ECO and Thanksgiving Lunch

We had a busy, fun day Wednesday with our ECO morning and Thanksgiving lunch. We joined Mrs. Koch's class for lessons around forests and the kinds of things you might find in a forest. We arrived at Harrison field and enjoyed a quick tag game in which first the dad's then the mom's and teachers were "it". Many laughs were heard as the adults chased the children and turned them into "trees" when they were tagged. We then had our snack and entered the forest where we played a version of hide and seek. I pretended to be an eagle and counted to 25 while all of the children ran to find a good hiding place within eyesight of the eagle. The children were encouraged to camouflage themselves so that the eagle couldn't find the "prey" hiding in the woods. When I opened my eyes, I had to stay in my "nest" and use my eagle eyes to spot the prey. After the first round, many children quickly caught on to what would make a good hiding place and found good ways to blend into the woods. After our game, Susan and I had fun engaging the kids in a story about making a forest out of things such as flour, cereal, bananas, and tomatoes. We called it our "recipe for a forest". The children had a good laugh as we pretended to cook up the forest in a big pot. In the end, the kids were asked what things would really make up a forest and sent them on a scavenger hunt to find them. Tomorrow, we will extend our lesson into the classroom and do an activity around writing a true "recipe for a forest". I was thrilled to see so many families gather with us in our classroom to share a meal together and talk during the Thanksgiving lunch. Thank you for all who joined us!