Storing Food for Winter

 Wow!  What a wonderful first day of homeschool today.  I was so excited to meet all of the children and share one of my favorite parts of fall with them: Storing Food for Winter.  We started the day with a rainy game of Red Light Green Light, Animal Style outside.  

                                    

Then we had our morning circle time, where we discussed the schedule of the day and our class rules.  All children picked a “rule tree” out of the basket and talked about what rules like “Raise your hand to talk” and “Try something new” mean for our class.  Kids had great ideas about how to help each other learn and respect each other.  We will be practicing these rules in each class.   Afterwards we stretched and sang a “repeat after me” song called “Head and Shoulders” – a twist on the original version!   

Then we read the morning message, another important part of every homeschool class.  Important information such as today’s date, the theme of the day, and today’s “password” can be found on the morning message.  Today’s password was “harvest” and we talked about what harvest means to us.  Many people brought up their own gardens and talked about how they harvest food when it’s ripe.  We also mentioned the wild harvest, that is, what is ripe in the great outdoors for animals to eat. 

  

 

Then it was time to go outside and play “Squirrels and Blue Jays”, a game in which children act out squirrels storing acorns for winter and blue jays stealing from them.  It was a lot of fun, especially because the squirrels got to wear squirrel tails!    

Luckily it stopped raining.  After lunch, we embarked on our outdoor adventure.  It started with a scavenger hunt in partners.  Children looked for signs of fall such as a leaf with three colors, an autumn sound, and an insect home.  Feeling inspired, we spent a quiet moment at frog pond listening for more autumn sounds.  We heard children playing, rain falling, wind blowing and more.  

                                 

 Then we trekked to the old formal garden and lay down to look up at the trees to pause and consider what the trees are doing now that it’s cooling down outside. 

                                 

 

The rest of our woodland adventure took us through Larch Hill and then onto Bramble Hill Farm, where kids collected cattails and jumped in the mud.  It was awesome to take apart the cattail heads and take out all the fluff inside.   

                                               
                                             

Soon it was time to go back to the Hitchcock Center to work on our journals.  First the kids made leaf rubbings using dry leaves I had collected yesterday, and they came out beautifully!  I was so impressed with the art they made.  When they were done they glued their leaf rubbings onto their journals to be the cover art.   

                                                                                           
                                      

Next, with help from the morning message, kids wrote the date and theme of the day in their journals and wrote and drew about what we did today.  Last, we all shared a snack made of food I had preserved for winter: pesto, raspberry jam, and pickles! 

This week’s home project is about how homeschool kids can preserve food for winter with their families.  Feel free to work on a drawing, writing, or photo about how YOU could preserve the harvest this week, then bring it in to share next week.

Our next class will be a field trip!  We are going to Mount Sugarloaf to see who is migrating this time of year.  As always, please pack a lunch that can travel and weather-appropriate gear.  PLEASE send a booster seat if your child uses one!