In our second week of Forest Dreamers, students explored one of their favorite destinations, the Native American site! Our morning started with a drawing exercise of bark rubbings and drawing your favorite ecosystem. After singing our morning song and creating our trail snacks, the forest dreamers started hiking towards our final destination. Along the way… Read more »
Hey Families! Another wonderful and wild week in Forest Dreamers has passed us by. This week we skipped morning circle and made a beeline to the Native American site! Each student was given a pair of binoculars to investigate far away sights as we hiked. As a group we voted on which trail to take… Read more »
11/14/17 Today it was really cold and breezy. It might have reached 45 degrees but with the wind it felt much colder! We all had cold hands, faces and even feet. So what a perfect day to build campfires. The challenge for the day was to build one match campfires. A one match campfire is… Read more »
We started off with a check in circle and had a fun game of telephone before heading towards the gazebo. Fall is here, and among the bright colored tumbling leaves, we took a closer look at some of the characteristics of a plant. Right now some plants are in the process of dying off because… Read more »
For our second week we started off by having a check in circle and then told a collaborative story. Each person gets to go around and say one sentence to further the plot. As you can probably imagine, it gets convoluted and silly pretty quickly. It’s a great way to help each child put their… Read more »
Week 4! We began the week by making straws from Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium) found right near the Irvine building! They are really cool because you drink water from a straw that can be over six feet and it makes your water taste sweet! We then headed down to the left of the main meadow… Read more »
Aright, Week 3! After having some time to settle in, we went to the beginning of the trail to meet Sassafras (Sassafras albidum)! Sassafras was one of the first exports when Europeans came to North America. It is the main ingredient in Root Beer! Its twigs can be used as a tooth brush because it… Read more »
For our second week we started off by playing a really fun game called camouflage in the outdoor classroom. The outdoor classroom is really just an awesome area with lots of natural objects to hide behind, climb on, dig in, and create with, where it’s impossible to not want to play! Camouflage is… Read more »
Our week has been a memorable one! From fungus to fire, we have been heightening our senses and becoming even more aware of our forest and meadow surroundings. On Tuesday, we had a great time molding the river clay we collected last week into different shapes. Sadly, it was too muddy and soupy… Read more »
What is a community? What jobs do people and animals do in a community? Children learned all about communities at Irvine Nature Center – on the trails, in the classroom, and with jobs that special people do at our Center. Children loved meeting the grounds crew and seeing the amazing tools they use to care… Read more »
