It is hard to believe that this was our last day together at Coyote Nature School before the holidays! I am sure you are all looking forward to a time to enjoy your family traditions and to help each other make all the festivities memorable! Today we learned what it means to be a volunteer, a person who helps others just because they can.
After getting organized, the Turtles were off on a scavenger hunt to find one egg each. Inside the egg was a volunteer job to accomplish before the end of the day. Great work making our day easier by working as a team! What was your volunteer job? Did you like the job you were given? Once our jobs were established and we did our daily check in, Catfish led us through our morning affirmation and we were off to have our snack. Thanks to our outside helpers Monarch and Red Fox for helping to clean up the outside equipment and materials.
Time to wash up for snack! A big 'thank you' to Snapping Turtle and Beaver for looking after the water and soap at the hand washing for the whole day! Deer also did a great job helping to put things on the drying rack and on the heater! With our hands cleaned and outdoor layers of clothing off, it was time for snack. After snack time, we had some work to do! It was decorating time! The Turtles did a great job decorating bags for the volunteer gifts using markers, stickers, cut out Christmas cards and their artistic imagination! Thanks Water Strider for sweeping and Hawk for helping to clean up the markers so we could get out on the trails!
Time to have a celebration as two birthdays were coming up for two of our students, Beaver and Water Strider. So we took a moment to celebrate our friends and sang Happy Birthday to them!
Meet you there! Shelter Builders and Nature School Survivors raced to the logs in Mystery Forest to learn what our jobs would be. Taking turns, both teams had a chance to gather branches and to clear up our shelter space, lobbing off small branches that might interfere with our entrance. Do you remember how big the branches needed to be? Did someone volunteer to help you drag the heavy branches to our pile? Thanks for finding an evergreen branch, Catfish! Your nature broom will come in helpful when we go back to clean up and continue to build our shelter space!
Back in the library, Grey Squirrel had some special activities for us. Did you enjoy making a little toque or hat with yarn and a paper towel roll? Did you show your family the instructions that Grey Squirrel gave you to take home?
After our craft, Grey Squirrel showed us how to make Smores! Do you remember how many times we had to count to 20 before the Smores had melted in the oven? We certainly had lots of practice counting! Finally, after all that calculation, the Smores were finished and we gathered around for the story The Wish Tree and a tasty treat! Did you enjoy the Smores? Hope you have fun making them in your oven at home!
After our lunch, it was time to explore Sunrise Hill and Cedar Hideaway! How did you enjoy crazy carpeting on very little snow? Was it difficult to move with all the grass poking through? Fingers crossed for lots of fluffy snow next time we visit! After a valiant effort with our carpets, we left them on the bench and visited the Herons’ amazing shelter near Cedar Hideaway!
Ladybug is a Nature Mentor with the Heron group on Fridays too and was a great help explaining how the structure was built and the materials that were used. We very carefully toured in and around the shelter and then we were off to try our luck with some little shelters of our own in Cedar Hideaway!
Practice makes perfect! Catfish, Beaver and Hudson made lean-tos against a big tree and covered the branches with evergreens. Pileated Woodpecker’s structure had big and little branches and Red Fox helped Monarch make a lean-to shelter with lots of thin branches. Catfish said he was excited to work on our shelter and didn’t want to wait until January. Thanks for motivating us, Herons!
After our visit to Cedar Hideaway, it was time to head back into the hall where Dragonfly had set up a bonfire and provided us with popcorn and hot chocolate! Pileated Woodpecker started with leading the group in a moment of gratitude and sharing as part of his volunteer job for today. While enjoying some cozy time by the fire, we brainstormed all the things we would like to do at nature school in the weeks and months to come. Whose idea would you like to learn about the most? Can’t wait to see what comes next!
On behalf of Dragonfly, Cardinal, Ladybug and Raccoon we wish you all a safe, fun and relaxing holiday! Looking forward to seeing you all again on January 14th, 2025 for a fun filled winter session! Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
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