We always welcome snow- the play affordances are plentiful! However, to have SNOW and VALENTINE’S DAY is just too precious! The snow supported our ideas about how to open up a dialogue about what friendship means and invited the question: Can we be friends with the non-human world? What does being friends with Terra Nova Rural Park and its inhabitants mean?

Leading up to Valentines we wanted to offer children a non-commercialized experience ( thank you parents for supporting this idea); partially sparked from our professional development day last week, partially ignited from another outdoor educator whom we greatly admire ( Megan Zeni) and a lot generated from our own thinking over time, we decided to create projects that would be a ‘gift’ to the land; to show our love for the land. Some groups made hearts, some ice sculptures, some hanging heart leaves and rose petals were sprinkled about ( thank you Kate for getting the petals!).

I asked my small group “What is Valentine’s Day?” I heard responses like “cards, candy and toys”. Hmmm, I said. Then Atlas said “We give cards to friends”. This opened a little crack for me to ask about how we show we care about someone. And, if we care about someone, what kinds of things can we do to look after them? We rambled into new pathways of discussion ending in this question:

How we can be friends with Terra Nova?

Atlas: We can be friends with Great Blue Herons and Chickadees.

Ryan: Crows

Daniela: We can be best friends with Eagles.

Roy:Hawks

Dion: Spiders and tree, “Yes”, says Tyler, “with trees and rocks”

Atlas: and bees

Daniela: What about the sky and the clouds and the sun?

By thinking of the animals and plants as beings, it shifts our thinking- we can care for them in new ways, as we would a friend. Isn’t this a beautiful way to look around our world and see friendship in new ways?

Enjoy these photos of our ‘gifts’ to the land, snow play and inside time.

In gratitude,

Emily