After two years of wind and clouds, I couldn't have picked a better day (considering I picked the date back in October). Light snow falling with any wind, and temperatures in the 20's. As soon as we were out the door and past the playground, the fun really started. Kids were throwing themselves in snowbanks, chasing each other, and rolling around on the road. I just let them go crazy, figuring they would settle down and start walking pretty soon. Between the two classes, we had come up with two plastic sleds; pulling those gave the kids something to do.
We headed up the hill towards Baldhead. It's the only road out of town and is lined with trees. The school is up on a hill and the road slopes down to meet the creek and then heads up the hill. Some of the girls decided they wanted to sled down the hill, but it's not a very steep incline, so the boys obliged by pulling them down the hill.
We veered off the main road before we got very far up Baldhead. We started following a snowmachine trail, carved by people going out to get firewood. It was fairly decently packed, and lined with trees of all shapes and sizes.
We found a tree for the first-grade first. It was a large tree that we cut off about halfway up. It appeared fairly bushy and not too big. We put it on one of the sleds, left it by the side of the trail and continued on in search of a tree for the kindergarten. The kids spotted one that wasn't as bushy as the first one, but was a good size and not too scraggly.
As you can see, they really are cute little trees (and cute little kids, too!).
We hadn't noticed as we were tree-hunting, but it had really started to snow in earnest. As we started back, the flakes got big and started coming fast. I'm not sure who started the trend, but pretty soon, most kids were trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues. It's difficult to walk, pull a sled, and catch snowflakes all at the same time, but some kids were managing pretty well.
We took our time coming back, due to the snow, trees, and fascination with catching snowflakes. Even so, some of the littlest ones were dragging by the time we reached the school. We had only been gone an hour, but they had walked a fair distance.
Wanda (the kindergarten teacher) invited our class to her room for hot chocolate and animal crackers. It was a bit of an ordeal getting our tree in the stand, but we managed, and then headed next door.
We came back to our room and strung lights and decorations on our tree. That's when I noticed that it is definitely not standing straight up but leans a substantially to one side. It seems fairly sturdy, though, so I'm not going to mess with it. I love having kids that get along well. All I had to do was put the decorations out on a table and they decorated without fighting over who got to do what.
All in all, the kids had fun, we didn't lose anyone, teachers came back with tempers intact, and we found two beautiful trees for our rooms. I count it as a successful afternoon.
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