Acorns Acorns Acorns

Hello everyone,

We had some more fun this week with squirrels and lots of acorns, and explored squirrel seasonal habits and the connections between squirrels, oak trees and forests. We read Squirrel's Busy Year, Because of an Acorn, Squirrels Family Tree and A Good Day. We talked about how squirrels bury their acorns for the winter, and then find them again by smell. We practiced finding acorns ourselves by smell, (with acorns scented with clove essential oil, which some people thought was nice and many thought smelled horrible.) We tried counting and then hiding 5 acorns each and then seeing if we could find them again. (Sometimes we could and sometimes we couldn't, just like real squirrels.) We talked about what happens with acorns when squirrels forget them. We did some more counting and made some acorn jewelry. We put on a squirrel tail and practiced balancing like a squirrel. We made peanut butter oat energy balls and acorn kinetic paintings.
We had another week of awesome, late summer weather, and noticed leaves starting to change and fall. We also heard crows, chickadees, jays and some tree frogs. We watched the sky this week as it went from blue to low, grey clouds and then to quickly moving clouds and winds which brought in a change of temperature.

Thanks to those of you who could make it out to the Autumnal Equinox gathering. It was a sweet little meeting! We created an altar together and talked about the transitions from summer to fall. We shared some of our favorite squirrel and autumn songs and poems. We ate apple bread that the children had made in aftercare, and drank mint tea. Thanks to Malika Kashyap and Kelsey Kaspar for taking some of the lovely photos! If you missed it, don't worry about it. It was a super quick little thing and we will have more opportunities to get together.

For the next two weeks we will talk about seeds, so feel free to touch on seeds together at home in the kitchen, in the garden, and when you are out in the natural world.

I thank you all for all your consistent work checking the weather and dressing your children appropriately. It looks like we have another nice, dry week ahead with comfortable temperatures.
May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be peaceful, may you be filled with joy.

Jessica