april 21
This morning was all about climbing! We noticed that our perspective shifts when we climb to a high place — like the top of a bridge or tree. “I can see the WHOLE creek from up here!” “You look small to me down there.”
After lots of exploration, we met up with Rebecca from Missouri Department of Conservation to learn about bison. We got to color a picture of a bison, listen to a story, feel real bison fur (as well as lots of other prairie animals), and best of all, shoot a bow & arrow at a target. We learned that the words “buffalo” and “bison” are interchangeable and that bison have four stomaches!
While we ate lunch, we talked about how the Osage (Wazhazhe) hunted bison for food, clothing and other things like fat for soap and bone for tools. We talked about how the bison was (and still is) a sacred animal to the Osage and one they revered. We learned that European settlers eventually killed almost all of the bison because they didn’t love the bison like the Osage and they wanted to take control of the land where the bison lived. We all felt that this was very unkind and had many questions about how the Osage are feeling about it all. We will be learning more about this through stories and conversation in the coming weeks (and next school year).
After lunch, we played hide-and-seek and hide-the-Easter-egg in the pine forest. We’re working on not peeking when it’s our turn to count :)
After rest, we headed back outside to play in the sun! We painted clay beads, drilled holes and hammered nails into a block of cedar, and followed a massive swarm of bees down the alley. We also enjoyed running around in our bison masks and watering the baby plants in the yard.
We missed Sylvie today and hope she is feeling better!!