Friday Tender Tracks Day 21

March 1, 2019
Waning Crescent Moon
Lake Lagunitas

We had another dry day at Lake Lagunitas and welcomed Ruby back to the group. Blake was off on a Tahoe adventure and we look forward to his snowy stories next week. We set up in the meadow near our climbing tree, a fantastic Redwood with branches like a ladder. Charlie, Siena, Margot and Violet climbed the tree while Rohan and Miles gathered branches and rocks to create an obstacle course. Once constructed, we all took turns traveling the obstacle course; jumping over sticks, balancing on logs, and hopping on rocks.

For circle, we had snack café which was a smorgasbord of snack goodies including apple sauce, crackers, sunflower seed butter, cashews and raisins! Each child had some sort of interesting mixture of snack goodies. We received new roles as Stewards of the Earth: Rohan and Charlie were Guardians of Safety, Miles and Margot were Earth Guardians and Violet and Siena were snack helpers. Ruby shared a story about searching for signs of spring which inspired our grand adventure. We were on the lookout for signs such as flowers, buds, new leaves and animal tracks.

We played a game where Ruby pretended to be a deer and we got to sneak up on her and if she turned around we had to freeze! It was so much fun to be sneaky animals and try to catch her. As we ventured around the lake looking for signs of spring, we spotted purple flowers, white flowers, a red flower and some new leaves budding out. We also came across some scat from a mystery animal. In the creeks that feed the lake we saw lots of newts, too! Also, a bug visited Siena’s boot.

Along the way, some of the children turned into rocks! Margot, Siena and I had to wake up the rocks and turn them back into children so we could continue adventuring!

When we got to a sweet spot by the creek we played Little Tommy Tiddlemouse where one child crouches down and covers their eyes and acts as Tommy Tiddlemouse, and one of their Tender Tracks friends is knocking on their back as we all sing, “Little Tommy Tiddlemouse, lives in a little house. Someone’s knocking, me oh my! Someone’s calling, it is I!” That friend knocks on the back of Tommy Tiddlemouse and says, “it is I!” and the child playing Tommy has to guess who! We had a lot of fun playing and guessing. Miles tried fishing in the creek with a curved stick and even found some newts swimming by. All the children played on some logs that were fun to ride on and took turns climbing into a hollowed out tree and climbing up its stump.

When we were back at juniper rose we shared all of our gratitude for the day which included appreciations for flowers, a banana slug, many newts, a bug on a boot, and all the signs of spring!

Another favorite song from the day:

Robin, red breast, crow flying high

Nuthatch hopping down the tree

Chickadee dee dee dee dee

Caw, Caw

Chickadee dee dee

Chickadee dee dee

newt on its way to the water

friendly banana slug