As part of our snowman/ winter unit we took a walk outside to look for signs of winter before lunch yesterday. We used all our senses to see, hear, smell, taste (we made sure the snow was clean!) and feel signs of winter and then compared them to the signs of fall we had seen. I consider myself lucky to be reminded by the children on a daily basis how much joy there is in little things. They were all so thrilled to eat snow and describe how it tasted, to run in the snow and try to camouflage themselves, to look for prints in the snow that might belong to a bear, to stand still for a minute to listen to what winter sounds like, and to smell winter in broken pine needles. They were enthusiastic to be outside and breathing the cold air into their lungs and looking to see if it made clouds as we breathed it out. And spotting a few crows hanging around caused the children to shout and jump and run after them in excitement and changed our minds about all birds heading for warmer climes at the first hint of snow. The next time you're outside, just for a second, appreciate some signs of winter and capture a bit of the pleasure we felt just being outdoors today.
