Osiyo, River Otter families,

It was a lovely week filled with friends, play, and work in the forest. The students have loved our morning tea time so much, we have made it a part of our daily rhythm. We have tried many types of herbal tea and most students have found a favorite (peppermint, hibiscus, and lemon have been most popular). Each student has their own reusable tea cup made from wheatgrass and serves themself tea during snack time. After snack, two students wash the tea cups in an outdoor sink we have created, while two students dry them. This new practical work task has quickly become a beloved activity. We will continue to follow this routine each day, changing to iced tea and sun tea when the weather turns hot.

We have added several large stumps to our outdoor classroom, and the students have enjoyed helping roll them to places they have chosen. The stumps have been used for climbing, jumping, sitting, stepping from one to another, reaching tree branches, and used as tables. We have also added several new hand shovels, and beautiful wooden beads for crafts. There have been new wildlife visitors to our forest, as well. This week we saw a great blue heron, a pair of wood ducks, and a crawfish that was enjoying the mud and puddles in our play area late this week.

Announcements and Reminders

Please send rain gear with your student every day. The forest stays quite wet and muddy for several days after a rain, and the children get cold and uncomfortable easily when their clothes get wet. Please send a rain jacket and rain pants or a rain suit, rain boots, and at least one full, seasonally appropriate change of clothes every day.
Our annual auction is coming up next month! Please refer to the email sent by our parent representative, Brittany Ott, for details on how you can help with our class’s project.
This Thursday is our first community discussion on The 1619 Project: New Origin Story. We will meet at 2:00pm to discuss the book through chapter 5. If you are interested in joining us and have not RSVPd, please send me an email to get added to the email list for notifications.

Thank you for sharing your children with us, and for being part of our community.

Gyvalieliga,

Ki Holly