Both the K-2 and preschool classes enjoyed hiking along a stream through our different lessons today! We started the morning together to celebrate a special 5th birthday and listen to a story from a guest reader, and then the preschool class checked out our new camp map to figure out their route around camp for the day which started with a hike up the stream into our nature play space! We also spent some time decorating and folding some paper for a kite project that we will work on together on a (hopefully) windy day.
After morning circle, the K-2 class visited a different stream to look for all kinds of critters in the water. We used different tools and identification cards to collect and identify many animals, and had such a fun time trying to spot the tiniest ones. Then, we went on a walk along the stream to find our way to Turtle Rock! We spent some more time enjoying the stream with some play there before the morning ended, and it was a wonderful morning overall!
Our last Thursday Explore Together class felt more like summer than spring! We talked about how important plants and trees are to the earth, read The Surprise Garden, and then planted some seeds and made some seed art! The shade and water at the nature playspace and creek were a welcome respite from the hot sun and we all had a great time playing and exploring with our friends—we even found a frog friend who watched us play in the creek. It’s been such a fun season with this sweet group!
It was a beautiful day to be outside this morning for Wednesday’s Explore Together class!
We took a hike to explore a new spot today.
When we got there, we took a second to take deep breaths and buzz like bees!
Then we read “Shh! We Have a Plan!” by Chris Haughton.
Our plan was to do some bird watching with our very own binoculars!
Our last Wednesday together ended in our favorite place, the nature play space.
Have a great summer friends!
Today our nature preschoolers used a map to visualize our travels for the day! Our very own Ms. Alex created a detailed map of camp and many of the features and locations that we visit while at school, and it showed us a path to the nature play space that involved moving along the stream. So after our morning circle together, we started our walk through the woods and up the stream! It was fun to see some new parts of camp while also keeping our eyes open to spot familiar things like mayapples and skunk cabbage along the way. Once we arrived, we spent a while playing to celebrate our adventure! We finished up the day with a kite decorating craft which we will finish up another day, and finally some time spent enjoying our play cabin that we haven’t seen too much of so far this school year!
Today was full of lots of water exploration at Rooted & Free! Our preschool class spent the first part of the day journeying to the stream while checking out the story walk. This told us about some of the ways we can search for the critters that live in and around a stream, and so we got to spend some time searching for them ourselves using bins, nets, paintbrushes, and some very careful looking. It is amazing to see all of the tiny animals that are living there all the time hiding in plain sight! After the stream adventure, the preschool class spent some time at the nature play space for the rest of the morning.
Our K-2 class spent the first part of the day looking back over all of the life cycles we have created together before working on one more - a human life cycle! We worked together to brainstorm what the most important steps were for a human life cycle, and then each of our students took on one of those steps to illustrate. We had fun figuring out how to best represent the different life stages and show how people grow! Finally, we headed down to the nature play space to enjoy lots of stream play including dam building, swinging, and searching for animals in the water.
Our nature preschool class enjoyed a warm and sunny day as they searched for critters in the stream! The morning began with celebrating one friend’s fourth birthday and a guest reader. Then, we thought about the tadpoles we have been observing and how there are other kinds of animals that start out by living in the water and turn into something different as they grow. This led us to our story walk, where we learned about some different tools and techniques we could use to find some very tiny animals in and around the water. We were definitely ready to explore, so we worked on checking on the surface, in the water, and under rocks to see what we could find and then got to take a closer look at some things like crayfish, mayfly and caddisfly nymphs, and water striders! We followed this with a walk upstream to Turtle Rock, and finished up the day with a story there before heading back to our pavilion. It was such a fun day for a stream study!
In our Monday Explore Together class this morning we spent some time investigating new spots on camp and looking for birds!🐦
After a short hike we took a rest and read "Shh! We Have a Plan!" by Chris Haughton. Then, we made a plan of our own: make our own binoculars and look for birds in the field!
It was a warm day, but many of our explorers couldn't resist ending up back in the nature play space! It was a beautiful day to explore together!
Our 3rd annual Family Fun Day is TOMORROW- Sunday, April 28 from 3-6pm. Come learn about animals at ZooAmerica’s 3:30 or 5:00 presentation. Join A Space to Make in a collaborative art project, relax while doing yoga anytime between 4-5, and roast a hot dog and marshmallows over the campfire. Our nature play space and cozy cabin are open to all for playing and exploring. Follow our story walk down to one of the streams on camp to discover the health of the stream. Come prepared to messy while you engage in the natural world with your family! This FREE event is open to all! A huge thanks to @remakelearningdays, @thrivent , @zooamerica, @aspacetomake, @sarahyogajourney, @lcckirchenwald for their support in this event!!
It was a wonderful day to wrap up our Earth Day celebrations this week with our Forest Friday students while learning about bees! The day began with some exploration of beekeeping tools and supplies, including trying out a beekeepers suit and smoker! After a walk to the field we split up for a pollination game and a recycled craft activity. While playing the game, students had to act like bees collecting nectar to take back to their hive. There was a large flower with nectar and pollen to collect from, and the teams worked together to collect as much as possible! The craft involved using recycled cans and magazines to create mason bee homes. They like finding little holes or cavities to live in, so we rolled up paper to create those cavities for them! Finally, we finished up the day with some gaga ball as a group - it was a fantastic Friday!
Our nature preschool and K-2 classes buzzed around camp while learning about bees today! The morning started with a fun surprise - one of our students spotted a tiny ringneck snake under a rock! We all spent some time getting a closer look at it and feeling its scales before heading to the nature play space together.
After playing for a while, the K-2 class talked about life cycles of different animals, and then looked at how bees grow in a hive! We worked together to draw the steps of the life cycle before joining the preschool class to read a fun story about beekeeping. After looking at a bee box, beekeeper suit, and some beekeeping supplies, we played a game together to see if we could create honey like bees do. We had so much fun celebrating bees and all they do for our earth today!
Today we celebrated Earth Day with our friends at the Thursday Explore Together class. We read My Friend Earth and talked about things we love about the Earth as well as how we can take care of it. To celebrate, explorers made treats and other creations with nature putty, and mixed up some mud paint to make giant thank you cards for the Earth 💕🌍 It was a beautiful day to play outside!
Today was a wonderful hiking day for our nature preschoolers! We started off the morning with a scavenger hunt that would help lead us to Buzzard’s Rock. Teachers and students worked together to locate different landmarks and other features along the trail, and we had so much fun working to cross off each box! Once we got to our destination, we even spotted some vultures and a bald eagle flying above us! Then we all spent some time crawling, climbing, and sliding across the big rocks together. We finished up the day with a walk to a picnic spot for lunch, and got back to the pavilion just as rain started to fall. What a wonderful day of working together and encouraging one another through some great new experiences!
We were still celebrating the Earth at our Wednesday Explore Together class this morning!
We had a great time planting seeds and learning how to take care of our planet!
We ended up at the play space for a bit longer, since we didn’t go there last week.
It was a beautiful morning and we finished up right before the storm rolled in!
Today we used the skills we have been building together all school year for our longest hike to Buzzard’s Rock! Our students and families prepped for the day with lighter backpacks, extra snacks, and lots of water so we could start our journey first thing this morning. We worked in groups to complete a scavenger hunt during the hike, which was full of things for us to search for along the trail. We took some rest breaks along the way to check in with ourselves, and before we knew it we had arrived! We spent some time climbing all over the rocks, and we found some great tunnels and caves while we explored. It was a fantastic way for everyone to challenge themselves and see what they were capable of today! After having lunch together, we started the journey back with lots of smiles on our faces as we stopped for some story and water breaks and enjoyed some games to keep our energy up for the whole walk. We are so proud of each and every one of these students for their abilities that were shining bright this morning!
We buzzed through this beautiful Earth Day with a celebration of one of our favorite pollinators - bees! Our preschool class started the day with some playtime enjoying the sunshine and cool water in the stream. Then we read “The Beeman” to learn about bees and beekeepers, and got to take a look at many of the tools that beekeepers use, too! Finally, we played a game to see if we could pollinate some flowers and work together as a hive - it was a super fun game and a fantastic way to celebrate our Earth today!
It was a beautiful day to celebrate Earth Day this morning at our Monday Explore Together class! 🌞🌎
We read "On Earth" by G. Brian Karas to learn more about all the amazing things our planet does. We talked about ways we can take care of Earth and practiced one by re-using plastic containers to plant some seeds!
Many of our explorers ended up in the creek today and it was the perfect day for this as well!
(2/2) Today we got to spend time at one of our favorite places - Buzzard’s Rock! We left right away to spend as much time there as possible, and had fun moving along the paths that are much greener than they were during our last trip there this winter. Everyone was eager to explore once we arrived, so after a quick break we spent most of our morning climbing over, around, and through the rocks while enjoying time with this wonderful group. Check out both posts from today to get a glimpse at a few of the fun moments and many smiles we captured this morning!
(1/2) Today we got to spend time at one of our favorite places - Buzzard’s Rock! We left right away to spend as much time there as possible, and had fun moving along the paths that are much greener than they were during our last trip there this winter. Everyone was eager to explore once we arrived, so after a quick break we spent most of our morning climbing over, around, and through the rocks while enjoying time with this wonderful group. Check out both posts from today to get a glimpse at a few of the fun moments and many smiles we captured this morning!
There were some surprise rain showers as we enjoyed our time together with our preschool and K-2 classes this morning! After a super fun story read by a guest reader, we all spent some time at the nature play space where we were met with some unexpected rain drops falling on us. That didn’t hold us back from having lots of fun in the stream or play area, and we got to enjoy an extra slippery slide, too!
After drying off and enjoying a quick snack, the K-2 class talked about some more animal life cycles and then figured out that plants have life cycles, too! We worked together to figure out some of the stages of a pumpkin’s life cycle and then got to work on drawing a plant life cycle and the unique steps in it. Meanwhile, the preschool class got to work on a creative project of our own - we used pinecones as our ‘canvas’ and used paints, salt, glitter, and yarn to decorate them! There were so many different colors, materials, and methods used on these creations, and everyone had so much fun getting to let their creative minds run wild!
Thursday’s intrepid Explore Together crew braved an unexpected rain shower to visit lots of camp critters! We fed the goats, bunnies and chickens before heading towards the lake. While we expected to see some toads, they weren’t anywhere to be seen —however, we saw lots and lots of toad eggs and tiny tadpoles! The story we read this morning was Tad by Benji Davies—it got us thinking about how tadpoles turn into toads and frogs—and wondering if Big Blub the fish might also be hiding in the camp pond. 🤔😁🐟
