This morning after games and clay, we gathered up to learn about Pictograph stories. We started by “reading” a Native American story that was made with pictographs. It was fun to guess what the pictures meant, and when we read it in words, we realized we were pretty close! While we ate snack, we came up with our own Mountain Kids! pictograph story, by each adding one sentence and 1-3 pictures. It was fun and we were glad that the story had a happy ending!
Then we went to Mountain Kids! base camp where we were planning to make paint with the rocks we had collected and try our hand at archery. We all gathered round the fire pit, sang some songs and played a game before Katie demonstrated how to make paint with our colorful rocks. It was quite fun and relaxing to grind up the rocks using the “manos and matates” and then sift and make paint. We each made a different color and then painted our own special pot or a rock.
Archery was a great challenge for everyone. Morgan carefully instructed each of the kids on how to be safe on an archery range and how to shoot a bow and arrow. Hitting the target alone was a great achievement! We learned how skilled the ancient peoples must have been and gained a lot more respect for their lifestyle.
After lunch, some tried out the slack line and others climbed trees then we played Mountain Lion-Deer Chase in the forest which was exciting and fun, running through the forest, sneaking and hiding. Afterward, Morgan taught us a fun game called Zip Zap Zop! when it started to rain hard enough that we took cover under the portal.
Back at Alto Park, we played Park Ranger for even longer than we should have because we were having so much fun! Thanks all, today was a splendid day for Mountain Kids!
~ written by Page Bancroft
