The Detective Post #10

Gnomes abound! The Nature Detectives have been uncovering fairy magic and gnome homes all around Woodend the last few weeks. With roots in kindness to ourselves and those around us, the fairies have been leaving us notes with mindfulness tips, and we have been discovering different gnomes hiding on the trails of Audubon!

We kicked off our theme with a fairy treasure map designed by our very own Oaks class! The Oaks hid treasure all around our playground, and created a detailed map for the Detectives to follow and find the treasure!

The fairies left us notes throughout the weeks, outlining different mindfulness tricks we can use to be kind to our own bodies. We enjoyed an exciting visit from Boris the Tortoise, who showed us how she uses her shell to take a break from the world around her! We learned how to use our own “tortoise shells” (AKA child’s pose) to help calm down our bodies.

The fairies also introduced us to different types of magical breaths! We learned we can also use these magic tricks to slow down our bodies when having big feelings. We practiced the “take five,” “lion,” and “balloon” breaths, before using our magic breaths to create sparkly bubble art! We also created “emotion potions,” (aka calm down jars) that we used practice mindfulness.

The detectives uncovered both water and river gnomes in the Woods, learning that we can track how our bodies are feeling by checking in with our own “rivers!” Our “rivers” run fast, medium, and slow, which can correspond with running, walking, and being still! We learned a river song which accompanied creek bed exploration.

The pond gnome and colder weather lent itself to continued ice exploration! We experimented with breaking ice, as well as watching the chilly grounds melt into muddy fun!

In our stories, we noticed that fairies and gnomes are drawn with mushroom homes! The PM class enjoyed a fungi hike with Ms. Gail, learning about the different types of fungi we have here at Woodend. Indoors, we did a spore print experiments- leaving large mushroom caps overnight and discovering spore prints the following day!

The students also made kindness entries in their journals, brain storming ideas of how they are kind to those around them! We also practiced taking turns in the classroom as fairies in dramatic play, building withe zoobs, as well as creating our own gnome homes in the block area!