Lots of beautiful fluffy snow has fallen over the last couple of weeks which has allowed for continued winter play at Nature school. Tug of war in the snow, Owl See 123 (a hiding game) and Tatanka Tatanka (a tag like game) have been favourites. We have hunted for treasure (coloured ice) throughout the yard and have done lots of ‘mountain climbing’ on large banks of snow. Some cooking over the campfire has filled our bellies with nice warm snacks. We made porridge with fresh fruit last week and a yummy apple crisp this week.
Porcupines were one of the themes of last week. We read an aboriginal story about how porcupines got their quills, learned lots of interesting facts about them and made some pretty cool porcupines out of clay and toothpicks! We looked really carefully for any evidence of porcupines in the forest on our walk but we were not lucky enough to find any.
This past Thursday was a pretty exciting day. It started out quite cold but quickly warmed up and turned into an absolutely gorgeous winter day. We played many games, we got to try out some snow shoes, (they can be pretty tricky to walk in) and we went on a beautiful nature walk. The tree branches in and around our special hideout in the forest were blanketed in freshly fallen, sparkling snow. It was quite magical and super funny when we shook them and made the snow fall all over each other. There are a few renovations in progress in the old farm house here at nature school. And during the demolition of some walls, the contractors found a few little brown bats hibernating for the winter. One very brave gentleman brought one outside for us to see! We kept our distance, but were very fascinated by this amazing little creature. We learned some really cool facts about bats and why it is really good to have them living in and around our yards.
Looking forward to another week of outdoor adventure next week.
~Tara