December was a wonderful month in Outdoor Education filled with a number of wonderful Christmas and winter related activities. One of the things that each grade did was create ornaments for our advent walk. Each ornament incorporated something related to the outdoors and a symbol of Christmas. Each grade had a tree to decorate with their ornaments for the advent walk. The advent walk had some windy weather causing challenges getting ready, but many people put a lot of work in to pull off another great night of remembering and celebrating the Christmas story on the beautiful grounds of Ada Christian. I love the way that the barn setting for Christ’s birth emphasizes the humble beginnings our creator took on to meet us at our level.  

Kindergarten

The kindergarten ornament was a Christmas tree created with twigs.  The students created the triangle shape and wrapped the ornaments with yarn and decorated them to make the trees.  They also had the opportunity for a goat hike with Ms. Leah.  We continued the Christmas celebration by reading the Christmas story in the barn and creating some food ornaments for birds and animals to enjoy.

1st grade

First grade students created an ornament with a pinecone and adorned the ornament with a bow and a couple bells. The bells jingling from the tree in the wind was a nice touch.  First grade students also learned about how animals get ready for winter and after learning about squirrels caching food, hid some corn and did their best to find it.  The following week we read the book Night Tree about a family that decorates a tree in the woods with food for animals,  we then put out some apples and popcorn on a couple of our trees at school.

2nd Grade

Second grade made candles as a symbol of Christmas which tied in well to the pioneer experience in class and OE this year.  We also spent some time at native American village thinking about what it was like for Native Americans long ago and some of the ingenious ways they use the nature around them to create what they needed.  We also spent time on a star scavenger hunt and puzzle on the trail followed by a reading of the book Song of the Stars to celebrate Christmas.    

3rd Grade

Our third graders bound birdseed with corn syrup and gelatin, quickly pressed the seed mixture into molds, and made a hole to hand our ornaments before the birdseed cake began to dry! We tied up our creations with a bow and ribbon as a gift for the birds! A gift given freely with no expectation of return. We were excited to help our Michigan birds survive the winter. Our last class before break was spent creating another goodie, an Algonquian dessert made of popcorn and maple syrup! We shucked our corn, separated kernels from chaff, popped it over the flame, and made a syrupy candy from maple syrup and butter to bind it together! A delicious way to honor the corn we grew in our three sisters garden.

4th Grade

[IMAGE '2051' /]One way fourth grade spent time thinking about advent is with a reading from one of the sections in the book All Creation Waits which discusses how God gave animals what they need for winter as they wait for spring and parallels this with our waiting for Christ and His return.  We spent time focusing on the amazing adaptations of the muskrat before heading to the pond to visit our resident example.  We also made a couple ornaments.  For the advent walk we made angels from corn husks and we also made some pinecone ornaments covered in bird seed for the animals.

5th Grade 

The fifth graders’ ornament was a star symbol. These were created by making lanterns out of soup cans similar to what many of them did for survival camp. Our goat chores get a little harder this time of year as the muck and water freezes and our pregnant ladies are hungrier than ever but our students’ persistence is encouraging!

6th Grade

The sixth graders each made a wreath to decorate their tree with the symbol of eternity and new life, symbolized by the circular shape of the ornament and the evergreen color of its adornments. In sixth grade, we look forward to continual improvements to our Got Yolk company with discussions about the many important impacts businesses have in our lives, good and bad.

7th Grade

The seventh grade ornament for the advent walk was a nativity manger created inside a walnut shell.  Aside from the ornament, seventh graders spent some time on our new focus on fires in the outdoors. We’ll cover many types of fires and even some cooking over the fire. Additionally the 7th grade offered some help to get some details ready for the advent walk.

8th Grade

Eighth graders created ornaments with the names of God written on tree slices or tree cookies. Students cut their own slices from logs with hand saws and then chose a name of God to write on them. In addition to the ornaments the eighth graders also helped in the setup for the many pieces that needed to come together for the advent walk and did a great job.