We had brought our last 2 painted lady butterflies with us. We planned to release them but they were so excited to get out that with the help of the wind, the cage blew over and the butterflies were gone. Rhyanne spent a lot of time watching them feed hungrily on lilac bushes. That also got other students hunting for other flying creatures. Lots of white moths and few big dragonflies.
Today's story was Not a Stick. That got ideas going about other things you could do with sticks. We took some time to write down our ideas. The climbing trees posed too great a distraction to get a lot written but others found just the right writing spot. A few students found sticks so we could take pictures of them using a stick in their favourite way...roasting a weiner, a fire, a sword.
After lunch we had more time to explore before we needed to get to work again. When someone got a small cut it was nice to see another get an alcohol swab, clean up the cut, apply a bandage and then get on with playing.
In the afternoon we made memory sticks using paint, beads, spruce cones and pasta, fastened together with wire. I thought the children could take turns with only a few paint brushes but Mrs. Cargo quickly solved the brush shortage but encouraging finger painting...what a fun solution. Therese's memory stick was taller than she is and had decoration from top to bottom. The children were encouraged to explain what the different parts represented from the last 2 weeks outdoors. We finished the day with another story called Stick Man and talked about what we might want to finish our week with tomorrow.