Free Spirit Forest and Nature School

Nurturing Connection with Self, Others and Nature

You are as wonderful as a snowflake

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Our Fall 2016 Video!

Hey Everyone!

On our last day of Forest School this year, the students’ skills were put to the test with an Amazing Race. Just like in the show, the classes had to work their way through Team Challenges, Road Blocks (completed by one person) and Detours (choice between 2 activities) while earning materials (tinder, kindling, a pot, etc) along the way for their final challenge of the day.

The Amazing Race encompassed almost everything we’ve covered this semester. Various challenges, like the tarp flip, human knot and blindfolded hikes, showed us just how well these groups worked together as teams. The group dynamic here was quite powerful! Other activities challenged hard skills (knots, compass and GPS use, and fire building) while knowledge tests showed us just how much they’ve learned and retained this year. We even called on skills we haven’t learned here, like clues being translated from French!

No matter the challenge, they rose to it. Throw in some snowshoeing, tobogganing, “skating” on the pond, and cedar tea made over the fire (the Final Challenge) and we’ll call it a day well spent outside.

In the spirit of the day, we spent a good chunk of it debriefing the year and looking forward to the next aspects of Forest School. Students were reflective when filling out their report cards and gathered all their stuff (sticker boards, journals and medallions) to take home. As many of you know, we wrapped the day up with a gathering at the Earthship for some drinks and a movie (see above for the movie!)

A big, big thanks to you, the parents, for believing in what we are doing and trusting in us to accomplish this. We couldn’t do it without your constant support. It’s been a real pleasure teaching, learning and growing with your kids. We are loving the sense of community that is developing with this program and are eager to keep it going! See you in the New Year!

Next year:
-If your child or children are returning, please send them back with their journals and medallions so they can continue collecting new beads.

-While we will still be using the property at Bygone Days, we are excited to be calling the Earthship our home for the Winter Semester! (How incredible is it that our classroom is in an Earthship?!) Drop off and pick-up will be there (633 Sixth St) at the same times.

– Please note that we’ve put up a tentative schedule for the Winter Semester on our calendar.

Enjoy the Winter break! Have a happy and healthy holiday and Merry, Merry Christmas!

Kim and Matt

More Photos:

There’s snowhere I’d rather be

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Hey Folks,

We’ll do a breakdown by day this week, as the days seemed to unfold with some variance this week!

Tuesday
After our usual ceremonial start to the day, students were tasked with the challenge of setting up a tarp structure nearby – large enough to fit everyone in it and sturdy enough to weather the storm (ie. Matt with a bucket of snow). They’ve been learning about natural structures throughout the semester and had the opportunity to sew their previous knowledge together for this activity. Because of their incredible teamwork, creativity and resourcefulness, this was a huge success for our students.

Making a tarp shelter

Thanks to Mother Nature, snowshoeing is our new preferred form of locomotion when we are traveling around the land. So we ventured into the woods where we made char-cloth, practiced our flint and steel sparks, shared stories, contributed to our existing natural shelters, listened to a teaching bead about fire nests and simply enjoyed our first real snowfall at Forest School… all around our student-made fire!

Earning a teaching bead: teaches us how to make a fire nest to start the fire.

Wanting to warm ourselves up, we tapped into a local resource we have and used the Youth Centre space for lunch! What a great space to play low-organized games and take part in cooperative learning! Students also had a nice warm place to master some new knots that will be helpful moving forward! Some students were able to master multiple knots, including the bowline, double figure-eight, truckers-hitch, half-hitch, slip and more.

We finished our day off back at By Gone Days after another snowshoe out to our far campsite. Here we filled out fire-kits, recognized some peer appreciations and enjoyed some active play in our shelters. We just love seeing your children engage with one another outside using their incredible imaginations – some being waitresses using sheets of crisp snow, others spending snow-money to buy material for their nature-house, and others still just climbing and falling into the deep snow-covered ground.The benefits of child-initiated play are vast – including motor skill development, healthy social development and increased activity level. But sometimes, it’s as simple as hearing the giggles and laughs, and watching the creative play unfold. The way that they connect with one another and interact so fully with their environment surely shapes how they will see nature for the rest of their lives.

Wednesday
The students on Wed couldn’t wait to jump into the snow. They dropped off their packs, suited up with snowshoes and were off to take advantage of the fresh, untouched powder! After our usual morning routines (smudge and check-ins, done inside because of the weather!) the students were given the challenge of setting up a tarp they could all fit under. Because we’ve made numerous natural shelters already, this was the very last challenge in order to earn their shelter beads. With huge gusting winds and drifting snow, they sure did earn them!

As the winds picked up even more, we moved inside and practiced other hard skills. Students created their long-awaited fire kits (thanks for the jars everyone!) with birch bark, saw dust, candles, cattails and more. We created and tried using a bow drill. It was hard, tiring work but with the friction we were able to make smoke and we are confident that next time we’ll be able to start a fire from it.

working hard to catch a spark!

Students were also given the chance to earn their Knots bead today. The mission was to learn a Bowline knot – see if your child can recreate it at home! Some students were able to master other knots as well including the double figure-eight, truckers-hitch, half-hitch and more.

After lunch, a couple fantastic Craft Bead presentations, and some exploratory-time, the Sun finally came out and we were off to brave the conditions again. Students got on their snowshoes and off we went – straight into the wind! We cut across the field and found shelter in the trees. Once out of the wind, students built their own shelters and we finished the day gathered around a small fire.

Congrats to all Shelter and Knot bead recipients, as well a Travel Bead, Teaching Bead (for teaching compass skills), Nature Lover Bead, 2 Craft Beads, and some Reflection Beads!

Next Week:
Hard to believe it’s our final week of the Semester! We’ll be having some fun in a Winter Wonderland “Amazing Race” style challenge.

Afterwards, we invite every to our Final Celebration at Bygone Days farm is the weather is good and if it is freezing, windy and or snowy then we will host it at the Collingwood Earthship 633 Sixth street at 3:15 pm.

A big thanks to all the parents for having everyone dressed perfectly for the conditions this week! We’ve noticed that a scarf or neck warmer, second pair of gloves and extra socks would be a great addition to the winter clothing list.

Cheers,

Matt and Kim

More photos:

Follow Me!

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Hey Everyone,

Though tough for drivers, the snowstorm over the weekend was sure welcomed by us! It gave the perfect amount of time for local animals to run around and have their prints frozen in place for us to discover. As the temperatures warmed up, we were able to also see lots of tracks captured in the mud.

Tracking animals was our goal this week – and we were after much more than just footprints. Deer hair on trees, animal pee and, yes, even some coyote scat were all welcomed signs. We also used our ears to hear if animals were giving themselves away… turns out there is a lot of noise in silence.

Overall, we found a bunch of different animal tracks. Lots of white-tailed deer, some red foxes, rabbits, geese and other birds, and of course, Aden! He also gave us a first hand look at canine paws – toes, claws, dew-claws, and the heel. Some students even put their skills to use to track the teachers and find them!

On both days, and in different areas throughout Loree forests, the children were drawn to the hills and made impromptu slides with all the snow. It was magical to see the imagination, teamwork and good old fashion fun come to life.

Towards the end of the day, after completing Track ID 101, finding tracks, GPS tracking, and interpreting a picture of tracks by creating a story of what happened, the students had one more task to complete before receiving their Animal Tracking Beads: survive “Survival”. And they did. Congrats to all our new Tracking Bead recipients!

In addition to the Animal tracking beads, we gave out a record this week – 3 beads to one student, in one day! A couple of people received the Nature Lover Bead, other earned their Reflection Beads (for 15+ journal entries), a few creative Craft Beads were distributed, and a wonderful Teaching Bead on the origins of Popcorn. With only 2 weeks left, please encourage your children to finish up any bead work!

Next Week:
Shelters!!!

FRIENDLY REMINDERS:
Even though we are now into some Winter weather, we are still pretty comfortable at Bygone days. We plan to be outside as much as possible so please remember to send your children with layers… too many is better than not enough. At minimum your child needs a good warm toque and mittens/gloves, warm coat and snow pants, with a back up pair of splash pants. A back-up pair of gloves and hats would be good too. Remember – we are out exploring and sometimes that means snow, puddles, mud, etc. Thanks to everyone who is ensuring this – learning can’t happen when we are cold.

Our classroom is unheated and usually not much warmer than outside. On our end, we have:
A new Chiminea to have a fire going nearby
Small heaters to dry gloves
A kettle and tea (please send your child with a mug if they would like some; and it warms the hands!)
Extra gloves/hats just in case; and
For especially cold days, access to a warm space at the Youth Centre (though this is our last resort)

And one final thing! We’ve had some inquiries about Forest School for the winter semester. Just to clarify, some parents thought their children were going to be automatically enrolled in the winter semester which is not the case. If you want to enroll for the winter semester, you need to go to https://fsforestschool.com/register/. Or you can email Jennie Elmslie at freespirittours@hotmail.com . Spaces are beginning to fill up!

Challenge: Go out and explore this week with your child!

Thanks!
Matt and Kim

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Spoons and Mittens and Tire walls? Oh my.

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A close inspection of the bathroom wall in the Earthship

Hey Folks!

What better way to start our “Projects Day” than with a visit to one of Collingwood’s coolest projects – The Earthship. Aptly named because, like a spaceship or sailing ship, the Earthship gets everything it needs from the Earth and will be completely sustainable! This inspirational project taught us many things:

The potential of using recycled materials to build (ie. tires and bottles for walls)
Concepts around geothermal and passive heating
Creative ways for rain water collection
The significance of having a green house inside the house and a community garden out back.
The impact of volunteering – we heard that some students and their parents have worked on the Earthship too. We know that many hands make light work!

Maybe even most importantly, visiting the Earthship showed us the power of a dream come to life. A big thanks to “Principal” Matt for giving us a tour of his soon-to-be home and sharing with us the process of making his dream come true. Check out a recent article on it here or the website to volunteer and learn more.

Back at the school, we used this motivation to get into our own projects. After learning about our (fairly strict) guidelines, some students started a natural craft by beginning to carve wood into spoons. This project was a good lesson in visualizing, cultivating patience and taking things slow. We hope to have a finished project by the end of the semester!

Starting our spoons

Students also had the opportunity to tackle another big project using recycled material. They up-cycled an old fleece blanket into new mitten liners by hand sewing. Most students loved developing this new skill and made some pretty amazing mittens! We heard a lot of buzz about making these as Christmas gifts.

Homemade mitten liners

Throw in some slacklining, team building activities, and the beginnings of our fire-starter kits and we called it a day!

Congrats to our 2 Craft Beads and 1 Storytelling Bead recipients!

Next week:
Animal Tracking! We are off on a field trip to Loree Forest.

Cheers,
Matt and Kim

More pics for you:

If you never get lost, you never get found

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Hey Everyone, have you ever been lost?

This week we challenged our students to see how they would survive a night lost in the woods. The morning had us off to our old campsite to take some quiet space alone to reflect on what it would feel like to be lost – what would you be thinking? What would you do? What could you use around you to stay safe?

During our debrief around the fire, we uncovered that immediately your psychology and attitude are a huge aspect to dealing with a survival situation. We called this S.T.O.P. – Stop, Think, Observe and Plan.

We then dove into the 4 Core attributes to Survival which, on both days, students were able to brainstorm on their own through discussion. Shelter, Fire, Water, Food – and in that order. The most important thing is staying warm (which we had first-hand experience with this week – and thanks to you, the parents, for all the great layers you sent your kids with!)

We had a lot of fun putting the 4 Cores into practice and students realized that they already had a lot of the skills needed. We made fires, shelter and did some exploratory hiking (and even “Sand”boggoning on Wed). In teams, we played out a scenario involving a plane crash and prioritized 12 items we would need and why – there were no wrong answers, just a need to justify. Oh, and how could any Survival day be complete without a little Animal Survival game?

Congrats to our Peer Support Bead recipient, 2 Reflection Beads, 1 Craft Bead and an amazing Storytelling Bead!

Next Week:
We’ll be having some fun and getting creative making projects!

Until next time,

Matt and Kim

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Life is best traveled with Friends

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Getting “Red in the Shed” to find our way.

Hey Everyone!

We had such a blast exploring this week! After learning the cardinal directions and compass basics, it was time for studying maps… and what better way than an all out East vs West game of capture the flag? Students divided territory, created boundaries and marked key locations on the map before they were set loose in the playing field. Teamwork, honesty, attack-defense strategy and some good physical endurance was the name of the game.

Afterwards, the students were challenged with mini-orienteering courses that looped back on themselves. All students excelled at this and were soon up against the “ultimate” orienteering challenge that spread property-wide. After finding their direction of travel and getting the “Red in the Shed”, students were off to the races. The group was able to complete this challenge with ease, and all this before lunch!

And they are off on the Orienteering Challenge!

Our next challenge would take us off property to the Eleventh Line trails for an afternoon of hiking and Geocaching. With the help of our GPS’s (a big thanks to Healthy Kids Community Challenge for lending us these!), we were able to uncover 2 Geocaches!

GPS in hand, off to find the treasure.

If you’ve never geocached, it’s a wonderful way to spend time outside. Think giant, worldwide scavenger hunt using GPS technology – it can even been done through an app on your phone or borrow one from the Collingwood Library! Check out geocaching.com.

We are pleased to announce that EVERYONE earned their Travel Beads this week! We also gave out 1 Teaching Bead for a lesson on animal calls, two Reflection Beads, and a Nature Lover Bead – Congrats!

Next Week:
Survival Skills! If you have any (preferably) plastic containers that can be used as a fire kit please send it (or them) along! Thanks! (Small peanut butter jars are best as they screw shut and are waterproof, but anything similar will do!)

Have a great week,

Kim and Matt

More photos to download and share:

Environmental Superheroes!

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Hey Everyone!

This week at Forest School we took on the Suzuki Superhero Challenge… the goal of which was to gain a deeper understanding of certain rights that everyone in the world should have. The day was broken down into different parts: the Right to Clean Water, the Right to Clean Air, the Right to Nutritious Food and the Right to a Healthy Environment. This led to many thoughtful conversations combined with experiential activities.

Students participated in a visualization activity to connect with their prior knowledge of Earth, leading into collaborative presentations used to reflect a healthy environment and brainstorm ways to protect it. They were then challenged to a water relay race (intentionally unfair) that shed light on water issues throughout the country and abroad. This experience led to a particularly thoughtful debrief and many wonderful insights from the students. Our air quality lesson had students juggling ping pong balls and balloons to represent various modes of sustainable transportation and pollution, while our (again unfair) apple relay brought awareness of the significance of local consumption and the energy required to bring food to our table.

Of course throughout the day we had our core routines, including free-play and time spent in our sit spots. Students created their very own Enviro-Superheroes and powers (“Mud Man”, “Wonder Water”, “Flamingo Girl”!). Finally the end of the day had us experience first hand how animals fit into the environment by playing “Survival” – a new favourite game that we’ll be playing again for sure in the future!

Congrats to our first Reflection Bead recipient this week for 15 journal entries, and 1 craft bead!

Next Week:
Travel day!!! We’re gonna have some fun learning about mapping, compasses and the GPS!

Parent’s Reminder:
The days are getting much colder and the weather can change quite quickly. Please ensure your child is dressed for anything and has back-up clothes! In the near future we will be building our fire kits. If you could please bring in small plastic containers with lids, that would be very helpful!

Thanks,

Matt and Kim

Acrylics, oils? Pfffft… we’ve got grapes.

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Hey Folks,

Hard to believe we are more than half way through the trimester! What awesome weather we had this week (especially compared to last!) for jumping into our creative minds with Art Attack!

We started off the day as always with some free play, smudging and morning circle – except this time a number of students (and the teachers!) took advantage of one last day to wear their super creative Halloween costumes. From ladybugs, to anonymous, to zombies and even someone who “lost a fight to a tree”, we had it all. (Oh and that strange guy in the pictures? That’s Matt sans beard.)

What better way to kick off the day than with some physical literacy to bring down the sugar levels a wee bit. We jumped into a giant relay game of Tic-Tac-Toe, followed by our ultimate team challenge of “Lava Crossing”. This combines planning and strategics, communication, balance, teamwork, and a lot of patience to achieve the desired goal of crossing the lava river. Wednesday’s students even set up their own course during free play!

After snack, we headed out with colour tags to see just how colourful nature can be. We usually think of nature as green, brown and blue, but our students discovered that when we look closely we can see hundreds of different colours and shades. With that in mind, we put our creative hats on and headed out to our sit spots. While there, students made rough drafts of a painting they would like to make. Afterwards, they were given a canvas to create their masterpieces. The only catch? It had to be created solely using natural materials. Grapes for purple (complete with a grape pounding station), dandelions for yellow, dirt for brown, grass rubbings for green – the children got very creative. Twigs were suddenly being used as trees or frames, or even stands for the canvas itself. It was neat to watch all the ideas unfold.

After lunch (and some intense stilt walking), we headed to our fire pit where students put their fire skills to the test. We listened to a couple stories (congrats to our Bead recipients!) and made some walking sticks. We learned how to make a comfortable handle out of cord (congrats to the teaching bead given out for this!), carved some images or designs, and painted to our hearts content. Tuesday’s group even had time to make homemade play-dough!

We ended the day with a special Halloween treat – some Fair Trade chocolate. The students briefly learned about the importance of this mindful consumption. Find more information at http://fairtrade.ca/

Next week:
We dive into Environmental Science!

Check out the pictures below and have a great week,

Matt and Kim

“1000 years? That’s as old as my grandma!”

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Hey Folks,

We won’t expose the student who gave us the quote for the title of this blog, but he (or she) was referring to some of the ancient white cedars out at Metcalfe Rock. Specifically the “Braided Root Tree” which grew out of the cliff, then had its roots devour an old fallen tree to make a unique braided root from the cliff to the ground – ask your child about it!

After playing around with a slingshot and uncovering some of Matt’s ancient rock collection, we jumped in the van and headed out to the Kolapore Uplands, home of Metcalfe Rock. This epic piece of the Niagara Escarpment is great for climbing, hiking, biking and (you guessed it) caving. Fall is an especially beautiful time of year up there, though can bring a mix of conditions. We had some drastically different weather from Tuesday to Wednesday. (Tuesday saw snow and luckily we had a fire to keep our toes warm!)

After setting up a tarp shelter and getting a fire going, we got all geared up and ready to head into the caves. This year, we took it up a level and headed for the amazing Ice Cave. It’s reputation held true – we found some ice inside. All the students were incredibly brave crawling and climbing their way into the cave! Some students even made it all the way to the bottom of the Ice Cave and got to drink its’ pristine water. Others respected their own limits (our old adage of challenge-by-choice, which is brave in and of itself) and chose different paths through the rock maze. We even tackled the dreaded “Birth Canal” with 100% success (even Matt fit through!).

The afternoon was a chance to explore and play games in the surrounding forest. Some students got really into fire-building and whittling, while others built shelters, giant piles of leaves to jump in and sought out lichen to sort through. With so much to do, students could be seen balancing on logs and trying not to fall in the “lava”, while others opted to play some classic games like camouflage – free play is such a wonderful thing to watch happen.

Metcalfe has been a really special place for us and we were thrilled to see it through new sets of eyes as we pushed ourselves out of our comfort zones and into adventure. A big, big thanks to Krista and the Thornbury crew who joined us on Wednesday, and brought along a special treat – popcorn over the fire!

We got back just in the nick of time to the school, and weren’t able to give out beads. But we wanted to mention that 1 Nature Lover Bead and 2 Peer Support Beads will be handed out next week!

Next Week:
ART ATTACK! Bring your creativity! We will both be wearing costumes to extend the Halloween Celebrations, so if your child(ren) want to, please do so! Maybe put your costume over all of your bundled layers!

FYI There’s a Fright Night Happening at Bygone Days over the weekend put on by Elephant Thoughts. It might be really spooky to go!

Cheers,

Matt and Kim

In case of Fire…

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Hey Folks!

What an interesting and incredible sight to arrive to on Tuesday at Forest School. Seems the storm left a bit of damage on our area with willows, aspens and more knocked over across the property. Luckily, they fell in good places and no one was hurt, or major damage done.

The students had a blast with the debris though! We jumped in to help clean up the mess and made a massive pile of downed branches and leaves, which later turn into a fort, and then, later still, turned into a full on shelter–make the best of a bad situation! (A really good moment for us as teachers was when the students were handing us branches and telling us the type of tree it was without any prompting–some things did stick from our tree lesson last week!)

We eventually began our day as planned with fire! Our first task was a lesson on the needs of fire (oxygen, heat and fuel) and different kinds of fuel (tinder, kindling and bigger wood). After learning the basics it was time to put it into practice at our fire pit. Of course when we arrived, a tree had fallen over it!

After the clean-up, we talked about different styles of fires, fire safety and LNT principles. We then went over the steps to build a tee-pee fire. With the help of everyone we got it going fairly quickly and had some storytellers tell some stories to earn their beads. This culminated in a “test” at the end of the day where Snowy Owls were paired up with Painted Turtles and given the task to prepare and create a fire. Students could also visit the “store” and if they answered a fire related question, were given special materials such as birch bark, wood shavings and more. Everyone was able to do it (even with some hard winds on Tuesday!) and earned their Fire Beads. Congrats! They did so well in fact we had time leftover for a huge game of Capture the “Fire” (Flag).

We also found time this week to head out to Curries Farm Market and pick out a pumpkin for each group. We carved out the pumpkins together and saved some seeds to fry up and put in our seed library for the spring.

Congrats to all our bead earners (22 Fire Beads, 4 Storytelling), and a very special congrats to our first Leadership Bead earned!

Next Week:
FIELD TRIP! Dress warm and in layers because we are going into the caves and learning all about Natural Landscapes at Metclafe Rock. Gloves would be a good idea, too!

We are also planning to have a bit of a Halloween Day the week of Halloween (Nov 1 and 2). We invite the students to don their costumes one more time if they’d like!

Cheers,

Matt and Kim

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