Dear Nuthatch Families,

We are so grateful to have begun this adventure of learning and growing alongside your children this fall! We want to share this journey with you, so here is a taste of what we’ve been up to, from our nest to yours…

Preschoolers spread out with their lunches after a morning of focused, hands-on activity. 

These first two days at preschool have found the Nuthatches stepping into a beautiful place that is new to many of us — the Ash Grove — and asking how we can make it a home. Part of this has been social; we’ve been learning each other’s names and what brings us joy and gratitude (trees, twirling, family, and dancing – to name a few!)… And then there is the natural space around us: at snack time on Thursday, we asked the preschoolers how they would like to care for and shape our nest. The first projects they got excited about were adding to the basic structure of a lean-to shelter in camp (thanks Jed and Sean for putting this up!) — tying limbs together with goldenrod, making deer fur pillows and other furniture — and working as a family of squirrels to add nuts and leaves to our “fall sensory pit” with the awareness that winter is gradually on its way. Several children began measuring everything they could find in the shelter using bark measuring tapes. A few others began a different building project: fairy homes! 

Children working on furnishing and beautifying the shelter. 

Upside-down nuthatches (ask your children!),

Elisabeth and Mira

Dear Chickadee Families,
We can’t believe that our first two days of preschool are already behind us, but what a fun first two days they were! On Monday we gathered in the log circle near the red oak tree and Maddy taught us the Welcome Song. The lyrics are below so you can sing it at home!

Chickadees playing on the Climbing Hill with Hannah. 

We traveled down to Trillium Camp, stopping along the way to pick up special sticks, stones, leaves, and other objects that caught our eyes. The children put their treasures on the nature table and noticed a basket made of smooth white pine bark and a nest made of mud and dried grass. The Chickadees were exploring Trillium Camp when they came across a large slug. The children described what it looked like (“grey skin with black spots”) and watched as it started to move slowly across the dead leaves, leaving a shiny trail of slime in its wake. 

A child touching a leopard slug!

On Tuesday, Sarah asked the Chickadees to help her solve a mystery! She played these two sounds (play the first audio clip called “song” and the third named “calls”) and asked the children if they had heard them before. “It’s a bird,” one child said. “A chickadee,” said another. Hannah showed the group a picture of a black-capped chickadee from a field guide and explained that the little, but brave, bird with black feathers on its head is what our flock is named after!  During snack, the Chickadees heard some rustling in the leaves behind the woodbox. Everyone sat very still as a small animal with white stripes ran toward the climbing logs and sat staring at us — it was Chippy the Chipmunk! The children practiced fox-walking, walking very quietly like a fox, to see how close they could get to Chippy without scaring them away. Do you think we’ll see Chippy in Trillium Camp again this week? 

Children building a tower of wood cookies. 

We had a wonderful first week with your children and are so appreciative of their wonder and curiosity for the world around them. We can’t wait for the adventures the Earth has in store for us this fall!

Slugs and chipmunks,

Sarah, Maddy & Hannah

We spent a cold, windy day out there today, with an inch of fresh powder coating the trees and covering up yesterday’s mud and slush. Aside from a few requests to “help me put my mittens back on—my hands are cold”, there were no complaints about the cold. There were: lots of cheerful stomping in cold puddles, curious following of squirrel tracks, triumphant climbing up snowy logs, and patient waiting for a grown-up to scoop water from the raging creek for the purpose of making “potions”.

There were also children keeping track of their mittens, packing up their own lunchboxes, and taking themselves to the Peace Log when they needed space. Even though we offer plenty of support in winter, eventually they learn that if they don’t want to wait for a grown-up to help they better do it themselves. The self-sufficiency learning curve is steep in winter.

Take mittens. At first, children may refuse to wear them because they get in the way. They take them off every chance they get. But the environment gives them direct feedback and an introduction to cause and effect: I touch snow with my bare hands; my hands get cold. They learn to take their mittens off only when necessary and to know where they are at all times so they can quickly be put back on. This all involves high-level cognitive processes such as “executive functioning”. What a great learning tool mittens are!

Why is winter a great time to be a forest preschooler?
Spending time in the cold is good for your physical health. Learning to take care of yourself in the cold is good for your cognitive and social-emotional development. And learning to be comfortable in winter and appreciate its beauty sets you up for a lifetime of enjoyment and benefits.

“Welcome everybody, we’re so glad to see you! Welcome everybody, we’re so thankful for you,” Ithaca Forest Preschool sang in their Opening Circles during the first week of school. The children put on their backpacks and walked down the path towards Trillium Camp, the ones who have been there before leading the way for the new preschoolers. They waited quietly at the top of the bridge and looked down into their camp. “What do you see? What do you hear?” instructors asked them. After looking and listening to their school in the woods, the children walked down the bridge and hung up their backpacks. Melissa, a co-founder, and instructor of Ithaca Forest Preschool asked for the help of the returning preschoolers to give a tour of camp. They explored the garden, the peace log, the climbing hill, the log circle, the creek and other important parts of this space. Pictured above is Mira, an Ithaca Forest Preschool instructor, playing with children in the creek.

The creek, one of the children’s favorite places to play in Trillium Camp. With so many rocks to flip over and frogs, salamanders and crawfish to find, they could spend most of the day here, and sometimes do! During the first weeks of school, the preschoolers noticed the water depth in the creek was low. They explored up and downstream in search of the perfect puddles to jump in and the biggest rocks to flip over. Seen above is a child holding a toad he found jumping on the shore of the creek. He rubbed the palms of his hands in the dirt before gently holding the toad so as to not harm its delicate skin. The preschooler then put the toad in the terrarium.

The aquarium and terrarium are two bins that the children can put animals they find during the day. After the toad above was found, the children worked together to recreate its habitat in the terrarium. They placed dead leaves, rocks and sticks in the terrarium and watched as the toad explored its temporary home. Once an animal is put in either of the bins, the preschoolers are asked to not touch them, and to instead observe how they move, where they like to hide, the colors on their skin, etc. At the end of the day, all of the animals found are let go. Seen above are two children saying goodbye to a frog they put in the aquarium. They caught it, crouched down by the creek and held it in an open hand before it hopped back into the water. “Frog, oh, frog! We love you,” they sang as it swam away.

A child holding a salamander she found under a rock. She let it go shortly after because “he wants to be with his friends.”

Two preschoolers using nets in the creek. With the water level so low, the children noticed that they were hard to use. Instead they’d work together to lift large rocks and peak under. “Do you see anything?” they’d ask each other. “Yes! A frog!”

After arriving to camp, different children each day are chosen to help with the Weather Check. They record what the temperature feels like by choosing a color that represents it (red for hot or blue for cold, for example), check their rain gauge for any water, draw what the sky looks like and measure the creek depth (seen above). The preschoolers started recording the weather during their second week of school. Since then, they’ve noticed that the creek level has been red (the lowest on the measuring stick) everyday.

A child recording the creek depth on the Weather Check board.

Fall is a wonderful time to harvest plants from the land. In the mornings, children gathered black-eyed susans and goldenrod and used them to color on paper. They discovered that the center of the black-eyed susans were excellent for drawing and the tiny petals on the goldenrod flowers made a soft yellow color.

A preschooler harvesting goldenrod.

While goldenrod can be used the color with, it also makes a tasty tea!

…and beautiful crowns.

And great natural dye! Each child got their own piece of silk to put in the dye, which was heated over the fire. At the end of the day, the silk was taken out and the color was revealed- a lovely pale yellow! Melissa made a second batch of dye from the goldenrod the children harvested and decided to not heat it over the fire. The silks turned a bright, golden shade of yellow.

A preschooler putting clothes pins on his piece of silk to make a pattern.

Mira and a child tending the fire and stirring the pot of goldenrod dye. The preschoolers learned that fire needs heat, fuel and air to thrive and helped collect firewood. They gathered small, thin sticks (whispies), slightly larger sticks (pencils) and big, thick sticks (markers). The children helped organize the wood into these different sizes and handed instructors pieces to add to the flame. While observing how to start and tend a fire, the preschoolers also learned about how to be safe around fire.

During an Opening Circle on the third week of school, Melissa introduced pokeberries to the preschoolers. She described what the plant looked like, where they could find it and that, while the berries might look tasty, are not edible. She reminded the group to always ask an instructor before eating a wild plant. Melissa also shared that like goldenrod, pokeberry makes excellent dye.

Children harvesting pokeberries for dye. After their baskets were filled with berries, the preschoolers carried them back to camp where they pulled the pokeberries of their stems and smashed them to a liquid. Melissa revealed that this dye wasn’t going over the fire like the goldenrod, but instead in a pumpkin! The preschoolers helped hollow out a pumpkin and then poured the pokeberry dye inside. After allowing the dye to start to ferment for a week or two, silk will be added to the pumpkin and left there for a few weeks. Until then the group will anxiously wait to see what color the silks turn into…

Two children taking a break from harvesting pokeberries to build a fairy house. Sarah, an Ithaca Forest Preschool instructor and photographer, learned that no fairy house is complete without seat for a T-Rex (seen above).

On Thursdays, Ithaca Forest Preschool invites the children from the Homeschool program to join them at the red oak tree for games. With lots of acorns falling from the red oak, they came up with a fun way to use them. The game seen here was to walk through the hula hoops while balancing acorns on a spoon!

A preschooler walking through the hula hoops and balancing acorns on a spoon while the rest of the preschoolers and some homeschoolers watch.

At Ithaca Forest Preschool, we begin and end our days together in circle. Seen here are three children passing a gratitude hoop. During this time, the preschoolers and instructors share something from their day they’re happy they saw or did while the rest of the group listens. Some of the things we have lots of gratitude for at school are frogs, climbing the hill, crawfish, trees, all of the plants, moms and dads, cats and children who like to play and learn outside.

Thank you for reading! We’re so grateful to share our adventures in the woods with you. Click here to see what our Homeschool program has been up to…

We can’t wait to get started! Trillium Camp is quiet in the moments between summer camp and our Preschool season but everything is ready and waiting for our preschoolers to arrive on Monday. If you haven’t already done so, download this year’s Preschool Handbook available in the resources tab. You will also find a quick calendar reference in the same tab.