carving, but the playschoolers helped us design the pumpkins by telling us what shapes to make the facial features.
Monday
On Monday, we colored in ghosts for our spooky craft before starting morning meeting. Just like Friday, each playschooler had four ghosts to design that Emily and I would cut out and laminate to hid for next week. I saw purple ghosts, striped ghosts and even rainbow ghosts! After coloring, our morning meeting leader planned the day. He wanted us to have a change of scenary and eat our meals out on the front lawn today. So, we circled up in our chairs to eat and listen to a story before our hike.
Our morning meeting leader decided that he wanted to take the shorter way up and down to Lookout Rock. When we started passing an area we call "Mossy Rocks" about halfway up our hike, the morning meeting leader asked me if we could make a detour here. I was thrilled because this is a new area to this group! We parked our Noodle Train and started climbing all over the rocks and trees.
After having some free explore time at Mossy Rocks, we played in the leaves. We threw leaves into the air and watched them come spiraling down. Then we worked together as a team to make a giant pile of leaves to jump in.
We had so much fun in the leaves! Then it was time for us to continue up the hiking trail. We could see the mountains today, but their peaks were shrouded in clouds.
We made our way back down so that we would have enough time for lunch and pumpkin carving! Just like Friday, we split into two carving groups and had the playschoolers design our pumpkins face. Then, Emily and I carved the best we could.
Can't wait for next week!
