Tender Tracks Tues. Day 33

Jan. 24,2017
Waning Moon
Sorich Ranch

Archer, Kai, Skylar, Ruby, Michelle were all absent today for one reason or another.
The Sun however was NOT absent and the rains were abated.  We all enjoyed the warmth of the sun, seeing blue sky’s as well as in joy over the rains that left their tracks and sign.

Jake became my helper today to pass out the Stuffed animals and enjoyed that greatly.
Isabella and Edie really liked sitting together in their usual seats in the back of the bus and Jake, Jesse and Kuba loved sitting next to each other.

As we drove we went straight towards Alpine lake and remembering when it was very dry. We wondered how high the waters would be when we got there but….The road was closed!!!  Where to go, where to go? How about a sunny place? Yes!  We turned around and made our way to Sorich Ranch where the sun shone beautifully and they still had a big rock to climb. They were HAPPY about this!

On the way there they learned that they could read a lot: They could read the clouds, and scat/poop, and tracks on the earth. They were quite happy about this. For the rest of the day we were looking for different kinds of scat, tracks, signs of the rain, movement in the creek from what we threw in there, the clouds that went gray, puffy, clear, blue sky and on and on. They were reading all day!!!! 🙂

I changed the story today because we were going to have a great entry into jobs but since half the class was gone, even Michelle, I decided to wait. Instead I shared a story that was inspired by Jesse and Kuba having a debate around the darkness of the days. This story was about How Light Got to the Dark Side.  I was also inspired because all sorts of stories that were told this year about Why Some Trees  Loose Their Leaves and others do not, and Grandpa North winning the game and making our days colder were all stories that they remembered from early in the year and were referencing.  We also sang for the second time our Directional song singing to the East, South, West, North, Above, Below and to our hearts that helps us “laugh, giggle and grow.” We gave corn meal to each direction and they were so happy to do so.  Everyone joined in to give to the thank you plate and did the same, on their own, at lunch.

After circle they climbed the rock and played some more.   I got out some of the popsicle things they made a few weeks ago and we went to the creek to see if they were good boats. From there we did a lot of experiments to see if the boats would float. We went to a few places to play around with this. They had so much fun and excitement seeing if their boats would float or get stuck.  We left one stuck so we could come back and see where it went, or stayed, as we went off to our big hill with swings.   On the path a part of the hill was washed out and it looked like a large Dragon stepped there.  Well, Jesse, though he loves Dragons, was convinced that this could not be the case because Dragons are only statues.  He did how ever look for the three toes that he KNEW dragons have. We all checked it out and then noticed some dirt that looked like scat so we checked that out for awhile.  Then, up the steep hill we went and found some soap root that Isabella remembered that we gathered there last year.

When we got there Isabella, Edie, Kuba and Jesse went straight to the swing, and Jake went right to the rock. What FUN they all had.  They took turns with the swing and throughout the day we did different things with the swing to make it swing more to their liking. Jake found glass and though he was steered away from playing with it  he was determined. Cause and effect worked fabulously as he did wind up gathering a lot, ( beautifully I would like to add), got a very small cut and discovered that he really did not like that feeling. We patched him up very well and after that he chose not to gather the glass any more even though he liked it very much.

Right before lunch we all went down to the water to wash our hands with the soap root I found that was washed up and out by the flooding. Kuba kept saying “It really worked! It really worked!”  And, yes it did. Their hands got very soapy from this great plant and they were so happy to wash their hands with it in the creek and then go straight to their lunch.  In truth soap root is not really ready to be harvested but the strong rains uprooted some.

The photo above and on the left is what the leaves look like. They are very wavy. Next to it is the rough covering, the brown and the white is the root or bulb that you can use for washing.

After lunch there was a great deal of fun on the swing. Edie, Jesse and Isabella and then sometimes all of them were swinging together and laughing, laughing laughing over what fun they had. Latter in the day Kuba and Jake were having a very grand time chopping and playing on a tree and finding tools on the Earth to help them with this chopping.

We then came back down and drew pictures for Skylar who, as by the time you read this you will already know, Skylar will no longer be in the program. As was shared with the children, she is going on a different adventure now.
They drew lovely pictures for her and sent sweet messages for me to pass along, that I wrote down.