After exploring the creek with goblins and blue-haired trolls at Samuel P. Taylor, the preschoolers set out to Golden Gate Park for another exciting forest adventure. This week, they explored a spot with broken logs and intricate, zigzagging tree branches situated on a dirt slope. Just like in many other adventures, one of the first things they did was climb the trees like little monkeys. Shortly afterwards, the group diverged into three smaller groups to explore the area further. Wilder noticed a mushroom sticking out of a log and asked Courtney if she could find it in our special foraging book. Noting the characteristics of the mushroom, they identified that it was a big puff mushroom and shared the news with the friends around them. Ollie also spotted something that looked similar to berries in the dirt and was curious about what they were. He and Courtney looked in the foraging book and discovered that they were elderberries, which were high in antioxidants!

While these friends were researching the things that they found with Courtney, the other children looked for different sticks and logs to use in their pretend play. Here’s a snippet of what they got up to:

“This is my digger. I’m digging a hole so that I can find ants!”
-Dylan

“I’m a worker! I’m chopping up this wood!”-Sage

Once she finished chopping, she proclaimed, “Teacher Becca, I’m a worker and a digger!” and started digging alongside Dylan.

Dylan moved to a different location for digging and invited Wilder to dig with him in search of ants.
Wilder: “Is this how you dig it?” (Wilder is poking the ground with the stick)
Dylan: “No, you have to scoop it” (He models his way of digging)
Wilder: “I don’t see anything”

“My shooter bomb to shoot bombs” -Leif

He showed Alice the “buttons” to press to make it work. “That is go and that is shooting trucks”

“I’m planting this wizard tree.” -Sage
She dug a hole in the dirt, put the branch in, and put dirt back in to make it stay. Sage noticed that it was not stable and dug a bigger hole, which she then refilled until her wizard tree stood tall and straight.

After planting the wizard tree, Sage returned to wood chopping. “I’m banging on some wood.”
She noticed Maggie and Frankie, who were watching what she was doing, and asked, “You wanna try? You hold right here and then bang, bang, bang [demonstrates banging on the wood]”

“And when it grows, it’ll be perfect!”-Dylan

Dylan found an elderberry on a log and decided to plant it near Sage’s wizard tree

“This sign says no people taking out my wizard tree cuz that will make me mad cuz I don’t want people to do that. If they take it out, my wizard tree won’t grow. That’s what this sign says” -Sage

After venturing off with Frankie and Eila, Sage returned to her wizard tree and noticed that it had fallen down. She replanted the tree in a different spot and put a leaf (which she pretended was a sign) next to it, reminding the friends who are nearby, “don’t take out my wizard tree!”

Meanwhile, Elias, Xavi, and Tadhg, found a beetle lurking in the dirt and were very excited to let it crawl on their hands and to show their friends! Frankie and Alice also discovered a perfect lookout spot for the construction that was happening below at Golden Gate Park. This secret spot attracted many of the children who came to see what the diggers were doing. They pretended that they were watching a live action movie and invited friends and teachers to come join them, creating quite an audience for the construction workers.

On a previous adventure to the forest, the children built with the sticks they collected. Below is a brief anecdote describing what happened.

Ollie: “I’m making a fairy house. The door is over here but the stick keeps falling.”
Wilder came over to dig a hole and put the stick in it.
Wilder: “When you put it in like this it stays because the earth is holding it in, like this”

Ollie tried over and over but the stick kept falling. Courtney came over and showed him that he needed to dig them deeper into earth in order for it to be stable. Ollie then pushed each stick down to make them stay. He wanted a door and took a stick out to create a hole for the door. He smiled big at his accomplishment to make the sticks standing.

Soon other friends came over to see what Ollie was doing.
Dominic: “Do you want some windows?” He placed some leaves for windows] “What about a kitchen? Where’s the kitchen?”
Ollie: “Right here. And this is the bed.”
Friends collected leaves to place inside for the bed.
Ollie: “This tall one is a deck for the hot tub.”