We had an awesome field trip this week to Metcalfe Rock in the Kolapore Uplands. This is one of our favourite places to visit for hiking, caving and best of all, CLIMBING! This week rocked!
There’s not much for us to write about this week except how proud we are of our students for stepping outside their comfort zones and trying a challenging, risky and new (for some people) activity. As teachers, we are thrilled to see everyone give it their best and encourage each other along the way. It’s quite the supportive community we’ve all built here at Forest School.
After our initial round of climbing, students had free, exploratory play in the beautiful surrounding forest. Some built shelters, others played one of our favourite games: camouflage, and some even made our now infamous leek and trout lily salad. A few eager students even spent their time climbing some more routes.
In total, 6 different climbs were conquered by our climbers. Check out the photos below, they say a thousand words. (If you’d like a better digital copy, send us an email at fsforestschool@gmail.com).
Congrats to our Bead Recipients: Everyone earned an Explorer Bead and a Bravery Bead!
Oh, and if you’re wondering why your child(ren) may have come home with a new special rock, it may have been inspired by our story: Everybody Needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor
We had a good week celebrating and exploring the wonderful lives of bees with all the students. After our core routines (and some lessons on Poison Ivy ID – that time of year…) we jumped into discussion on bees. There was a lot of prior bee knowledge from our students. We looked at needs, benefits and risks as a class. The students really had a solid understanding of just how important bees are to the environment and food production – and also what we can do to help them.
Throughout the day, we jumped into the roles of bees in two separate games. The first was a spin on a classic game that we like to call Capture the “Honey”, with two bee colonies competing against each other in what is essentially the classic Capture the flag (which everyone always loves!) The second was a macro-model we dubbed “Bee”ware, where students became a bee and had to maneuver through “pesticide” and “loss of habitat” areas without getting caught in order to get the sweet, sweet nectar. What better way to learn about bees, than to become a bee! We shared many great reflections and insights together after playing these activities.
We also had the chance to get up close and personal with our magnifying glasses and examine real nests and honeycombs. And afterwards, we tried some very sweet local honey.
In the afternoon, we had our daily experiential time where students decide what they’d like to do. We saw a large variety of activities over these three days – some students built towers, carved spoons, collected seeds, others caught hundreds of tadpoles, followed bees from flower to flower or made up stories and games. We even had one group build a bat house (inspired and led by one of our students!) while another opted to play more “Bee”ware…. Oh and our new giant teeter-totter!
Towards the end of the day, we used another product from bees – beeswax. We put together a camp stove, melted down the ingredients, and made some chapstick (check it out under “Recipes from our classes”). On a couple days we even had time to make cedar tea with honey in it.
Next Week:
ROCK CLIMBING at Metcalfe Rock! All gear will be provided! Chances are it will be buggy, so please wear layers!
All in all, a sweet day!
Matt, Kim and Krista
PS – Did you know that storytelling is an integral part of our program at Forest School and we often tell and read them together? This week we read a great book called Mr. Bumble – By Kim Kennedy
Wow. There sure have been some incredible changes around the land at Bygone Days. Students have really taken to ensuring that all of our nature-tasks, like filling bird feeders and watering plants, are looked after upon arrival. This noteworthy interest and initiative certainly compliments their ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship and helps build that awesome connection with the land! And lately, they are keen to jump into all of the treats that Mother Earth gives us in the spring…especially by the pond! Throughout the week, we saw tadpoles, frogs, water bugs, leeches and, our personal favourite: the courageous painted turtles sunbathing on logs (and even venturing out to share in some sit spots!) Students love this up-close experience with nature and seem to have developed a deep connection – it is a beauty to see it unfold!
We traveled off-site for another field trip this week – the ever so desired fishing day! What a beautiful day to spend by the bay! We learned a lot about different casting and jigging techniques, re-familiarized ourselves with fishing knots, explored with all sorts of lures, witnessed some creative minnow traps, hooked our own worms… and became especially close with the high-density goby, an invasive bottom feeding fish. We had some first-time catches, teasing nibbles, and a lot of patience for the great bambino! On Thursday, we headed back a little early to try our luck on the big pond at the school – no catches but a few nibbles!
Students really enjoyed trying their hands at fishing this week and after our awesome learning experience, all students earned their fisher-person bead! A special shout out to a rod-rescue mission by a Snowy Owl on Wednesday and an epic “catch of the day” by Matt (it was a fly away t-shirt!).
Three Housekeeping Items:
– With the incredibly warm weather upon us, we would like to remind parents to help students pack and remember their water bottles and hats.
– We have some sun screen and bug spray, but if you have a particular favourite, please bring it!
– As tempting as it might be to wear flip flops, please ensure that your child also has proper running shoes (rain boots for ponds, if you’d like!) for all of our busy day adventures (it’s poison ivy and tick season and we want to be extra careful). Closed-toed paddling sandals with heel straps are a great all around shoe.
-As the days get hotter, please send your kids along with a swimsuit as we may have opportunities to jump in the water.
Lastly, an additional reminder to register soon for next year, if you are interested, as it is beginning to fill up.
Thanks again! See you next week, as we take a closer look at bees!
Some of our favourite days here at Forest School are our “Project Days”. In the past, we’ve built gardens, free libraries, kites, hammocks and much more. We often come into these days with a few ideas about projects we can work on – and as usual are blown away with where the students take it and the ideas they bring to the table. The Snowy Owl students were eager to get a lot of work done on their sit spots, and the painted turtles created secret forts of their own. A lot was accomplished over the past three days – some really cool individual projects, and other bigger group projects, too. Here are the highlights broken down by day:
Tuesday
Tuesday we had on and off again rain, which meant we had some time for indoor projects to do. Some students built massive lego towers, some painted our Kubb set, and others carved spoons. We even made a brand new bow-drill for the class. Some students collected a variety of wild edibles, took everyone’s order off the menu and served us a special treat. When we were able to take advantage of the dryer moments outside, we worked together as group and created a brand new rope swing at our campsite!
Our new bow drill
Wednesday
We had a beautiful sunny day Wednesday and took full advantage of it. While the Painted Turtles were off creating their “secret” place, Snowy Owls were trying to catch minnows in a trap and manipulate a flowing stream with dams and pipes – all before morning snack. After a bunch of time in setting up our sit spots, some fishing and finding a real painted turtle, students got dirty with clay and created a pottery factory. The afternoon was spent checking our trap, painting with natural materials, and trying out the bow-drill from Tuesday’s group. We also added a balance beam to our new obstacle course which included a lot of rope-swinging.
Thursday
The rain held off!!! Our big project today was building a couple potato planters – using straw, chicken wire and soil, students dove in and got dirty. There were also some new additions made to the rope swing and we spent some time in our sit spots. Some students even made a fire without a match! The afternoon was spent carving – mostly spoons, but some spears, arrows and bows as well.
Congratulations to all the bead recipients (and quite a lot!): 8 sit spot beads, 1 curiosity bead, 4 craft beads, 1 firekeeper bead, 1 Al’s bead, 1 peer-support bead, 2 show and tell beads and 4 storytelling beads!
Next Week: We are headed off-site for a hike! Kim and Matt will be away, but we will have amazing teachers (including Krista!) filling in for them.
Registration to the public opens up May 5th, please be sure to send us your intentions (fsforestschool@gmail.com) to ensure your spot asap!
This week the classes learned all about Ecosystems. After our core routines, we started off by coming up with a working definition of what Ecosystems are and how they connect all over the world. It was awesome to lean on the prior-knowledge of our students – we’ve got a clever bunch!
After our lessons, we threw on our scientist hat and headed for the field to make observations and record data. Our objective was to mark off a rectangular section of “ecosystem”, measure it and search for all living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things. The students jumped to the task with magnifying glasses in-hand and found some really cool things – robin eggs, insect eggs and nests, snails galore, mushrooms, and much more. After a “museum walk” to view everyone’s site, it was quite evident that there’s much more than meets the eye in a relatively small area.
After telling a legend, the afternoon had us exploring more ecosystems as we set out on a hike to the far edges of our property. More specifically, we were looking at the biodiversity between ecosystems, in the ecotones. It’s awesome what you can find when you slow down and take a look – the remains of a Northern Flicker, a Turkey nest, edible trout lilies, and that’s just to name a few.
You never know what you’re going to get at Forest School and different days saw many different things happen this week:
TuesdaY
Students were really engaged with ring toss yet again. They also got a chance to become the food chain in a serious rock, paper, scissors competition. This group was the first group to discover the remains of the Northern Flicker (and they chose to leave the beautiful feathers there for the other groups to see – yay LNT principles and nature lovers!). A big portion of them also started work on carving projects, and as always enjoyed some time in their sit spots.
Wednesday
A really cool thing happened on Wednesday – during our exploration one of the students noticed his magnifying glass warmed up his hand. And from there we naturally had to make a fire from it. So we tried and lo and behold, the char cloth caught quick. So we tried other materials – paper, birch bark, tree resin, wood – to see what would happen. We eventually were able to make a fire only using the sun!!!
During a game of camouflage, this group also accidentally (and quite literally) stumbled upon a turkey nest. The mama turkey flew off and we quickly left the area in hopes that she’ll return.
THURSDAY
Wow! What a hot day! So nice we even had to cool down in the spring, and had our first real day where we could take our shoes off this Spring. (And the lightning storms held off just for us!)
The students on Thursday jumped into the roles of Producers, Consumers and Decomposers for a better understanding of food chains. On a sadder note, we experienced this cycle first hand after discovering that our mallard nest was attacked by a hungry predator. We worked through these heavy feelings with the group and realized that this loss is an important part of the food chain. Soon after, we were treated when we discovered a healthy baby of another species – a snapping turtle!
Of course you may have noticed some stinky breath coming from your child after school this week… Tuesday we came across a Leek patch and of course the Wed and Thurs groups had to try!
Congrats to our bead recipients: 3 Leadership Beads, 2 Curiosity Bead, 3 Show and Tell, and 1 Craft bead (for homemade charcloth!)
Next week: Projects!!! We’re going to let our imaginations run wild.
Wow! What a fun-filled week at Forest School. Our focus was on birds this week and we had just the right mix of rainy days and sunshine to see them keeping busy and singing songs… though Thursday students might not agree with the sunshine part! Our bird feeders from last week welcomed new feathered friends and signs of spring were all around us.
We had a wide range of fun throughout the day, starting with an awesome invention of “ring toss” (a combination of dodge ball and volleyball), and perhaps our new favourite game, “Jays vs Junco’s”. For Jays vs. Junco’s, most students acted as Junco’s foraging food, discreetly bringing it back to their nest to feed their young. Their objective was to hide it from the pesky Blue Jays, who were ransacking all of the nests they could find for their own needs! There were decoy nests, distress calls between Juncos, and a lot of laughs!
All decked out with binoculars and field books, our students wandered around the property with a Bird BINGO card in hand, looking for all types of birds, doing all types of things! Birds perching, flying, building nests, birds with long legs and tails, super colourful feathers, or a more camouflaged look – we saw it all! After gaining a few tips in observation (nature voice and fox-feet) and fine-tuning our eyes and ears, we set out for a hike around the big pond in an attempt to see (and hear) some more action. And that we did! Turkey Vultures, Killdeers, Chipping Sparrows, Robins, Common Grackles, FISH (3 dead, but some alive!), frogs, snails, caterpillars, another duck nest with 6 eggs and more! One day, we even had an impromptu memorial for Chippy, our little chipping sparrow that sadly must have collided into a window. Sometimes we work through big feelings and meaningful events at Forest School and we are always impressed with student’s thoughtfulness, wisdom and empathy during these times.
Students continue to LOVE spending time in their sit spots. This week, the Snowy Owls had a challenge to create dialogue between birds and record their conversations. Needless to say, with their incredible imaginations, students came up with some creative story lines! After identifying characteristics of birds, the Painted Turtles were tasked with the challenge of eating with “beaks” and were required to fill a “nest” with birdseed… using chopsticks! On Thursday, all students rose to the challenge of becoming migrating geese working together to take their flying V south. Along the way, they learned of the struggles faced by birds and some of them didn’t make it all the way to the end.
It sure was a wonderful week to be listening to and watching our bird friends! A big congratulations to the students who earned an Al’s bead for their thoughtfulness and good friendship, and other students who earned their Show and Tell beads this week! We also gave out a special Nature Lover bead to a curious birder!
Next Week: We will be learning about ecosystems!
Reminder:
Please dress for the weather and bring an extra set of clothes, including a water bottle!
We had a fun week at Forest School exploring the wonderful and intricate world of Animals. And we were SURROUNDED by them this week. A hare one morning, a groundhog, lots of squirrels, our resident chipmunk and even a bat that literally hung out on the school house all day. Oh and of course we were inundated with birds! We saw dozens of different types and listened attentively to all their songs – it’s getting us really excited for next week’s Bird focus. In prep for this we set up some big feeders to draw them in and made our own smaller Easter Egg bird feeders to put in our sit spots.
After some exploratory play and our morning routines, we took some extended time at our sit spots. These spots are really coming together – check out the pictures below for a sample of the cool shelters and creations our kids are making. The students are really becoming stewards of their areas and adding their own flare.
Back to the subject of the day: Animals. In the past, we’ve worked a lot with animals – tracking, identification, adaptations, fish, birds, insects and more – and we wanted to build on this knowledge. So we tested our knowledge on animals tracks and found out that we could use a little refresher! We took a first hand look at Aden’s paws and followed some tracks laid down by some local fauna. Afterwards, we really wanted to emphasize an understanding of the needs of animals and what better way than with a game of Survival? Students were herbivores, omnivores and carnivores and became part of the food chain. The only goal? To survive!!
Later on we built on this with a couple lessons on carrying capacity and limiting factors. As part of our lesson, chairs slowly started disappearing so students had to share, until ultimately there was not enough space (and thus we figured out our “Classroom Carrying Capacity”). Then we went outside and became deer fighting for resources. We graphed the results over a “15 year” period (yay math!) and drew out conclusions from our findings. We took this one step further by making predictions and looking at real world applications (ie 7 year hare/lynx cycle).
On Thursday we had an impromptu Easter Egg hunt when we came across an abandoned Mallard nest with an egg. Although this is unfortunate, we learned a good lesson in avoiding wildlife (some of our LNT principles). Since we know it has been abandoned for a while, we are going to see if it we can hatch it under a light.
All in all, a real fun day. Congrats to our bead recipients: 2 fire beads, 2 litterless-lunch beads and 5 fire keeper beads.
Next week:
BIRDS!! This is always a fun day and the property has an incredible amount of our avian friends right now. If you’ve got binoculars, please bring them!
Firstly, a BIG welcome to our new students and their families this semester – Forest School is booming and we are so happy to have a growing community. Also, a BIG welcome back to our students from the Fall, and of course our courageous Winter semester crew! We’re in for a good season this Spring.
We started off our days learning how to set up tents (which were especially needed on Tues and Thurs with the rainy weather!) then continued like most days at Forest School – Free Play, Smudge and Check-ins. Afterwards we ventured off for an extended amount of time in our Sit Spots (if you don’t know what this is yet, follow this link to our Core Routines page). New students were on the hunt for a space to call their own and become stewards of for the next few months, while returning students added their personal touches to theirs: a new balance beam in one, a shelter in another, a wall in one more – anything to make it their own… even some fairy gardens! The students could’ve (and would’ve!) spent all day there.
Hanging out in our sit spots
Over the past few weeks, the classes have really been putting in time at our fire pit. We now have an incredible tree fort, a natural shelter, a storefront and a revitalized fire ring. As our goal this week was to learn new outdoor skills, what better place to spend most of the day? Our goal? To create a fire without a match or lighter.
On Tuesday, after a Fire Safety lesson, students eagerly got busy with different jobs – collecting wood, getting the fire ready, fetching water, making “nests” and setting up our ignition station. Students then jumped at the chance to try out our magnesium and steel. With charcloth in place and a nest nearby, we were ready to go. And we did it!!! Our very first “fire keeper” is a long-time Painted Turtle, the very first student in FS Forest School History to make a fire without a match… and he did it in the rain!
Magnesium and steel with charcloth
Wednesday was much the same, though we had much better weather and even more students were able to get their nests blazing without a match. Alas, we tried our best with the Bow Drill and came up just shy – at least we have a new goal for later in the spring (flint and steel proved quite difficult as well, but just another thing to look forward to!).
Working on our Bow Drill skills
The afternoon was spent in different ways on these two days. After exploratory play time, most student wanted to spend more time in their sit spots, or showing them off to others. We found out that tree sap (this was from a pine) can act like a torch and burn really well and long on the end of a stick. We also opened up the knife throwing pit on Wednesday for the Snowy Owls, which was a ton of (highly supervised!) fun. To finish off the day, the classes learned about the key components of a camp stove, how it’s put together and how to use it. And we made some cider/tea.
Our knife throwing pit
Thursday saw some of the craziest weather to date at Forest School. This put a kink in our fire plans, but not in our spirits! After an epic hike to Maple Forest, with some inevitable stops along the way (including finding 5 FROGS!), we were soaked and muddy! The students did a great job at keeping warm and layering up, so we made a fire, had some tea and roasted some marshmallows to celebrate our resilience. What unreal winter-like weather, and a great reminder that “April Showers” can be brutal – please remember to send extra clothes with you child or you can leave a labelled set at the school.
2 of the bigger frogs we found
The classes also brainstormed, voted on and came up with 3 new beads (one per class). Allow us to introduce the student-created:
Sit Spot Bead – earned by taking good care of your sit spot, spending quiet time reflecting in it, doing assigned tasks and making it your own. Fisherperson Bead – earned by demonstrating new knowledge with fishing… bonus if you catch a fish. Explorer Bead – earned by exploring somewhere new and stepping outside of your comfort zone.
And by popular demand from all three classes: Fire Keeper – creating and maintaining a fire without a match or lighter. (We have a few to give out next week!)
We will send home a fully updated bead list next week. Congrats to our bead recipients this week! 2 Fire beads, 1 teaching bead for a great lesson on Great White Sharks, and 1 Show and Tell bead.
We celebrated the end of our semester with a little “spring cleaning” this week and spent some time outfitting our sit spots, exploring the “concrete factory” and updating the amenities at our camp sites. Naturally, students incorporated some slack lining and tree climbing too!
Over both days, it was awesome to watch creativity bloom. Tuesday we visited an area of our property known as the concrete factory – essentially a muddy and sandy area with a small amount of running groundwater. It was soon discovered that this mix turned into “quicksand” and suddenly students were stuck!! After a rescue mission, it was decided we should barricade this area off to warn other students, so we quickly made a fence from the down branches and grass (for cord) in the area.
While this was going on, other students were searching, opening and discovering hundreds of fossils. Everyone was on the hunt for Trilobytes and worked together to pry the rocks open at their “excavating store”. Even more students were damming up the flowing river and adding pipes and tunnels to direct it. It sure was a busy morning!
On Wednesday, we shifted focus to our campsite and soon enough a market was open, trading in bricks, tree bows, sticks and more. Eventually we had an entirely new shelter built, a (well-supervised!) knife throwing pit using homemade throwing knives one of our students created from old saw blades, and entirely new sit spots for some Snowy Owls.
After lunch on both days, we played our favourite game – Survival. Students became part of the food chain and had to survive for 30 minutes finding food, shelter and water. We are happy to report that everyone from both days survived – and we’ve never seen a more friendly and cooperative carnivore!
To finish off the day we had a bonfire and cooked some bannock. We shared our favourite memories from the Winter and appreciations for each other. Afterwards, we gave out report cards and watched our Forest School Winter Movies (which you can see below).
Lastly, a big appreciation for you – the parents!! Winter can be a tough time of year, but with your dedication, commitment and awesome layering work, we had a really successful semester! Thanks for taking part in this journey with us.
Next Week: Spring Semester begins – Outdoor Skills and Thrills!
This week on Tuesday we celebrated International Forest Day and Wednesday we celebrated International Water Day. I guess the world kicks environmental protection into high gear come Spring! And what better way to celebrate than check out some of our local protected areas!
We headed out to explore some new wonders in our “backyard” at the Nottawasaga Lookout with physical literacy on our mind. Our goal was to explore the crevasses and hiking trails and ultimately uncover some caves. And what better way to celebrate the arrival by spring than with a ton of SNOW?! We slipped and slid our way down into the crevasses, contorted our bodies through impossibly small cracks and discovered new amazing things over and over again. And we had the whole place to ourselves, with just the birds to keep us company.
On Wednesday, we also had time to check out and eat lunch at Devil’s Glen lookout, and hike down in to the valley to escape the wind. What a beautiful place and worth much more exploring!
Many students pushed themselves out of their comfort zones and took on a lot of scary (perceived) risks. Other students were great at knowing and respecting their own limits in our challenge-by-choice activities. Teamwork and helping each other out became the norm. And patience – everyone moved slow to be safe and encouraged one another. It’s amazing to see a community thrive. And as bonus, we even found some small caves!
All in all, everyone had a blast and left feeling proud of their personal accomplishments throughout the day. Everyone received a bravery bead! We also gave out 5 Peer Support beads, 1 Leadership bead, 1 Curiosity bead, 1 Nature Lover bead and 1 Al’s bead. Congrats!
Next Week: Our last class for the Winter Semester!! It will be a celebration of all we’ve done; a recap of our time and a look forward to our Spring semester!
See you next week,
Matt and Kim
PS. Our apologies for all the muddy clothes Tuesday!!! It warmed up quite a bit!
