Little Finch Journal: a week at forest school
Chilly mornings. Cloudy breath. Layers pulled on and zipped up tight. Even Turtle Rock still wears her Shadow Coat when we meet her for drop off. The stream whispers her warning to us -
“Wait for the sun before jumping in, or I will goosebump your skin and chitter chatter your teeth.”
Toes in. Feet in. Not too deep yet!
Every day asks us to start with a sun hunt. Where can we go to feel the glowy golden warmth on our faces? How can we cross?
Which rocks look steady for stepping?
Where is the water flowing fastest? How can you tell?
We search for pockets of sky through the branches. Even the tiniest window lets light reach through to our skin, and the touch of heat feels like a Magic Spell. We clamber and crawl in our sun-seeking adventure.
Then all together we see it! The sun starts to stretch over the canyon. Trees cast their shapes on the ground in long-limbed echoes. We find ourselves in a real-life painting as the gray shadow trees drip across the earth. They tilt and melt, thinning and spreading, slipping and shrinking over the rocks, the stream, the sand.
As we wander and play, snack and tell stories, sing and explore, the sun continues to climb higher above us, pushing shadows out of our path. This week we practiced our Community Awareness. I observed more collective explorations as we mapped our way down the trail. We’d clump together, spinning around the same project, more orbiting moons than disparate stars. We’d share digging materials, negotiate turns, pitch our own imaginative vision, fold in each other’s ideas, work through frustration, delegate roles, and delight in what our teamwork could accomplish.
Then all together we feel it! The sun has pushed SO MANY shadows away that our game has changed. We now need relief from the sun. It becomes a shadow hunt! Where can we go to feel the gentle feathery cool on our faces? Where can we find the most shade? The stream giggles and calls to us - “Now splash away! Wade in deep! Find relief in my singsong waters!”
It made me wonder if this sneaky spell of Sun & Shadow tucked us into our days as a team. This shared experience of a mutual ‘thaw’, sharing a quest for sun and receiving its warm relief, feeling it follow us, feeling the change into a quest for shade and receiving it’s cool relief—this collective experience puts us in a group-mind state from drop off to pick up. How fortunate to be in a preschool without four walls where we’re asked to listen to our bodies! What a gift to experience the dynamism of our environment! How lovely that these early December days give us somatic treasure hunts to seek out and experience together! And how lucky that Turtle Rock smiles wisely alongside of us through it all!
