The kids of Club 4/5 see a blank art canvas when they see snow, and the educators love to provide them with colors for that canvas. Since nature is always a topic of conversation and interest, on this day the children gathered up some animals and trees with the idea of creating a nature scene outside in our forest. Educator Jen filled a spray bottle with green colored water and a huge jar with deep blue colored water for them to use as grass and lakes. She then gave the kids cameras to capture the scenes they made! All the following pictures were taken by the children:

There has been a lot of interest in the birds we often see in our forests at Dawn and Dusk - specifically the activities of the woodpeckers. We often seek out trees that have holes made by them, and as one child observed the oak trees have scattered woodpecker holes while the Birch and Poplar trees have holes in straight lines that go around the tree. That child concluded that since Oak trees have such rough and uneven bark, the birds must peck at random, and the smooth trees must be easier to perch on, allowing the birds to peck in a more even line. 
Our Director Deborah provided the kids with some binoculars, and in no time we were treated to an up-close view of one of these amazing little birds in action!  

At the request of one of our budding chefs we built in a winter kitchen one afternoon. Choosing items for our dishes and loading them up in a sled, these kids got right to work in their restaurant as soon as we got to the forest, serving up dishes made colorful by the many bottles of brightly colored water we provided. Cakes, pies and more! Fair prices and excellent food are the perfect recipe for a popular restaurant!

Can't wait to see what these creative kids come up with next!

The kids at D&D know there are endless possibilities for fun in the snow, which is why we decided to make volcanos on Tuesday afternoon in the bright white field of flakes.

The first step was to make mounds of snow, as big or as small as they wanted. 

Through trial and error we discovered three things; first, making a pile of baking soda right on the snow then pouring vinegar onto it isn't very interesting, because nothing really happens! Second, if you put food coloring directly on baking soda then pour vinegar on top, the color won't travel up into the lava. And lastly, it is not a good idea to mix the ingredients together then try to quickly close the test tube and shake it up haha! (This resulted in some stained hands.)

While some of the volcanoes didn't erupt as spectacularly as others, this proved to be a really fun way to spend an afternoon and everyone really enjoyed it. We've got future plans to make bigger, better explosions!