Wildcat Grows Another Instant Tree

An Alder tree culled from along the playground finds a 

new home in Wildcat. Until our small trees get bigger 

we will put up some instant trees for the birds to use.

Fourth graders finally decide that teamwork does make it easier. 

Third graders don't often get the chance for the heavy lifting projects.

Lots of huffing, puffing and yelling; a little help from Mrs M and 

myself and into hole it goes!

Job well done!

After a little pruning the tree is ready for the birds.

Where the treasures live

A Learning Moment

Two girls wading and exploring, talking, listening to the water moving around them, feeling the coolness of the water, smelling the clean organic smell.

 "Nature Deficit Disorder", You hear this term being used to describe today’s kids and their disconnect from the natural world.

Connecting the kids with their environment is paramount with the Outdoor Adventures program.

So what can you learn in a wetland?, also known as a swamp back in the day as a kid myself growing up on a farm wearing similar oversized barn boots. I just had acres of them too explore not the little wetland of runoff rain that we call Wildcat Pond.

Here is just a sampling of what these girls can learn:

·         Freedom to explore and be curious

·         Unstructured play free of performance demands

·         Using their imaginations

·         Developing an awareness and sensitivity for this type of environment

·         Sharing, friendship

·         Memories

Expand into the scientific world of what they learn and observe and list gets long.

Oh yes they asked permission before they went exploring……

Snow on Wildcat

The white blanket of snows recently lay on Wildcat like nature's newspaper.
So what could we read on this newspaper?
A few birds here and there but the coyotes were  
everywhere and in some places where we hadn't noticed before. The red lines circle the tracks and trails. Best guess maybe 3 or 4 animals were searching for food on the trails.


I wanted the 2nd graders to observe the tracks but first they wanted to know what a track is.
Well you make a track to see a track...OK
I showed them how to hold your hands and make a fairly good small cougar track.
Well it took about 10 min to cover a lot of ground with 2nd grade mini cougar tracks.
The fun was the next day, the snow had melted around the prints to make them a little more real, the next day was the 3rd graders - who didn't know what had been done..... lots of big eyes until they figured it out!

Instant Tree

Tall trees are pretty scarce in Wildcat with no conifers over 3 ft, except 

on property around Wildcat. Conifers are important as shelter and a 

source of insects for the small birds. The school district grounds custodian 

had heard that we are always looking for trees/limbs etc to use in Wildcat.

 He had some trees that needed pruning and removing one of them 14-16 ft

conifer. Fourth grade boys provided the hauling (dragging) power, the

girls stayed out of the way of all the grunting and sweating. Up on the hill

the tree was given a new life as green snag. Supported and wired 

to a pole  it will prove valuable for the Juncos, Chickadees etc.

   

 

Shelter at Terribithia gets a face lift Phase 1

The old shelter located in the corner of Terribitha, built last Spring was just too small for the large classes this year. The location is great the wind and rain have little effect. (survival lesson: build your shelter in a safe place)

The Wicikup design was proven too be quite strong. This design was used by many Native American people for thousands of years. Keeping with our tradition use anything and everything recycle it all. We began collecting blow down fir limbs and cottonwood saplings. The basic structure can be seen here, we are just extending the front of the shelter sorta like a lodge. The 4th graders wanted to jump the gun and put on fir boughs before the all important weather proofing - plastic sheeting! 

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