Birch & Beach Nature Playschool
Horne Settlement Rd B2T 1H3 Enfield, NS, Canada

Wednesday October 14 Today was a wet and rainy day We splashed in puddles, mixed in the mud kitchen, and found LOTS of mushrooms

Tuesday October 13 This morning we read a story about bats and made plans to build some bat houses. Everyone wanted to go back to the lakeshore again, so we headed there right after our snack. More work was done on the fort, we played with a remote control vehicle one of our friends brought (it can go in water too!), read a book about nocturnal animals, and painted with watercolours. We walked back on a different trail that was new to us, and found a cool climbing tree. We found a pile of scat at the base of a big pine tree and used our identification key to try to figure out who left it (our best guess is a raccoon ).

Friday October 9 Today we wanted to glue with seeds again. We played with play dough and one of our friends made a really, really long snake (holding a scroll in is tail!) We found a woolly bear caterpillar on the ground, it was probably looking for a nice place to overwinter. At the picnic rock we were thrilled to find three chestnuts on the ground - and two of the seedpods were cracked open. The third seedpod wouldn't open, so we took it back to the play area where we co...uld use a tool to open it. We noticed that the piece of a split tree we found the other day makes a perfect ramp for our chestnuts to roll down. See more

Wednesday October 7 This morning we glued with seeds and experimented with baking soda and vinegar (by request ). We played at the sitting spot and swept the fallen leaves from the playhouse porch. We went to the brook to sail our boats again, and had lots of fun hanging over a fallen log and splashing the water with our feet.

Wednesday September 30 It was warm and rainy today, perfect for messy outdoor play. We played with the parachute and fallen leaves (over and over again!). We gathered apples in the field and learned how to cut them in half to find a star inside. We used our apples and other nature finds to create with paint. Washing up after painting is part of the fun!

Tuesday September 29 This morning we played board games and created boats from cardboard and packing tape. We spent most of our time at the sitting spot, playing in the playhouse and hammocks. We read a true story about a black robin named Blue - the rarest bird in the world. We did some pond dipping and caught tadpoles, beetles, fly larvae and spiders - but no frogs!

Monday September 28 Today we played at the sitting spot and cooked applesauce on the camp stove. We read a story about apples and a story about a kind giant. Many rounds of "rodent memory match" were played!

Tuesday September 22 Today was a wet and windy day. We spent time with our guinea pig, Ginny P, feeding him, petting him, and trimming his nails (which he really does not like). We glued with tissue paper and read a story about a girl and her chickens. One of our friends is very interested in dinosaurs, so we picked out a fun pop-up book to look at many different types of dinosaurs. We had a damp snack at our sitting spot, and rescued some chickens from a sudden downpour

Friday, September 25 This morning we made sumac tea from berries we picked last day. Some of us liked the flavour and some found it too sour. We decided to walk to the lake and see if the rains brought the water level up. We found acorns on the beach and discovered that the cap sinks and the nut floats. On our walk back we played in puddles and admired the beautiful colours of the changing leaves. And one of our friends found just the perfect stick for carrying pine cones!

Monday September 21 Today we glued with seeds on paper. We checked on Blue's baby chick in the chicken coop, and petted the chick gently with one finger. The frost has damaged our squash plants, so we used scissors to trim the dead leaves and the vines, and we collected the flowers to brighten up our table. We ate our lunch at the sitting spot, and took a walk down the Brook Trail to fill the wildlife feeder with sunflower seeds. We listened to the story "Frederick". Frederick is a clever little field mouse who knows that not only do you need to collect lots of food to get ready for winter, you also need to collect sun rays and colours and words to get you through the dark, grey, long winter.

Friday, September 18 This morning we worked at shelling radish pods that had been hanging to dry (fine motor practice with a purpose!), we made cinnamon play dough, played at the sitting spot, and went swinging in the hammocks.

Wednesday September 16 Rope was definitely a favourite material today. We went searching for nuts and found acorns at the oak tree and chestnuts at the horse chestnut tree. We also noticed some berries which were not safe to eat (yew) and ones that are safe to eat (sumac). We reminded each other that we don't eat berries that we find without checking with an adult first. We ate lunch in our "secret spot" under the spruce trees :)

Tuesday September 15 Today was our first day of nature school for the Homeschoolers group. We covered a lot of ground in the woods, exploring some of the trails and our sitting spot. We read an old favourite story, "The Gruffalo", played with Lego and in the sand pit, wrote in our journals, made a batch of playdough, and went to the lake to search for turtles under the dock (they saw at least two!) and we found two toads on our travels (and learned to cup them gently in our hands).

Monday September 14 We went on a long walk in the woods today. We started alongside the brook and then the older kids led us off trail through the wet ferns and bushes. It was hard work climbing over fallen logs and rocks, but our trail leaders were very proud when they brought us out of the woods onto one of our well-known trails. We ate our lunch on the back deck, and painted pictures with watercolours.

Friday September 11 Today we spent time getting used to our new routines and supplies. We explored the field and the brook next to it (and discovered a water cave!); we searched for signs of the great horned owl that has been hanging around (we found a feather!); we picked and ate some sour grapes, and had fun playing with rope.

It was a wet one for our first day of summer camps, but we still had fun experimenting, creating, playing games, reading stories, exploring the bear den (and dry brook ) and checking in on baby chicks