Snow Snake

The Native American game of Snow Snake dates back 500 years. While initially the use of snow snakes was to send messages between dwellings in the winter, it became a competitive sport between teams to see who could throw their snow snake the farthest. With the new snow from last week, we thought it a perfect time to try out this game for ourselves. 

Working collaboratively is one of our learning goals, so the kids worked together in their House Table teams and got to work planning their strategy for building a snow snake track. Some teams made a narrow track and built up the sides to keep the snow snake in line. Other groups flattened the snow first by sliding down on their bellies and created a wider, smoother track. Some groups had a straight track down the hill, whereas others ended up with a track that had a slight turn or several curves. At last, we were ready to test them. 

Kids took turns sliding the large snow snake and the smaller, more kid friendly "mudpuppy" version down their tracks to see if the snow snake would stay in the track or get stuck in a turn or jump out of the track altogether. They also wanted to see how far their snow snake traveled. Was the ride smooth or bumpy? What was the obstacle that caused the snow snake to jump the track or stop? With this information from our initial testing, teams went back to modify or reinforce their tracks. 

Having observed the testing of all the tracks, groups took inspiration from what worked well in other tracks to make their improvements. After all this effort, kids enjoyed taking turns throwing the snow snake and seeing how far their snake could get. With the cold weather, we've been able to return to the tracks on subsequent days to perfect our throwing technique - kids have been competing to see who can throw the snow snake or the mudpuppy the farthest, marking new "records" in the snow. 

It was a satisfying way for the kids to experience the results of their collaborative efforts. Enjoy the pictures below of the track making and the snow snaking!

Landform Book Share

The 1-2 kids have been working on a Landforms book to create visual illustrations paired with labels for the various landforms we have been learning about. This week, the kids got to share their landforms books with a Kindergarten buddy. The kids showed their detailed illustrations, read the labels and gave their buddy some more information about each landform. The K kids were impressed with the books and got to share a book they brought with their 1-2 buddy as well. 

Their next step in this study is to upload pictures they took of landforms outside and around Lilja School into a Book Creator App project. We had to use a little imagination and careful photography to make Sargent Field look like a grassland and some snow and ice for the glacier page, but there was no lack of ingenuity! They will continue working on this project - adding labels, descriptions, images, voice recordings and other features as their work progresses. We hope to share these projects with our Fourth Grade Buddies soon.

Enjoy the pictures below of our proud bookshare! Ask your child to show you their landform book (which went home earlier this week) and tell you what they know about landforms.

Animal Tracks and Sign

With falling snow comes new outdoor excitement - looking for tracks and animal signs. The 1-2s took a winter walk down the Lilja School trail to see what we could spot. Pictures of tracks and sign we found are below. One place we like to visit is the path at the end of the access road to Morses Pond. There we find an abandoned beaver project - a tree that has been partly gnawed. The teethmarks are visible on the large tree and a few surrounding sapling stumps but for some reason, this beaver stopped before completing his goal of taking down the larger tree. 

Tracks tell a story. You may see a line of squirrel tracks making a path toward a tree, then no tracks, then tracks coming off the tree from a different side. What's happening? A squirrel runs to and up a tree, then runs down and away some time later.  But don't be misled by "look alikes"! Rabbit tracks look nearly identical to squirrel tracks, with front paws put down first and big back feet landing in front. However, Squirrels place their front paws down together whereas rabbits put down one front paw down ahead of the other which is the telling clue in determining the tracks you are looking at. 

Tracks from wild dogs (coyotes, foxes) show themselves in their neat lines of tracks as these animals direct register. That is, they place their back paw in the impression from their front paw so the row of tracks looks like a neat, single line. Our domesticated dogs who do not have to hunt for their own food have larger splashes of messy tracks indicating a playful pet rather than the presence of a predator. 

Enjoy the pictures below of our quest for animal tracks and signs. Take your child to look for animal tracks near you - in your neighborhood, yard or even driveway after we get snow this weekend!

Beaver Tree:

Fox Tracks: 

Squirrel Tracks:

Rabbit Tracks: