This was our last Friday together of the year! By now, everyone in our group has had the opportunity to be morning meeting leader, so Emily and I laid out some options for the day. We decided we would play in the snow, decorate a tree for the winter Solstice and of course, end our day making wreaths with our adults! After morning meeting we ate snack and read a book about a family's tradition of going out into the woods to decorate a tree for the Solstice. We learned that the Winter Solstice is the shorest day of the year, when the North Pole is tilted the furest from the sun and causes the sun to be at its lowest in the sky. Just as we read in the book, some celebrate the Solstice by hanging fruits and other foods that are safe for woodland animals and birds to feast on. Luckily we had a ton of apples that we donated to us to cut up and string together along with cinnamon cookies. After snack we worked on our Solstice ornaments and then hiked to a beautiful hemlock tree in the backyard to hang them.
We took the opportunity to get one last group photo and posed with our tree!
After decorating we had some free explore time in the front yard. We made snow angels, went sledding and pretended to be winter predators.
I had spent the last few days gathering grape vine and decorations for wreath making from Audubon's forests. Emily graciously took the grape vine home to soak and forced them into perfect circles. When it came time to craft our wreathes at the end of the day, we spread tarps across the floor and unloaded our forest treasures onto them. Hemlock, ferns, pinecones, staghorn sumac and berries are just a few examples of the natural materials we used to decorate. Everyone brought home a beautifully crafted wreath. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures from our wreath making because Emily and I were busy passing out hot coco and chatting.
Thank you so much to our forest playschoolers and their families! We can't wait for next session to start! We hope you have a lovely holiday and will see you in 2020.
