This week we are saying goodbye to our wonderful instructor Will, who is off to finish college. We also welcomed Emily, a new instructor who will be with us on Tuesdays and Thursdays! 

The Nuthatches embarked on several snowy challenges this week! We learned from our animal of the week, Fisher, about sliding through the snow and making new friends.

The Nuthatches started off Tuesday the same way we have all week: playing games in the snow and exploring the snow tunnels! We sang the Wolf, Fox and Weasel song, because fishers are actually in the weasel family. Then it was off to our camp by Turkey Knoll. The path was so slippery that we had to slide down on our bellies or bottoms! 

When we arrived at Turkey Knoll, Ian invited the Nuthatches to try their hands at an epic obstacle course full of fun challenges! At the end, a special surprise would be waiting for us. 

The first challenge was to climb over the fallen log, and then back under it! The Nuthatches did a great job practicing taking turns so that nobody got hurt. Next, everyone plopped in the snow and made snow angels! The obstacle course also included challenges like making an owl hoot, doing the wave, balancing on a log, and singing the birdie song! Throughout all of this the Nuthatches used their teamwork skills to help each other through. 

For the final challenge, we had to climb through a spider web guarded by a black and orange spider, who tickled us with a pine branch if we touched the spider strands. Finally, on the other side of the web, we found a real treat: popcorn kernels! We spent the rest of the day “chilling” around the fire, and munching on popcorn that Ian popped over the coals. Nora also told a story about Friendly Fisher and Open-arms Owl, who had some lessons to teach about inviting other people to play. 

On Thursday, the Nuthatches got to meet a new person, Emily, and show her our old camp at Ash Grove! There, we were given another challenge. This time, the children had to hide a gift for the instructors to find! They ended up hiding it so well that the instructors walked right by it. 

And what was the mystery gift? It looked a bit like a bow. Will explained that it’s called a bow-drill, and it’s a way to start a fire without using matches. He set up the kit, and with some support from the Nuthatches, was able to get a coal going. He nestled it in some tinder and blew on it, as the Nuthatches arranged firewood to put it in. What a cool way to start our slunch fire! During slunch, Will told an exciting story about a time when he saw a fisher in person. 

After slunch, the Nuthatches got into partners for the next activity. In each partner pair, each person shared one thing that they felt proud of about themselves, or something they were good at. Then we came back together in a group and shared what our partners said. Some of the things the Nuthatches are proud of are: making friends, learning ballet, running fast, eating fast, making fires, and holding up the sun! After sharing, the Nuthatches played together as a group on the shelter, before circling up to send Will off with air-hugs. We’ll miss that guy but we’re pretty sure he’ll be back someday!

First thing’s first: bury Will!

After three snow days in a row, the Nuthatches were ready to get back to preschool. How exciting it was to see everybody’s faces and play in the mountains of snow!

When the Nuthatches arrived, program director Wren was busy stamping down some paths across the front field with their snow shoes (thanks a million, Wren). Throughout the day we stayed warm just from the effort of walking through the deep, deep snow. Instead of going out to our camp, we stayed in the front field. Immediately the Nuthatches got going burying each other, tunneling through the snow mounds left by the plow, and throwing snow in the air and at each other. We made sure to remind each other not to throw snow in anyone’s face! We all know how unpleasant that is. 

In order to make our circle we had to tramp down the snow several times. During circle, we met a new person! Francesca, who will be with us on Thursdays! We also sang the song that goes, “I hear the wolf and the fox and the weasel…” And our animal of the week is the fisher! We learned from Will that fishers have short legs and long bodies, and are some of the best hunters in the woods. Later some of the Nuthatches climbed and made tunnels in the snow like fisher do. We’ll be learning lots more about these cool creatures next week. 

What fun it was to climb in and out of the snow mountains. 

Some of us became volcanoes and erupted with great clouds of snow!

After a wonderful reading of Wolf Island at slunch, the Nuthatches continued to play and tell stories in the snow. Some of us even used the snow as a canvas to draw beautiful designs in. And finally, the sun shone down on us, making the world very bright and warm! 

Ready for an epic scavenger hunt? 

On Tuesday, the Nuthatches went on a quest. 

After making some beautiful snow angels in the field and getting our hearts pumping with Foxtail, we trekked to our camp. To our surprise, there was a gift left for us! On a log nearby by our shelter, there was a mysterious map that looked like it had been through a fire. There was a bag next to it, which held the Peace Superhero stones: Fine Words Fox, Shadowtail, Feel-better Butterfly, Peaceful Porcupine, and Unity Unicorn. 

After some careful deduction, we realized that the Peace Superheroes were sending us on a hunt to find something underneath a white pine tree! But…which one? We all spread out to look for tracks. 

The tracks looked like they’d been made by a raccoon, because they had five fingers! We followed them, snaking in and out of the woods and field. Finally, we saw a white pine tree that matched the one on the map. And under it…two bright orange sleds! 

What a perfect gift from the Peace Superheroes! We ran back across the field with the sleds and practiced taking turns sliding down the hill one by one. We ended the day with some important electrical repairs on the shelter and sharing our gratitude for sledding!

It’s the second week of winter preschool for the Nuthatches!

What is furry, red, and walks through the woods without a sound?

A fox, of course! This week the Nuthatches learned how to walk just like red foxes. The trick is to go toes first, slowly, one foot in front of the other. And always keep your fox ears up! When we were practicing this, we noticed that it’s very hard to move quickly when you’re trying to be silent in the woods. Especially on leaves and snow! But we got so good at fox-walking that we snuck into the Chickadees’ camp without them noticing! We left them a gift of dry firewood, and snuck back to our camp before they knew what happened! When we got back to our camp, we found that the Chickadees had left us a gift, of chestnuts and a roasting pan. What a wonderful surprise!

One day at circle, the instructors brought in some mysterious objects. They were white and small. The Nuthatches guessed that they were bones! But what animal did these bones come from? A dinosaur? A giant rat? A bear with big eyes? Maybe…a fox? 

The Nuthatches have a real passion for building! We explored some awesome natural materials this week, such as crystalline mud, dead logs, fallen leaves, and moss. We brought to life ice palaces, seesaws on top of seesaws, and even a storytelling room, where we heard about an epic battle between foxes and coyotes. We also learned that instead of taking home materials from the land, sometimes we can snap a picture of them with our minds, saving the memory forever. 

Throughout the week, the Nuthatches have been excited to play running games and sing songs, both great ways to stay warm in the winter! We played the games Foxtail, Seasons are Changing, and “What time is it, Fine Words Fox?” When we sing, we like to clap our hands or stomp our feet, and sometimes we sing the song so fast that it makes us dance! This week we sang the birthday song for one of the Nuthatches. It goes like this: Happy birthday to you! You’re a gift from the earth! Happy birthday to you! It’s the day of your birth!

Happy first week of preschool, 2021! 

This week the Nuthatches set down roots in a new camp!

We also welcomed a few new faces: Instructors Will, Ian and Nora Fox, and CIT Astrid. Our old friend Mira also joined us for a few days! After playing name games with “banana balls” a few times, the Nuthatches have really got everybody’s names down!

Our camp is now next to Turkey Knoll, and it has some wonderful features! There’s a seesaw, a debris fort, a backpack hanger, and the shelter made with woven cattail. We also made a fire circle and reviewed the different sizes of firewood: wispies, pencils/pinkies, markers, and logs. The Nuthatches have already begun to explore all the corners of this new camp, but we haven’t found a good name yet. Let’s keep thinking about it! 

One of the best parts of this week was the time we spent finding, following, and identifying tracks in the snow. The Nuthatches found fox tracks, squirrel tracks, and Ian tracks. When we followed them, we found Ian! 

Do you know the name of the people who lived on and stewarded this land for centuries? We learned that they call themselves the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’, which means People of the Great Swamp. We practiced the pronunciation of Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’, which you can learn by asking your preschooler or watching this video of Gayogo̱hó:nǫ’ educator Stephen Henhawk teaching some of the language. We reviewed the Three Respects and came up with some ways that we can take care of the land so that ten years in the future, the trees will be as big as our circle and there will still be children laughing and playing in the forest!