Spiders!

Originally published October 31st

Hello everyone,

We had a really busy week talking about and playing spiders. We definitely got some thrills from seeing webs, seeing spiders, playing spider games and acting out some predator and prey relationships. Spiders are so cool!!

On Monday we read The Very Busy Spider and talked about what we already know about spiders. Then we wove some paper plate spider webs ourselves. On Tuesday we read Spinning Spiders and learned many interesting facts about spiders, and then we played a spider game where we acted out the predator prey relationship with a large web. We took turns being spiders and prey and it was very exciting and fun. On Wednesday we read Walter's Wonderful Web and learned about shapes and persistence. Then we each made our own webs between trees and examined them for shapes. On Friday we celebrated Halloween at school in our costumes. We read Halloween stories, including Bone Soup, (a Halloween version of Stone Soup), and then we made some. We decorated spiders. We finished it all off with a super fun dance party in the sun dj'd by Vir, Seher's dad. It was a very fun week!

I wish you all well with Trick or Treating! Get some good rest afterwards and sparse that candy out. The temps are dipping this week, and it will be good if everyone is feeling healthy and strong.

Thanks everyone for dressing your children in all the goods every day. Your prep is really going to start to seriously matter this week as we will see highs in the 40s and lows in the 30s. Get those layers on, wool socks on, and please send your child in all their appropriate gear for the day. We don't often have time to check everyone's backpacks and get extra layers on, so it is easier if they are already on their bodies. Please don't forget mittens or gloves, and it's always good to have a couple of pairs of those. The cold is a thing with teeth, and the first thing that a child does when they are cold is get sad and insecure. I have seen it many a time, and it's a perfectly natural evolutionary response because they feel vulnerable. But we don't want that to be anyone's forest school experience, so dress 'em up.

Next week we are going to start to talk about trees. When we sit in our snack spot and notice the forest every day, we can see branches, trunks and roots now that the trees are mostly bare and the undergrowth is thin. We can really notice the trees themselves.

Have a very Happy Halloween everyone!