Jesse is a teacher at our Collingwood School. He has a college background in journalism, is trained as a professional chef and is a paddling guide for Free Spirit Tours. He is an avid backcountry adventurer who has spent a lot of time guiding friends and family through unfamiliar territory in the interior.
Jesse has worked with Free Spirit Tours for the past three year. He has developed his skillset through training programs and first-hand experience. Jesse is also a husband and father to three beautiful children. He has completed several courses in mental health support for children and has vast experience with young people with special needs.
His passions for the outdoors, working with children and being a caretaker for the environment has led him to this position. Passing along the knowledge and experience is very important in the goal of preserving and spreading gratitude to the natural gifts that we are blessed with.
In his off time, you can find him deep in the Algonquin backcountry, fishing in parts unknown, on the trail and developing a lasting bond with his family and nature. If he looks familiar, you may have seen him portaging his canoe through Wasaga Beach in search of the next adventure!
Travis Schreyer is very fortunate to have grown up in Wasaga Beach and the surrounding area, with its bounty of outdoor activities. With so much to experience, he quickly fell in love with nature and exploring the world. Rock climbing is his passion and it has taken him all around the globe to from Colorado to Thailand.
Growing up in a world of constant technological innovations, he has witnessed and experienced first hand how simple it is to disconnect from the outdoors. Working with children in various outdoor adventure camps has given him the opportunity to introduce and encourage kids to explore and uncover all that the outdoors has to offer. He knows that now is more important than ever to foster these Nature connections and is overjoyed to be a mentor with FSFNS. He is a natural with kids, a strong leader and role model and values above all instilling a sense of wonder, self- discovery and curiosity. In his free time you can find him at the local crag!
Jackie is a Child and Youth Worker and educator who has dedicated many years to building effective relationships, developing and facilitating programs, providing advocacy and creating community liaisons to improve child, youth and family outcomes and influence positive community capacity. She has experience in a variety of educational, community service and mental health settings.
Jackie has lived, worked, raised her family and played in Simcoe County for thirty years. She is passionate about meaningful relationships and life long learning across generations, to nature and community. You will find her enjoying adventures in the forest, on the trails and in the water.
Laura is a teacher at our Collingwood School. She grew up on a farm in Meaford, hiking the Bruce trail in her backyard, and has always loved the outdoors! She graduated from the University of Guelph with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a minor in Family and Child Studies. She has worked with children and youth from all walks of life and in all different settings since she was 12 years old. Passionate about cultivating children’s knowledge and awareness, and with their emotional intelligence in mind, she is a wonderful mentor and guide for young people.
Laura has hiked up to Machu Picchu twice because she is in absolute awe of it! In her free time, she enjoys rock climbing, camping, and hiking. You can usually find her walking with her kids on local trails, or playing and exploring in her own backyard!
Lara is a teacher at our Meaford and Collingwood locations. She graduated from Circle in the Square Theatre School in NYC, has a BSc in Nursing from the University of Victoria and a Montessori Casa Teachers Diploma from The Foundation for Montessori Education in Toronto. Since 2012 She has been working with children in a Montessori environment, a Waldorf inspired environment, and nature, science and music camps. She owned and operated a daycare for 3 years where she spent the majority of her days outside playing and exploring with the children.
Lara grew up with adventurous parents, travelling to various places in the world, and exploring British Columbia via trail, ski, canoe, kayak, snorkel, and sail boat. She moved to Ontario in 2011 and fell in love with the incredible variety of spring and summer wildflowers, as well as the immense backcountry canoe scene. Lara’s favourite outdoor activities to do in Ontario are backcountry canoe camping, hiking, jumping on her bicycle, cross country skiing in Kolapore, and downhill skiing at Blue. She started supply teaching for Free Spirit in 2022 and realized how much she loved the program, the people and smelling like a campfire at the end of the day. What gives Lara great meaning in life is understanding children, fanning the flames of their interests and being a loving, encouraging and supportive adult in their lives.
KRISTA IS A TEACHER AT OUR COLLINGWOOD AND WASAGA BEACH LOCATIONS. SHE HAS A WIDE VARIETY OF EDUCATION WITHIN OUTDOOR EDUCATION AND GRADUATED WITH AN EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION DEGREE FROM GEORGIAN COLLEGE. SHE IS CURRENTLY CONTINUING HER EDUCATION BY PURSUING HER BACHELOR OF EDUCATION FROM LAKEHEAD UNIVERSITY.
KRISTAS PASSION FOR THE OUTDOORS BEGAN WHEN SHE WAS A TOUR GUIDE WHERE SHE EXPLORED THE NATURAL WORLD THROUGH SUGAR MAPLE FORESTS. THIS LED HER TO THE COLLEGE OF ROCKIES WHERE SHE FLOURISHED IN PERSONAL GROWTH THROUGH HANDS ON EXPERIENCES. THESE EXPERIENCES BROUGHT HER TO FREE SPIRIT FOREST SCHOOL, WHICH HAS BEEN LIFE CHANGING.
KRISTA LOVES TO TAKE HER TIME IN NATURE AND MAKE MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS TO ALL THINGS. SHE BELEIVES WHEN WE TAKE TIME TO ASK QUESTIONS WITH CHILDREN AND RESPECTFULLY CHALLENGE THOSE QUESTIONS IS WHERE THE MAGIC OF KNOWLEDGE SITS.
IN KRISTAS FREE TIME SHE LOVES TO IDENTIFY NEW PLANTS AND IS CURRENTLY BUILDING A PERSONAL NATURE IDENTIFICATION BOOK. YOU CAN ALSO FIND HER HIKING ANYWHERE WITH HER DOG BEAU. IN THE WINTER MONTHS HER FAVOURITE THING TO DO IS BUILD QUINZIES!
Kim is a teacher at multiple forest school locations. She graduated from Fleming College for Outdoor and Adventure Education. Over the years she has also obtained multiple certifications for wild edibles, paddling and first aid. She is currently working on Abnormal Psychology courses through Fleming College as well.
Kim grew up in Toronto, where she managed a publishing company for ten years. When she decided that city life was not what she wanted anymore, she packed everything up to move up north and go back to school. After graduating, Kim has worked as a wilderness guide around Canada as well as the UAE, a trip leader for a wilderness therapy company for troubled teens in northern Ontario and most recently a kayak guide on the West Coast. Kim is most passionate about teaching about wild edible plants, geology, animal tracking and bushcraft skills.
Kim grew up camping on the islands of Georgian Bay, so when she has down time, it is no surprise that you will find her hiking, paddling, painting and camping on the Bay!
Wow! What a beautiful last week of Forest School! We had a wonderful time reflecting on what we’ve learned and experienced throughout the year and we sure had fun reminiscing about a lot of funny, meaningful memories that stood out! It’s so worthwhile to pause and reflect on these experiences together – so much has happened in just a few months!
After our morning circle and a story, students had the opportunity to say goodbye to their sit-spots. Some offered a piece of white sage to say thank you for all of the learning and reflecting that they’ve engaged in at their chosen spot. Some drew in their journals or created new medallions for their Sit Spots. Some chose to simply sit and reflect quietly. Sit Spots are just one way that students connect with the land in a meaningful way at Forest School. It’s been really special on our end to be able to witness this relationship develop with nature. Students seem to get a lot from just sitting and being still in Nature. We wonder if it’s something they will continue to do on their own this summer because so many of our students really looked forward to starting their days off in their Sit-Spots. Let us know!
We had a fun new challenge for Forest School this week where students had to work together to complete the first ever Forest School Escape Room! They collaborated to gather clues, solve problems, and build on prior knowledge to find the secret antidote (and marshmallows!) required to save the world! Everyone was able to successfully complete the challenge in less than an hour – one group made it with just 43 seconds left! Afterwards, we enjoyed a campfire and basked in our wonderful learning community… celebrating appreciations, new friendships, and hopeful summer play dates!
In the afternoon, we had an array of more student-led activities to celebrate our final day. Some included exploring the heritage site and venturing into the old buildings, playing a final game of Survival and Capture the Flag, and the classic Bubble Tag. It was an engaging way to wrap up our school-year!
A special thank you to the families who could join us for our closing ceremony! We will have the videos uploaded soon and send you a link! Remember if you haven’t picked up your NEW FOREST SCHOOL T-Shirt, you can do so Monday between 8:30-9:15am at Bygone Days during the Kids Camp Registration.
Parents and Families, we want to thank you for making this program possible! Thank you for believing in our approach to education and understanding the value of risky play and connecting with nature. We trust you will have a healthy, happy summer packed with adventures, family time and play! Hope to see you on the trails or by the water!
Happy Solstice! After our core routines this week and a brainstorm on teamwork, our days differed immensely in what student-interests led us to. We book-ended all days with sage and sit spots in the morning, and a fire at the end, but otherwise they were so unique, let’s sum them up separately.
TUESDAY
We had some eager helpers on Tuesday and started off by weeding the garden and planting some tomato plants in anticipation of our Fall Harvest next school year. The majority of our day was spent “farming” and building gardens in our sit spots, developing clay factories (which turned into clay all over the place!), and harvesting wild edibles to eat in a salad. Some lucky adventurers even gathered some wild strawberries!
Students also built a brand new fire pit, complete with rock ring which we used for our end of the day fire. Despite the rain (or maybe because of?…), we still had a great time. After a game of Capture the Flag, we even had time to hang our homemade bat house SW facing high in Willow Tree… we’ll see if anything moves in!
(PS – since we were on a camp trip, we didn’t have time to put up photos for Tuesday’s canoeing last week, so if you scroll to the very bottom, you’ll find some there.)
Wednesday
Our Wednesday class dove into what they love best – catching aquatic creatures and manipulating the movement of water with waterfalls, rapids and dug out riverbeds. Everyone had a job in this project – digger, dammer, dumper and more. And what a lucky day we had with the discovery of many 4+ leaf clovers!!!
We headed out to our sit spots, and student-interest kept us there for most of the morning. Like Tuesday, we saw students dive into the clay market (quite literally!) and create a whole bunch of infrastructure and objectives. Others could be found trying their luck at fishing (no bites this time), collecting ample amounts of wild strawberries, transplanting wild edibles into their personal gardens, and carving cutlery from wood.
Another reoccurring theme throughout the day was ants and their colonies and nests. We had a lengthy and great debate about whether or not to capture some ants and create our own ants in a jar – and in the end, everyone agreed that we should leave these fellas be. Later in the day the students even created an epic ant home (or mansion) and the Painted Turtle group sit spot! And speaking of which, this area had quite the facelift with everyone pitching in to create a new reading circle with stumps and boards, and cleaning all the garbage along the way.
A big thanks to our volunteer parent, Jamila, who lent some helping hands of her own today!
Thursday
The pond, as usual, was a huge hit on Thursday and we were able to identify new species of critters that lurked under the leaves. After our check-ins (and by popular demand) we played some team games including our favourite, Survival, where students learned that it’s not just humans who work together and lend a helping hand. Afterwards (when the rain came briefly), we laid out and drew up plans for a future “Nature” playground that we want to develop at the site! Students came up with some really practical, feasible and awesome ideas! We hope to put some of them in place in the near future.
Before embarking on our afternoon, we held an impromptu funeral for “Max” the toad, a poor fella we came across today. This was topped off with a great rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb on the the recorder, played by one of our students. Throughout the day we visited some new places, including the reading circle created by Wed’s group and the fire pit created by Tues’ group, where student’s created their very own imaginative stories to share with each other around the fire.
Alas, some sad news – we say goodbye to Krista this week as she won’t be here next week! A HUGE THANKS for all you do for the students and the program!
Congrats to our Beads Recipients: 2 Tracking beads, a handful of Sit Spot bead, 2 Colouring beads, 2 Curiosity bead, 2 Music beads, 3 Littlerless Lunch beads, and 4 storytelling beads!
Next Week: Hard to believe it’s the last day of the year! We’d like to invite all families to our final wrap-up at 3:15 pm at Bygone Days. It will take about 20 minutes.
What an amazing week we had exploring ! The students had the opportunity to spend time looking at the forest through a different lens – and a delicious lens at that! Our energy this week focused around the question: What can we eat??? We brought in Brian, a local wild edible and plant ID expert, to help us uncover the treasures that were literally growing right in front of us!
Our morning objective was to get out and ID/harvest as many different types of edible plants as possible. And over three days, we grew quite the impressive list:
Dandelion (or as Thursday group came to learn the “Pusteblumen” in German)
Wild Carrots
Grape Tendrils (or the “arms” of the grape – sourly delicious)
Cattails
Clover (but not too much!)
Thistle!
Bladder Campion
Daisy
Bass Wood
Cedar
Catnip
Pineapple Weed
Leeks
Burdock
Curly Dock
Strawberries
Pepper Grass
(GIANT) Asparagus
..and much more!
Medicinal:
Plantain – chew it up and put in on cuts, stings and bites
Yarrow – helps stop bleeding (and nose bleeds!)
Willow – like Tylenol for toothaches or cankers
We spent the afternoon by the lake, where epic tunnels were dug, gardens were built, clay factories were opened and overall people were just covered in mud – including a sweet puppy visitor on Thursday. We wrapped up our day by gathering around the fire, where we cooked up some delicious wild veggie stir-fries, with a salad as an appetizer, and shared some steeped loose leaf teas from foraged greens and roots. Things taste so much better when you collect them yourself!
Congratulation Bead Recipients:
A whole bunch of Nature Lovers, 2 Al’s Beads and 1 Cooking Bead!
A BIG thanks to Brian! He brought an enormous amount of knowledge and great energy to the groups, and made the learning so accessible and inspiring for the kids. (He does edible nature walks as part of his job, if you are interested in doing one or you’d like to get in touch with him, send us an email – it’s totally worth it!)
Next week: We are paddling!!! Please remember bathing suits and a towel. We’ll have everything else, but if you want you can BYO-PFD. (and water shoes are good choice!).
Reminder: Days are getting HOT! Please remember to bring a water bottle and a hat to protect from the sun. Sunglasses is a good idea, too.
We’ll leave you with a quote from one of our student’s:
“It’s so strange. It’s like I see the world and plants differently now.”
