Teton Valley Campus Preschool – The Magpies

Today nine friends boarded the bus ready to direct us all over our Valley! Before we left, Lulu showed us a map on her phone. We noticed there was on orange triangle in the middle of it. Anders thought the triangle might show where we were on the map. Our first stop after school was the gas station because we needed to fill up the bus. “The gas station is next to the library!” Wren shared. While we waited for the tank to fill up we checked on the orange triangle. Jaymes noticed there was a red line coming off of the triangle! We decided that in addition to taking turns giving directions we should also take turn watching the ‘tracker’ as we drove. Before we left the gas station each child got a clipboard and pen so they could create their own maps as we drove.

We saw so much out our bus windows today!

“This is the way to my house!” Jaymes realized after Buzby chose for us to turn onto 6000.

“This is a really bumpy road… It brings us to our old Woods,” Buzby shared as we drove down the road he chose for us to turn onto.

“I see the mountains!” Ada said, looking at the Tetons across the valley.

“I see our school!” Wren said, looking back at the direction we came.

“Lulu, this is a dead end!” Jaymes cautioned as we turned onto another bumpy road.

“If you go past Rise and get hot cocoa you get back on Highway 33,” Jhett advised as we got closer to Driggs.

“I’ve never seen such a donkey before!” Leo said when we stopped the bus to look at a pair of donkeys. 

“We’ve seen so many animals!” Wren reflected as we passed some horses and cows.

“We’re going straight!” Tobie announced as she watched the red line on the tracker.

Today at morning meeting, we read the story of last Friday. The story told us about the driving adventure that some of us went on. In the pictures, we noticed a map with a red line on it. Buzby let us know that the line shows “Where we drived.” The people who went on the adventure, thought back to what they had seen.

“We saw Wren’s horse!” -Anders

“Cows! Donkeys!” -Leo

After looking at that little map of our route, some friends stopped to investigate the new big map of TARGHEE that Jhett’s family brought for us. 

“I’m going on the chairlift. Where’s the magic carpet on this map…OH! I know where it is! It’s right there!” -Teagan

Using the marker, Wren drew as she spoke, “I’m just skiing all around the city. I’m gonna draw Shoshone.” -Wren

Outside, Corbin noticed something happening to the play yard. 

“The play yard is coming back! I can see two rocks and some wood.” -Corbin

As he continued to observe the changes, other friends worked in the tunnels and caves that we’ve been digging and painting.

“This is a lake…this is an island, right Corbin? Let’s make Hawaii…I’m making an island. The big island…I’m adding to this lake. Look at this! This is a hot lava tube!” said Anders as he painted inside a hole in the cave wall.

“I’m making a river down! Look how long my river is getting.” -Genevieve

As he looked into a lava tube, Cody wondered, “How did this get a ball inside?”

How will our play yard continue to change this week? Will our rivers get longer and our caves get bigger?

Teagan was eager to venture into the forest today. We had brought Liza’s ‘mapping-watch’ to The Woods with us and this seemed like the perfect time to use it! Liza strapped her mapping watch to Teagan’s wrist and we set out on an adventure to The Booby Trap Tree and beyond! As we walked Teagan shared that the lines around the triangle on the watch were changing!

On our adventure into the forest Annie, Anders and Buzby discovered some strange things on the trees. “What’s that big thing? Is it growing out of a tree? … It’s growing out of something!” Anders said, looking up at a thicket of branches and sticks high up in a tree. “I don’t think it’s a tree,” Bubzy said. “It’s a nest!” Annie exclaimed.

As we continued on Annie noticed some scratches on the trees.

“I think someone is chopping our trees!” she said. 

“I think there’s a big grey monster with three horns!” Anders said.

“Monsters aren’t real, right?” Buzby asked.

“Yes they are, I saw a bobcat once!” Annie replied. 

We can’t wait to see the map we created!

Here is the map of our movements that we created during our Woods Day!

The ‘warmer’ colors show where we were moving fast and the ‘colder’ colors show where we were moving slower.