Where in the trees?

 What grows at the top of a tree?

I drew a tall tree. - JG

All the tree. - SG

What goes on the top of trees?

Leaves! - GC

How can you show me leaves?

With green. This spikey circle is the whole tree. It's all the leaves. - GC

 I wrote a C for sun.  What letter starts tree? - GC

Let's say it, and see what you hear.

T-T-Tree.

T, I thought it was G, but you said T-T-T for tree. - GC

I covered my tree on the top with flowers about to grow.  - CW

This is my grown up fairy, she lives on the sun. And this is her dad, see he is watching her play and living on the sun. 

Hmmmm, do fairies grow at the top of a tree?

No, but they are above the tree and that's almost on top. - JA

I am drawing a rainbow tree. - LT

I made lots of apples and an owl. SG

I made an apple tree. RR

I made the long wind and the rain too.  The rain makes the apples grow big big! RR

I have an orange leaf at the top of my tree. I need red for my branch. PS

I made a spike tree. SS

I made a rainbow tree.  EH

Apples grow at the top of my tree. JW

I'm making hair on my tree!  Wait...hair?  Do trees have hair?

Trees aren't real they don't have hair.  They just stick in the dirt.

Tell me more.  What is something that IS real?

Animals are real, not trees. EH

Hmmm...these friends have given us a new question to wonder about trees!

Can you draw the forest at night?

It's an owl home and a big branch! JW

I made the forest! I drawed it.  You need the light to see?  Here! EZ

It's a owl home and a little owl and a little owl head. SG

I am drawing a tree, it lives in a forest with all the trees. - JA

 I am using the light to trace a circle. Then the circles are going to by my leaves on the tree. - JI

Let's draw the forest at night. We can be together but draw our own pictures. - JI

 This is the tree bears. I drew the daddy bear the biggest. They live in the deep dark woods! - JA

What lives under a tree?

Its a haunted house under there. RR

A branch and a leaf. PS

Grass. SS

A racoon lives under the tree. In the dark. Not in the tree. - JG

This is my racoon. It doesn't have any straight lines. Just all around lines. - JG

SG, what do you know that lives under a tree?

It grows. - SG

How can you draw a tree growing?

All the lines. 

I am drawing a tree upside down, because it grows upside down underneath. - JA

Today we dug deep into our minds by drawing UNDER the table and thinking about what happens UNDER the trees.

Today we stretched our minds by standing up tall and drawing on easels and thinking about what happens at the TOP of the trees.

Today we cozied up on our bellies to draw and thought about what happens to our forest at night.

We immersed ourselves into our drawing in all different ways...and it was amazing.

Meandering on a Mission!

 How does a person (or large group of preschoolers) meander with purpose? To meander means to wander down a winding path. Well, our path is far from a straight line. Each Monday, we meander around Webster, noticing and observing. Today we left with a plan, we were meandering with a mission!

It's the forest!

Is it?  

It has berries like our forest.

It has trees like our forest.

I found a berry from the forest. - LZ

It has purple berries like our forest...and they match my gloves!!!! PS

It's a leaf basket, to carry the pokey things. - CZ

Where did you find all those sticky, pokey things?

On L and G's dress! 

Why do you think those little things stick on people?!

Watch out for those black crickets, they like to bite! - HW

Don't touch it, we have to take care of it! - GC

We had a bit of a surprise on our walk today - an earthquake drill. Birch room was ready, everyone sat, listened and waited until it was safe! Way to go, again, Birch Room!

Ms. Nicki, I found a blue stick. - CZ

A blue stick? How can a stick be blue? Did it come from a blue tree?

NO - LOOK!

Whoa, how did that grass get blue?

It got sprayed, the guys sprayed it. - CZ

Why would they spray grass?

For a fish pond. - CZ

Look, this one is pink. It's like the blue one, but it's pink! - GC

We've made it to the forest, it was such a challenge to stick together. The forest is a place of freedom, where we can run, play, and explore. It was strange to visit the forest and not run around. We have a purpose. A Meandering Mission.

The caretakers of our forest have been working so hard clearing out bushes and trees.  And though they don't want them in our forest anymore, we would LOVE to have them in the Birch room!

We thought we could use some of these stumps as chairs around our tables!

How can we tell if a stump will make a good chair?

Will this stick make a good chair?

NO!

I can't sit on this, it's too pokey.

We need one that's flat and more stable.

What do you mean, stable?

Stable means it won't fall over easy.

We tried the "sit" test on many stumps. Some were too small, some where not flat, some were too pokey!

We found what we needed and loaded up. 

Next, we are going to figure out where these stumps will go in our classroom. Where would they work best?

We have so much time, thought, and energy into these stumps. 

Stay tuned for updates.