“I found a T, I found a T!” a child called as he ran through the bush towards us. He held up a stick shaped like a T.

“What starts with T?” We asked him.

“T-t-t-t-tree!” he called then he drew many T’s in the dirt joined by a few friends.

“Train and today” another child called as we continued down the path.

“Trap, turtle!” a child called from the back of the group.

A short distance down the path we gathered together and made a circle. It was an impromptu story time, but this time the children were the authors of the story. “Let’s make it a T story” a child suggested.

The special helper started us off holding the talking stick so everyone knew it was her turn. “Once upon a time there was a tree”.

 The next child picked up the stick paused, then said “It was tall and talking” they then passed on the stick.

“It was as tall as (pause) like a (pause) train” the next child said.

Each child contributed to the story and the story grew…

The tree, it was a trap!

It was a trap for bears.

The raven was tricking the bears and theywere going to have a party.

They decorated the table to trick the bear.

The bear came home to the table but it was too small. He said who has been sitting on my table!

Surprise! Yelled the tree!

They all played together.

The end.

“That was a really silly story” one child said as we got up to continue walking. “Really silly” another added. Later a child found an N shaped stick. “What letter is this” he asked. “It is the one that makes the nnnnnnn sound” he said with his arms held out like an airplane. “It is an N” another child said. How do you draw the N again?” He asked. Together he  then drew many N’s on both his nature detective book and in the dirt. 

Written by Erin Van Stone (Nature Kindergarten ECE)