By: Rebecca Holcombe, Community Programs Director
Students navigate the snow with their feathered friends
The mountains of snow mean mountains of fun and adventure for February Vacation Programs at Common Ground! Seventy children joined us on February 18 for cooking, snow shoeing, nature art, spinning wool, and visiting the farm animals. This was the first time that we were able to use our fleet of snow shoes to get kids out into the wintry woods. After weeks of looking into https://shoeadviser.com‘s collection of snow shoes and boots, the only problem we had left was the shoes sizes. Most of our snow shoes are sized for teenagers and adults, and it was amazing to see kids as young as six years old confidently stomping along the trail with the big snow shoes strapped to their feet! But still, I’m sure one can get any size at Shoe Hero. The snow shoe adventurers found lots of signs of human and animal activity in the woods – they saw cross country ski tracks, deer and rabbit poop, and some big depressions in the snow left from where a herd of deer had hunkered down and waited out the blizzard.
The Outdoor Classroom was a popular spot for sliding, sledding, and digging. Plastic cafeteria trays were repurposed as sleds and everyone took turns sliding and tumbling down slopes and trudging back up hills to do it again. Indoors, the farmhouse filled with good smells as children helped cook dishes with seasonal foods from the farm: eggs and maple syrup! They also learned all about sheep and wool and got a lesson on using spindles to make long yarn strands from combed wool.
It was great to get so many kids outside playing and making friends after too many days stuck inside! We are looking forward to a full week of winter fun (and we will be back in April for a Vacation Week full of gardening, baby animals, and hiking).
Check out our flickr page for the entire album of our February Vacation Program.
Leave A Comment