As the snow quickly begins to melt away, the Dawn & Dusk kids have been noticing more and more trash emerging in our back yard, much to our dismay. We've really been building stronger connections with our outdoor space and the desire to keep it clean has been a hot topic the last two weeks, so we provided each cohort with garbage grabbers.

​The very first afternoon that we brought those grabbers out, Club 4/5 was eager to clean up as much trash as they could without even being asked. As we slowly spread out through the far forest and its surrounding bushes the kids noticed a disturbing trend in our trash: masks. An abundance of both disposable and reusable PPE quickly filled up a trash bag, opening up a conversation about environmental responsibility. As disappointing as it was to see first hand just how much this new part of our daily life (masks) is damaging to our planet, it was great to see these kids so involved in doing their part to reduce the ugly waste!

And then, as if Mother Nature was offering a reward, we stumbled across something really really cool: owl pellets.

The kids had no idea what they were, but I (educator Jen) knew immediately that we had stumbled on something very unique. When an owl hunts and eats, it will regurgitate its prey and what comes out is a ball of fur and bones. When I was a child in elementary school myself, we dissected these in class with tweezers and magnifying glasses, putting together the skeleton of the mice that had been eaten.

There was so much excitement when the kids found out what these "owl pellets" were and they wanted to dig right in to them. I provided gloves and watched as they tenderly pulled the pellets apart, identifying each bone they found. 

As one child continued to dissect his pellet, he explained what part of the mouse he was handling and how it must have died while in the jaws of the owl. As he described what he was doing, he walked us through his very thorough thought process on the fascinating demise of this mouse.

One of my favorite moments that afternoon is when one of the kids left her comfort zone to explore the owl pellet she had found all by herself. Her curiosity proved to be bigger than her fear that day!

​"I was really afraid to do this" she said as she gently pulled the fur apart. I'm afraid of dead things! But this is so cooooool."

There was no shortage of theories, thoughts, and scientific hypothesis that afternoon, and although initially some of the kids were hesitant and kind of grossed out, they all asked for baggies to take their treasures home in - one child was eager to get the bone fragments under his microscope for further analyses. 

This very unique experience falls right into line with our ever-increasing connections we're making with the Dawn and Dusk backyard. A big thank you to the parents who were cool with their children bringing these owl pellets home - we look forward to continuing to find new and exciting ways to embrace our outdoor space and all the wonder it holds!

It's beginning to look a lot like Spring, and with these beautiful temperatures the snow has melted so quickly, our forest has turned into a swamp with one of the biggest puddles this school has ever seen. One afternoon we provided a few craft supplies (popsicle sticks, paper, tape and pipe cleaners) and challenged Club 4/5 to make boats for this lake-puddle. The ideas and designs they came up with flowed forth, resulting in some pretty great watercrafts!

It wasn't all about boats, however. The large pails we've been using to make snow sculptures make great puddle play too. Armed with shovels, the children methodically filled up the pails so they could water the grass in the field. Clearly, this was very serious work.

At some point they noticed there was a small hole near the top of one of one of the pails. This provided a while new angle to bucket filling. A pair would work hard to keep Pail 1 filled while another pair used the hole as a spout to fill the Pail 2. 

While it doesn't really look like much is going on, these children are actually building skills in working together as a team with a common goal. They saw the hole in the bucket not as an obstacle, but as a different way to move the water from one place to another and quickly sorted out who would do what job for this very important work of watering the grass. Without needing or asking for help from us, the educators, they organized a chain of command, giving one another an important task that would help reach their goal. These cooperative social skills they're learning are a very important part of growth and maturity. Way to set a good example of friendship and working together, Cohort B!

There have been some staffing changes in the cohorts, and Jasbir has moved to the Kindercare cohort. In her last week with Club 4/5, we wrapped up learning about Indian culture with some hands-on experiences!

Jasbir brought in a collection of her jewelry and her traditional clothing for us to touch and see. The children were surprised to learn that outside of Dawn and Dusk Jasbir's clothes were very different!

We ended the week with Jasbir drawing Henna art on the children on a sunny Friday afternoon. A big thank you goes out to her for sharing so much of her culture and traditions with us over the last few weeks. We've learned new things and developed a greater appreciation for the diversity our wonderful educators bring into our programming. 

On that note, we have welcomed Chantal into our cohort! We look forward to learning even more about diversity as she brings her African culture into our curriculum! Stay tuned for our next exciting chapter!

In keeping with our celebration of culture, Educator Charlyne brought in some traditional African instruments and gave us a lesson in Burundi music. With music videos playing on the projector, the children were able to explore the sounds these instruments made while watching them in action!

Here's a video we all enjoyed!

The next morning, educator Jasbir showed us videos of Punjabi weddings so we could see the beautiful outfits and jewelry worn during ceremonies. The children were in awe! They had no idea how elaborate these kinds of events are in India and had many questions for Jasbir about the rituals and the clothing. Here's one of the videos:

Although Jasbir didn't have any instruments to bring in, she did tell us about some of them. We could only imagine the kinds of music we would have made if we had both African and Indian instruments together!

All that music and dancing inspired a dance party where Jasbir showed us Punjabi moves, and some of our grade 4/5's showed us their moves! What a great way to include all the diversity we are so fortunate to have here at Dawn and Dusk!