#Earthschooling365: Day Sixty-One
Inner Work Meditation (Heart): As I was taking the picture of the deer below she started to go to the bathroom. Suddenly my pretty nature picture became a silly nature picture. However, instead of stopping my work I continued to take pictures. It made me laugh so I wanted to capture pictures of the moment. I also considered that it might be useful as a good educational picture at some point. Does this ever happen to you as you go through your day? Do you ever start a project with one idea but the project starts to go in a different direction in a terrible way? Has someone made it ugly or offensive in some way? Sometimes a sense of humor is the best approach in such matters. Meditate today on how you can react to situations today with a sense of humor and make yourself a promise that no matter how plans unfold today that you will always laugh and find something funny about the situation.
Nature Walk Idea (Head): I always thought it was the funniest thing that a large animal like a deer has scat the same size as rabbit scat. In the picture I took today a deer is going to the bathroom and you can see the size of the scat. It is small and round. Today’s nature walk assignment is to identify as many scat sightings as you can today. You may not always see animals but you might see proof that they were once there. You can find an identification guide online, purchase a guide from a bookstore, check out a guide from the library or use our guide HERE.
Photography Notes (Hands): Today is the end of the month so we are going to have a quiz. The photo below (of the deer and the squirrel) is a great subject and I was lucky to capture the two together in one frame. However, there are a lot of things “wrong” with the photo. Can you list some “right” and “wrong” things about the photo below? How would you fix these things using framing, f-stop, shutter speed, ISO and other techniques?
Some possible “wrong” answers include: Subjects are looking out of the frame, depth of field is too small, the log cuts the photo in half which is ineffective, the deer’s ears are more in focus than his eyes, and the story it tells is confusing.
Some possible “right” answers include: Interesting subject, very even lighting, sharp focus on the deer, and nice peek into animals living in harmony.
Verse: A Scat Feast
Copyright Kristie Burns
The Easter Bunny isn’t the only one that leaves chocolate eggs…(the rhyming can help kids remember some scat basics – plus what kid doesn’t like to sing about poop?)
White-tail deer left me a clue
Some Raisinettes under my shoe
Mixed with a few chocolate chips
The kind that will never touch my lips!
As Mr. Rabbit was jumping away
He left me a gift on this sunny day
Like brown M&M’s in a little mound
Not tasty at all and a little round
Long tailed rat left the scene
In his place a black jelly bean
But not the kind that I would eat
For rat scat is not a yummy treat
The lumbering Elk strolled along the trail
Leaving Hershey’s Kisses behind his tail
But no foil wrapper did I see
So I knew they were not meant for me
Twitchy little mouse scampered off in a rush
Leaving chocolate sprinkles in the brush
But they didn’t belong on a scoop of ice cream
A closer look showed they were not what they seem
Rolly-polly Racoon hid in a large hole
But he left us a small Tootsie Roll
But while his intentions may have been dandy
His donation was not delicious candy
The majestic moose with lanky legs
Left some chocolate Easter eggs
But since it was August when I saw the track
I figured they were not a snack
*These poems have been created for many purposes – from early childhood circle time verses to inspirational or expressive. They vary from day to day so you may find the way you use them or enjoy them also varies. If you would like to set these poems to music consider our tutorial: Creating Your Ow Waldorf Verses or Finding Your Inner Voice.
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What is #Earthschooling365?
This series takes you through an entire year of our nature walks and is part of our non-profit project #Earthschooling365 at www.Earthschooling.org. The photos and posts in this series are all copyrighted. Please do not share or re-print them. Instead, share the link to this blog with your friends.
Along the way I will be sharing our favorite photo of the day, an inner work meditation for the day, photography assignment/tip for the day, nature walk theme for the day and a short verse for circle time (children) or meditation (teens/adults). We invite you to “walk along with us” this year, take some time to use the inner work meditation, be inspired by the nature walk theme of the day and perhaps even start a photo series of your own. To join the community on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram please tag your photos #Earthschooling365. To receive these inspirations in your e-mail inbox daily please subscribe to our blog alerts HERE. Don’t worry about missing days – you can join us as many days as you want this year!
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