We had another lovely ECO session on Wednesday.   Our focus for the morning was building red eft houses.  (Red efts are juvenile eastern newts.)  In the past we have made mouse houses,  but with an abundance of red efts in the forest it made sense to build "houses" for these young salamanders.  (We even had one walk across our safety circle during our story about a red eft.)  On Tuesday students had an opportunity to create plans for their houses, being as creative and elaborate as they liked.   While the finished creations don't necessarily match the initial plans, the planning process definitely seemed to deepen engagement and attention to detail, with many children eager to add more to their houses in the coming weeks.