November Story Walk and Scavenger Hunt at Woodside National Historic Site
Glorious, golden sunshine welcomed the Cedar B classroom at Woodside National Historic Site. The children noticed the long shadows of the morning and observed the unique silhouettes their costumes created. The children explored the landscape running through the colourful layer of leaves. A group sorted leaves by colour, shape, and size, and while engaging in mathematical reasoning they noticed the creative aspect of their exploration: “Look we created such a nice picture with all these colours”. We reflected on the magic of Ephemeral Art as the children arranged the leaves on one of the picnic tables and as we observed the Wind altering the artwork with swift gusts.
It was inspiring to observe how groups co-operated in designing new challenges for their play explorations with loose parts. Observing the play of shadows and magnets on vertical surfaces inspired the children to look further and test a variety of surfaces for magnetism.
We created a menu with poetic names: we grilled Butternut Squash Stakes and brewed Linden Tea with Honey. Both Butternut Squash and Linden Flowers are Indigenous Plants that share their gifts with us throughout the Seasons. Inspired by the book “The Big Pumpkin”, we saved the seeds from our Butternut Squash and planted the seeds in our Three Sisters Garden, starting a new life-cycle.
The children expanded on their inquiries regarding examples of camouflage in nature. We found a snake camouflaged among the leaves and the educators, Dina and Alana, reminded the children of their previous explorations of natural disguises.
The children requested a walk to the Fairy Garden in the middle of the park. The educators and Kelly surprised us with a Story Walk featuring the book: “The Big Pumpkin” as well as an Anishinaabemowin scavenger hunt where the children looked for familiar words they have practiced throughout the Fall months with Dewe’igan.
We will continue observing examples of camouflage in nature, if you find some examples you would like to share with the group, please let us know.
