Earth Week Kick Off!

Hi Friends,

 I hope you're all smiling and enjoying the beautiful sunshine today! Did you know that Earth Day is coming up on Wednesday?

In honor of Earth Day I have a story for you, called Care For Our World. As I read, I encourage you all to listen to the words and look at the pictures, both on the pages and in your imagination, of all the wonderful creatures we share our world with. You might even hear one of my favorite creatures in the background-my cat, Koa. What are some ways that you work to care for our world? 

 

Our drop-off preschool students should keep their owl eyes open for mail coming their way! You'll find a special Earth Day note from your teachers, and even a special project you can try right at home. Have you ever made art using only materials you've found in nature? I've seen lots of friends in our forest working to create natural art. Here are a few examples I made:

Above: I tried to make flowers growing in a garden with a snail. 

Below: I thought this looked kind of like a squirrel with a big, bushy tail.

 

I even practiced writing my name!

Keep an eye on the blog Wednesday, we'll be sharing more examples of Earth Day art!

Isaac’s bike wash

My bike is super dirty said Isaac. Would've it be great if there was a car wash for bikes asked Annika. Turns out we can make our own bike wash. Isaac remembered lots of bike maintenance tips he learned from Miss Lida riding the Rail Trail last fall. Annika and Isaac tried to use a hose but the snow near the outside faucet was still too deep. Buckets filled with warm soapy water worked well and made for great fun. Isaac's favorite part was "turning the spinny thing". Annika preferred the polishing.

Alphabet Book

Dear Roots Families,

I hope you are able to get outside and enjoy the sunshine this weekend. Today I am adding two new words to our alphabet books that came from some of our posted videos this week. In this video, I also review the ABC song, so your child sing along!

If you think of words to add to our alphabet book for next week, please leave them in the comments below.

What's Happening in the Forest?

Hi everybody,

It has been a month since we were last at school in the forest! I have been wondering, what is happening in our forest classroom? How does it look? Yesterday I went to school to walk around and I want to share with you what I saw. Join me for a tour of the forest!

Spring Hike

I went for a hike and noticed signs of spring. I love closing my eyes at the sun because all I see is red. I call it fire eyes. 

I love wildflowers because they are so pretty. I had fun climbing and learned new climbing skills. 

I got a tick in my hair when I was climbing, but my Aunt Kylie got it out. Be careful, it's tick season!

-Coco

Eli and Augustus's Not-a-Boxes!

I was out on a walk yesterday and I saw my Ponderosa Pine friend Eli playing in his driveway. He showed me that he and his brother Augustus had created amazing houses out of bike boxes! Their houses had windows and two different types of doors. They were even decorating the insides of their houses with chalk!

Here are Augustus and Eli in their box houses in a photo taken by their father, Gary.

Musical Shakers With Loose Parts!

Making music is a fun-filled way to spend time with your family and can be done indoors or out!

Today we are excited to share a way for you to make your own musical instruments using materials you already have around your home!

Homemade shakers can be made with two materials:

1)A container that seals closed - We chose to use plastic eggs but you could use tupperware, a plastic container from your recycle bin, or anything else that your family can find.

2)Loose parts to shake! - We collected materials from our yard such as rocks, lichen, tree bark, pine cone scales, and pieces of a stick. Rice, beans, seeds, and grains also make wonderful shakers!



We really enjoyed the process of gathering materials for our shakers, hunting all over our backyard! Then we experimented with different materials inside the shakers, some were loud and others were very quiet.

Once your shakers are ready, sing and shake with Stephanie in the video below. If you're a Sapling family and want to begin your day with our Good Morning Songs, you can find them HERE.



After you're done dancing and shaking, can you find other ways to use your new instruments? 

A few activities we tried were:

*Guess the Sound - One person gives a shake, and everyone else listens carefully and then guesses what mystery item is inside the shaker.

*Hide and Go Seek - One person hides the shakers around your yard or in your home, then the seekers collect all of the shakers and find a place to sit, open the shakers, and explore the contents. We sorted the contents in lots of different ways - by size, texture and color. What other ways can you think to sort the contents?

We hope you find lots of ways to enjoy your new shakers this week. If you make your own shakers we'd love to see photos and hear how you used them!

Sing-A-Long: Down By The Bay

Dear Roots Families,

We miss singing with our friends in the forest, so we put together this sing-a-long video of one of our favorite songs, Down By The Bay. We hope you'll sing with us!

We invite your child to engage with this song by drawing their own pictures of the lyrics:

• A goose kissing a moose
• A whale with a polkadot tail
• A fly wearing a tie
• A bear combing his hair
• A llama eating pajamas

Here are some examples drawn by Genny:

You can share your drawings as a blog post or mail them to Roots Forest School, PO Box 2785

McCall, ID 83638.

Can you come up with any other rhyming verses for this song? We'd love to hear them!!! Just share them in the comments below!

A Wooley Boardwalk Mystery!

Hi Everyone,

The other day, I was on the Wooley Boardwalk and noticed something interesting. Have you ever walked or ridden your bike on the boardwalk before? It's close to my house, so most days, I'm out there and enjoying it! As I was running, I observed some tan colored fluff on top of the snow:

When I came to the end of the boardwalk, I saw the source of the fluff, these sticks with lots of fluff on top. It almost reminded me of cotton candy! Do you know what sort of plant this might be?

I'll give you a clue...We had these to take apart in the fall this year. Some friends used tweezers, others used tongs, scissors, or even their hands, and our forest was FILLED with fluff.

 

Do you need a hint? It's a plant that often grows in a marsh and is named after an animal's body part; an animal that purrs, meows, and likes to chase mice. 

Can you guess what it is? 

        

It's a cattail! 

Counting Is Fun! -Try This Activity with Loose Parts

This activity is a hands-on way to engage your child in practicing counting, while gaining numeracy skills and one-to-one correspondence. Best of all, it can be done with objects you have in your backyard or at home!

What You'll Need:

• Paper
• Writing utensil
• 10 different materials
• Ideas for outdoor objects: rocks, pinecones, twigs, seeds, etc.                 
• Collecting is part of the fun!
• Ideas for indoor objects: dried beans, paperclips, marbles, legos, crayons 
• You could even use dried fruit, veggies, or cheese to make a counting snack!

How To:

• Write numbers 1-10 vertically down one side of the paper (or on the ground with chalk like the photo below).
• Make sure there's enough space between each number to align items on the paper.
• Allow children to write the numbers if they're able, or write the numbers in a light color so children can trace over them.
• Direct child to gather 10 different types of materials in order, lining them up beside the corresponding number. For preschool children it is easiest to focus on one number at a time.
• ex. Go find 1 of something, now find 2 of something, with children placing the item(s) beside the corresponding value as they are found

Some children will eagerly find objects for numbers 1-10 in one session, while other children may need to space this activity out into 2 or 3 sessions. The goal is for children to enjoy the whole process of collecting and counting so keep your child's attention span in mind and meet them where they're at! Happy Counting!