A crowd of threes

I seem to be in a run of writing everything at a day's remove...so, anyway, yesterday (Wednesday) I was down at Five Rivers again, observing an Observers class.  It's a while since I've taught, so I wanted to remind myself about what is involved by watching another instructor with a class of kids.

Observers is aimed at the younger age groups, and this was the youngest group you could get: three year-olds.  I'm going to sound like an American when I say, they were adorable.  They really were. Sweetness personified, with their eager little faces and their welly boots on the wrong feet.

The lesson usually takes one and a half hours, all out on the trails.  However the weather was very cold and drizzly, and this little lot weren't quite up to it, so they only spent thirty minutes outdoors and the rest in the classroom examining animal pelts and feathers and pretending to be bees (the instructor really had to think on her feet).  While we were outside they did spot some deer fur, animal trails, scat ("Euugghh!") and had a goose come right up to see them. So they had plenty to remember and tell their parents about when they got home, and they all looked very happy about the whole adventure.

And I was reminded that teaching at Five Rivers is all about never knowing what to expect, and having fun with that.