29Dec 2022 by catbird 2 Comments
What is a Hibernation Celebration?

What is a Hibernation Celebration?

Craft Project, Hibernation Celebration, Learning, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Play, Winter
Every winter we have a "Hibernation Celebration" both at school and at home. What is a Hibernation Celebration pray tell? It's a super fun way celebrate the winter holidays in a non-denominational nature focused way. It can be a full lesson block with academic content the way we do at school or it can just be a fun party. We usually celebrate at the end of December right before winter break (otherwise known as the perfect time to hibernate...) but this is a great topic for January or February-- or any snowy cold month really. If you want to skip to party ideas click here. For all of my Hibernation content click here. When we celebrate hibernation at school it isn't just a straightforward scientific discussion of bears in caves.…
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28Dec 2022 by catbird No Comments
Hibernating Seed Bears

Hibernating Seed Bears

Craft Project, Garden, Hibernation Celebration, Nature Art, Play, Winter
Many animals hibernate this time of year, and while plants don't hibernate exactly, many of them do go dormant which is similar. We observe a "Hibernation Celebration" each year in December as school winds down and we prepare for our quiet period of sorts. This year we made these sweet little seed bears with seeds tucked inside sleeping away the winter and waiting for spring. We chose seeds that are food for or have value to small mammals so that they wouldn't just look like sleeping animals, but actually help animals! I couldn't find a sleeping bear mold so we made these by hand which is time consuming, but feels right for this sleepy season. You could also try using bee friendly plants with a bee mold or swampy loving…
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28Dec 2022 by catbird 1 Comment
Walnut Shell Fortune Telling Candle Boats

Walnut Shell Fortune Telling Candle Boats

Craft Project, New Year's Eve, Play, Winter
I’m not sure when I started with the fortune telling slant to New Year's Eve, but I think it makes sense I think in light of the new year/ new beginnings. I like the idea of making predictions and solidifying hopes for the next year, and it feels more practical than resolutions no one intends to keep. Over the years I have added more and more unique and interesting ways to predict fortunes to my repertoire and my kids LOVE them, but this is one of the oldest that we have been doing since they were little littles. It's fun, it's easy and who doesn't love a little candle boat made from a walnut shell?? These are candle boats because we always do this at night, and it's very dramatic,…
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27Dec 2022 by catbird 1 Comment
First Day Hike!

First Day Hike!

Nature Collection, New Year's Eve, Play
One of the the New Year's traditions we never miss is a first day hike. The idea is that it sets the tone for your year- make getting outside and interacting with nature a priority! This was actually the brainchild of the State Parks in the United States and most parks offer official guided hikes, but we prefer to do our own thing. (Which also sets the tone for the year!) If you are looking for a good hike check out your state's First Day hike offerings! And if you aren't in the US or want to go somewhere else, just pick your favorite park and go for it. It doesn't have to be a fancy or super challenging hike, it just should make you feel good! Last year, on…
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27Dec 2022 by catbird 1 Comment
Magical Wax Fortunes for the New Year

Magical Wax Fortunes for the New Year

Craft Project, New Year's Eve, Play
Bleigießen is an an old Austrian New Year's Eve tradition in which you pour lead into water on New Year’s Eve and try and interpret the image you see made. It translates literally to "lead pouring." You can buy little lead pouring kits in many northern European countries for this very purpose, but the custom is though to be ancient in origin dating back at least as far as the Romans. The practice of telling the future from poured metal is officially called molybdomancy, from the Greek word for lead, molybdos. In Finland, little tin horseshoes are melted and tossed in the snow for the same purpose. There, the shadow the shape makes when held up to the light is more important than the shape itself. Apparently a basket shape…
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20Dec 2022 by catbird 5 Comments
Yule Logs

Yule Logs

Craft Project, Nature Collection, Winter Solstice
I was super inspired by Acorn Moon Mercantile's instagram post last year about fire incense. She collects scraps and bits of pinecones, plants and shells and throws them on a smoldering fire. This ties nicely into my natural hoarding instincts, and also gives purpose to all of those random scraps of things I can't seem to part with. We decided to take it a step further and use fire incense to make our yule log! First we created our own fire incense scraps of birch and bayberry and fir and spruce and collected black walnuts shells and spruce resin and holly branches—- anything seasonal or nice smelling that spoke to us. Once we had our collection of incense we picked out our special Yule Log and got to work. The whole…
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19Dec 2022 by catbird 5 Comments
Winter Solstice Star Lantern

Winter Solstice Star Lantern

Craft Project, Nature Art, Winter Solstice
Winter Solstice is the longest, darkest night of the year. Every day after this night the day gets a little bit longer until the Summer Solstice. Light is an important theme across winter holidays in most cultures, many of whom tried to coax the sun back with fires, lights and lanterns. We always make ice lanterns for our Solstice Spiral, but wanted lantern that we could carry this year.  This Star Lantern was inspired by the “parol” a type of Christmas lantern traditional in the Philippines, it’s made with bamboo and rice paper and is meant to represent the star of Bethlehem, but has become an art form of its own. We swapped the bamboo for sticks to make our lantern more rustic looking and I am delighted with how…
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12Dec 2022 by catbird No Comments
Festive Mushroom Ornaments

Festive Mushroom Ornaments

Craft Project, Nature Art, Play, Winter, Winter Solstice
I don't think its any secret that I love mushrooms, foraging and eating them, making art with them and generally just finding and observing them. They seem to me having a moment right now too. At the same time I am slowly becoming one of those crazy old ladies who has a tree in every room of her house with a different theme. I’m at three now. (Is there a threshold for when it becomes crazy? Like cats?) The family tree is in the living room and has all of our special ornaments, there is a sunny solstice tree and last is this tree. I live in an old Victorian house with a tower… so it clearly needed a tree. And obviously that tree needed to be a mushroom tree.…
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11Dec 2022 by catbird 1 Comment
Golden Solstice Tree Topper

Golden Solstice Tree Topper

Craft Project, Nature Art, Winter Solstice
Once I started making these simple tree toppers I never looked back-- they are easy and cheap to make, rustic yet elegant and speak to the importance of the sun at the Winter Solstice. I have three- one for each of my various trees and I have made smaller versions as ornaments too. It could be a fun way to use special sticks (yes we have those too...) the last one I made used sticks that had mushrooms growing on them, lichen can be beautiful too! Golden Solstice Tree Topper Materials: Sticks Scrap cardboard Hot Glue Strip of felt for the hanger Method: Decide how big you want your topper to be and cut all of the sticks to approximately the same length. I like to make sure that cuts…
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