Campfire Cooking, Lichen, Turtles, and the Fort Tree

This past week we started off each class by cooking a snack over our fire. Tuesday's class made bannock bread with a little bit of apple butter, and the kids helped mix the bread ingredients. Thursday's class made popcorn. We opened the lid a little bit as the popcorn was popping and everyone really enjoyed trying to catch the flying popcorn in their cups!

We went on a longer group hike each day, and we made many amazing discoveries. On Tuesday we hiked up what we call "Fairy Mountain." We noticed a lot of lichen growing on tree bark and rocks. We talked about how some lichen reproduce by spores just like fungi.

On Thursday we went across the road and hiked up another big hill into Yellowwood State Forest. Along the way we saw a box turtle AND a tiny soft shell turtle!

We found an amazing place to play, hide, and test our climbing abilities where three large pine trees had fallen. The class named this place the "Fort Tree."