
Welcome to the Polar Vortex! Thanks to all our Turtles for coming prepared for the frigid temperatures. Did you find it really cold? Did you have enough layers to keep you warm? Although we were only outside for a few shorter stints, it was fun to enjoy the mounds of snow, to conduct some simple experiments, to toboggan and to see if any of our animal friends had been exploring the trail before we got there!

We started our day inside, chatting with our friends and building some structures using balls and sticks. When everyone had arrived, we sat around our campfire for our morning affirmation and to talk about our day. Thanks to Catfish, Beaver, Hawk and Water Strider for making such a cozy fire!
Who has been here? Were you able to guess all the mystery trails on the chalkboard Dragonfly presented or did you need to use the legend? Which way were the animals travelling? How many different animals left tracks?

Let’s practice following our own footprint trail! Dragonfly modelled simple foot steps and volunteers followed her with shapes to mark where she walked. Thanks for helping put down the shapes at her heels, Beaver! Then we all had a chance! Using a tarp for water and carpets for food we divided up into two groups and helped each other mark our trails to our favourite things…food and water! Hope you were successful and didn’t fall through the ice Red Fox! For extra practice, the Hall was suddenly full of deer walking everywhere looking for food. Was it tricky to remember what animal made what footprint?
After pretending we were the animals, it was time to bundle up and head outside to see if there were any real animal footprints on the trail. As we turned the corner, the winter birds were flying everywhere, enjoying seeds from the feeders. Thanks for the Jay Jay call about the Blue Jay, Catfish! Looking down at the snow, Red Fox and Hawk noticed foot prints and seeds at the base of a tree. What could have made those prints? There were lots of squirrel and rabbit prints that we saw and a special bird print. Did you notice the wing on both sides? I wonder what kind of bird it was? Did it look like a small bird or a large one?
Were you able to figure out all the mystery animals hidden on the pages of "Eye Spy"? Grey Squirrel picked some easy ones but also some difficult ones to solve. What was your favourite book today? Did you enjoy "One Snowy Night" about a rabbit that was left outside? Thank goodness the rabbit had great nature friends to help him get back to his home.
After eating lunch, Cardinal read "Making Friends" and it was a great reminder about how important it is to be kind and helpful to others and to listen and respect each others’ ideas. Everything seems to be a lot more fun when we all enjoy activities together as a team.

After our lunch, we shared some of our favourite nature notebook pages and enjoyed seeing how much some of us had drawn and written while having the journals at home for a week!

When it was time again to go outside, we dressed for the great outdoors as fast as we could. Dragonfly showed us how cold it was by throwing hot water in the air. What did you notice? What happened to the water? Did you see some of the water vapour? It was so cold the wet t-shirt we hung outside became stiff as a board. Thanks for modelling the frozen t-shirt, Red Fox!

Back inside, we got to work on our journals, adding labels and details about footprints that we learned about. Now it was our time to work with our very own boot prints! Could you guess whose painted boot print was whose? We are looking forward to taking them outside next week, to try to match real boot prints with the cardboard copy.
We ended our day in the Hall with some waddling races that would make a raccoon proud! Which method of moving did you find the most fun to practice? Hopping? Waddling? Bounding? Have fun practicing these at home! Monarch was so eager, she demonstrated her waddle just before she left for home. Stay warm everyone! Can’t wait to see what footprints we discover next week!
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