It’s hard to believe that we only have a couple days left of forest preschool! This past week, we spent our time in play, creek time, stories and stone drilling. In the photo above, we played a sneaky rendition of the game “keeper of the keys.”

The Nuthatches are truly some amazing young humans. Throughout the spring, they’ve shown compassion, teamwork, and a willingness to work through the challenges of conflict. This week, we spent time doing what we love most: playing, creek-time, and stories.

Tuesday was our first day back after the long weekend. The Nuthatches spent the day at our home base camp Turkey Knoll with Jamie, Eli and Rey. At opening circle, we discussed the changes that we noticed throughout the past several months, including what we notice is different outside now. The Nuthatches had lots of keen observations to share on that! We even talked about the changes that the Nuthatches have experienced personally throughout this time.

Once we got to camp, one of the Nuthatches found a tick crawling around and many circled around to look at it. The Nuthatches are on their way to becoming experts at spotting ticks and plants like poison ivy.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of some free play with each other and listening to Rey tell an epic story of Thor and some other tricksters.

 

On Wednesday, the Nuthatches had a couple visitors during opening circle. Our friend “Chippy” the chipmunk came around right when the Nuthatches began having their morning snack. That sparked conversation about being respectful to wildlife by not feeding them. A few of the Nuthatches also noticed a deer in the woods that morning! 

The Nuthatches also got to switch camps with the Chickadees and spent the day at Trillium camp playing by the creek. While down by the creek, the Nuthatches began selecting stones thin enough to drill through. The stones will be used for their end of season project and will continue to be worked on next week!

At slunch, Jamie told a rendition of the Grimms’ story ‘The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids. Later in the day, a couple Nuthatches lead the group in a tick scan before heading home.

On Thursday morning, Rey taught a new song to the Nuthatches about bears! Thursday was also the day that the Nuthatches decided to tell their own made-up story to the Chickadees. Not only did all the Nuthatches participate, but they acted out many of the characters in the story too! The Chickadees seemed to love having a story acted out for them. Stay tuned on that, parents, we’d love to share it with you.

The Nuthatches ended the day with some more free play and stone drilling for their projects. Many Nuthatches showed great concentration and focus on the task at hand.

What an incredible gift they all are to spend time with!

 

Office Location:
Cornell Cooperative Extension, 615 Willow Ave., Ithaca, NY 14850
607-272-2292 | email Us

Preschool Location:
4-H Acres, 418 Lower Creek Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850


Ithaca Forest Preschool is a nature immersion program for children ages 3-5. Our program is run in cooperation with Primitive Pursuits, a project of Cornell Cooperative Extension.