11/9-11/12

MONDAY

We followed the big creek down to a grove of birch trees where we collected the birch bark that we've been using as tinder to start fires. We found some special rocks and crawdads, measured the depths of puddles, and climbed up the rock wall and across big fallen trees.

TUESDAY

We went on a big adventure into a section of Yellowwood State Forest across the road from Fairywood. We visited a place that last year's class named Treefort, where three big pine trees fell, creating the perfect place to climb and hide. It's like a natural jungle gym, and we pretended to be wild monkeys searching for bananas (pinecones). On the other side of Treefort there is a narrow ravine filled with large boulders covered with moss and lichen. Many of the rocks created little shelters and we speculated on what animals might be living there.

Back at Fairywood we worked on fairy homes, shelters for our stuffies, and lots of potions in the mud kitchen.

WEDNESDAY

Jack brought a citrus press and some limes on Wednesday so we took turns making lime juice to put in our water, yum! We also acted out some of our favorite stories such as The Fire Keeper, Popcorn and Pickin' Peas. Later in the day we played at the two headed dragon tree and practiced carving sticks and splitting wood with a knife and mallet.

Acting out The Firekeeper story. Many of the kids are animals pretending to sleep as the coyote tries to steal fire.

THURSDAY

We played "the animal pairs game" where each person is discreetly shown a card with an image of an animal. Then everyone acts like their animal and searches for their matching animal. The game evolved into making homes that those animals make. We were rabbits, bobcats, crawdads, bees, owls, deer, coyotes and more. Then we spent a lot of time cozying up with the farm animals, playing "What's Missing?" and checking on our newest fairy house.