What a great kick off to our Meaford Program! We spent these beautiful days becoming familiar with the lay of the land and getting to know our new group of friends. We have already established a wonderful, fun loving sense of community, who are keen on spending entire days outside learning from (and in!) nature.
What better way to dive into it, than jumping in puddles, making mud treats, jumping over and under logs, and climbing up trees. All hands were in deck as we collected sap from our maple trees and began boiling it down into syrup. But better yet was the sweet reward of drinking it straight from the source! We were feeling very grateful for our tree friends and all that they provide for us!
We tapped into our animal forms by sneaking into new forested territory and building shelters, fairy villages and much, much more!
We are really grateful to be able to spend our days outdoors together! What an awesome way to start off our Spring!
Thanks for reading along. There are more pictures posted below.
Kim
As Spring arrives, we are reminded why this is one of our favourite seasons – well, we love them all really, but especially the longer days, warmer temperatures, and return of life. The birds are singing all around us, the plants are blooming again, animals we haven’t seen in awhile are making appearances – and deliciousness is running through our trees.
Over the past couple weeks, our groups have been busy at our Sugar Shack and eagerly working hard (of course with lots of play and exploration in between). With the Maple sap flowing like mad, our students have had the chance to tap the trees, harvest the sap, boil it down and reap the sweet rewards of homemade maple syrup. Perhaps they’ve shared some with you?
There’s no better reaction than the awe and sheer astonishment of a student who has freshly drilled a hole only to have sap come pouring out… and then the frantic placement of a spile to capture the drips in a bucket, or better yet directly on the tongue. Even more, students learned about ratios, measurements, maintaining fires, chopping wood (older kids!), sustainable harvesting and pure pleasure of producing something through hard work. It’s no wonder they were eager to check “their” trees the minute they returned!
Of course, the melt brings along many other wonders, too. Birds defending their territories and searching for mates. The hidden skulls, fur, feathers and treasures – the remnants of a hard winter. We watched our shortcut across the pond slowly melt away as we created new paths. And most of all, it brings a (not-entirely!) quiet time to reflect.
We’ve had a great kickoff to the session and want to welcome all our new students!
We had a great wrap-up to our Winter session this week, with pretty much blue bird skies all week long! As we explored and played, we reminisced about the past couple months and shared our favourite memories – turns out we did quite a bit over the winter session! Here are some highlights from our week:
We celebrated Mardi Gras this week on Tuesday with some pancakes over the fire, complete with Maple Syrup made on-site from last year (and are eagerly anticipating working the sugar shack when we return!).
A huge pile of snow also became the backdrop of a newly invented game – Arctic Fox. Think “camouflage” and “red light/green light” with a massive, sneaky twist.
We also put up our trail cam this week in hopes of capturing some of the wildlife we are always tracking along our adventures. Stay tuned for pictures of that!
The trading blanket was a huge success and we are looking forward to doing it again at the end of the Spring Semester. What’s a trading blanket? Read more here.
We made wonderful and unbelievable stories with our new set of story rocks!
Our Chickadees also got an answer in the mailbox from the fairies, along with a potion to help them see all the magic in the Forest – and it worked!
Along with fires (some started with magnifying glasses!), play, exploration, tracking and lots of birds coming out, we had a fun week and great send off for our Winter Warriors. Enjoy the March Break and see you soon!
It’s a been awhile since we’ve been able to blog – the life of having an almost-one-year-old, and Kim returning back to teach at FNS – but we thought we’d get ya caught up on some of the exciting things we’ve been up to over the past few weeks. When the snow days finally let up (wacky weather this year!), we were able to go on a quite a few adventures!
Cross Country Skiing
Our older groups headed to Scenic Caves again this year for a day full of skiing and exploration. After a brief lesson – mainly how to get back up and slow down – we were off to the trails. Students challenged themselves and made it all the way to the lookout, while navigating big hills and sometimes high winds! We visited the bridge on one of the days, and it felt like we were almost blown off it was so windy!
Ice Fishing
Our ice is almost a foot thick at the moment, which not only gives us a quick shortcut to Maple Forest, but also allows us to test our fishing skills! We found the hot spots this year, with multiple groups bringing in big numbers. Our new Winter Record was broken twice this year – first at 6 fish, then smashed by a whopping 22 (or the same hungry fish? Who knows!).
Animal Tracking and Bird Languages
Winter is the ideal time for tracking critters big and small. We’ve learned a whole lot about the subnivean and how little creatures keep warm and active during the long cold days and nights. We’ve followed coyote tracks, only to realize it was a pack in single file that suddenly split in three directions. We’ve uncovered story after story of creatures playing in the forest. We got up close and personal (respectfully) with the remnants of a deer, and successfully identified a dead eastern screech owl. We learned all about peculiar habits of creatures in the Winter… and best of all, we’ve got a trail cam going up to see if we catch a glimpse of all the wonderful action going on! It will be especially neat to see these stories unfold and really gain an understanding of who we’re sharing the land with!
tinkering/BUILDING
Snow offers the wonderful opportunity to create and we’ve seen it all this winter. We’ve had quinzees come and go with this changing weather; huge walls and epic forts; GT only parking areas; and so much more. We’ve also had so many projects on the go – baskets, butter knives, spears, bowls, sling-shots and more. A lot of this is in anticipation of the trading blanket next (where we trade created items with one another – more info here).
Fire Building
Our students are capable fire builders and can all certainly light a match and sustain a fire. From our youngest to oldest, most have been able to start one using magnesium and steel as well! Recently we took it a step further: classic Flint and Steel. Students made sparks with steel wrap around knuckles or chisels and flint. They caught these sparks on charred cloth and created fire in “nests” by slowly (and patiently) working at it. It was amazing to watch – and so far we’ve three successful students with one accomplishing it in under 4 mins!
Music
It’s always been a part of our program, but this Winter we took the steps to make it an active role. We’ve got guitars, ukuleles and more music making devices around and have seen some awesome bands form over time. From making up our songs, to borrowing those of others as part of routines, it’s become an integral part of what we do – but more in this in a future blog, likely titled “Chicka-DJ” as our kids came up with.
And then there is so much more – the everyday fun, learning, and exploration that is Forest School. Winter is one of our favourite seasons! Thanks for joining along in our wonderful Winter fun and reading our blog too!
At FSFNS we have 3 simple guiding commitments that help forge our program: connection with self, connection with others and connection with nature. We find things go smoothly when we are connected to all these things. And under the umbrella of nature connection (and likely self and others, too) we’d like to take a deep dive into the importance of connection to place. We call this (appropriately enough) place-based education- and it’s not just a current educational buzzword, but an integral part of FSFNS.
In a nutshell, our program is rooted in what is local – our community, our unique history, geography and culture. This occurs weekly simply by attending Forest School and creating that connection with the properties we use and visit. It also occurs on a smaller level, anytime and anywhere that helps personalize learning for our students. This could be our sit spots, group forts, special areas of the forest we explore… you get the picture. It happens in the form of repetitive visits to the same spaces, and develops deep connection with direct experiential contact. We’ve got “repetitive” in bold because we find this arguably the most important thing in understanding and connection to space.
This got us reflecting over the past week or so and we wanted to help illustrate the spectrum of activities, connections and stories that make up one small (well sort of significant) area of Bygone Day’s: The Big Pond. It started as fun, but then we took this on as a challenge to see how much we could come up with from the past few years (you’ll notice a few may be a stretch!)…. and here we go:
Ice-Fishing, Shore Fishing and Canoe Fishing (Rock Bass and Perch!)
Skating
Canoeing and Stand Up Paddle Boarding
Frog and Turtle Hunting
Swimming
Birding (Herons, Ducks, Geese, so many songbirds… really just so much!)
The swallows that hunt the insects above the water
Building epic dams, bug hotels and other constructions
Sit Spot and quiet time reflection
The home of a Muskrat we watched for weeks
Pond Studies
Homemade Rafts
A shortcut in the winter to other places
Ice safety and measuring ice/water levels
The infamous “toe-biter” and so many other insects/larvae
Lakeside Fires
Water for our Gardens
Water for our Clay Factory
Water for “nature and mud soups” for the teachers
So many snails
Imaginative Markets
Countless hours of just observing
Tracking in the Winter (and Summer!)
Sorting out big feelings and emotional regulation
Mud dances and soaked boots
Reflecting on other times at the pond (“Remember that time…”) full of awe
Wild edibles and cooking
Tree ID, Plant ID, Wildlife ID, all sorts of ID
The list goes on and on! And oh, if this place could talk, the stories it would tell…
…but the kids seem to have that covered for us anyway!
***This is a past post from 2019, our programs are still currently suspended!***
Hey Folks!
Well Winter certainly made its presence felt this week and our students embraced it full on! Along with regular core routines and our wandering adventures, we had a special week where some students went skating on the pond, some built zip lines and others set up feeders to help us get even more intimate with the wildlife.
This week we also introduced a new concept and idea to our students we like to call the “trading blanket”. Over the course of the program, students will use their tinker time to create something they are willing trade to with another at the end of the Winter session. This can be anything – well anything, that is, within a few parameters.
Items must:
Be handmade/found in Nature
Be made of mostly natural materials
Cost nothing to make; except for effort!
Be done (almost) entirely at FNS (unless they are really keen and want to work at home)
This could be something carved or whittled (spoon, chopsticks, butter knives, bowls, animals), clay creatures or cups, woven baskets, paintings, dream catchers, poetry, fire kits, pressed flowers… the list goes on. We are excited to see the what our students (and teachers!) come up with.
When the day comes to trade, students will place their item(s) on the blanket, give us their best sales pitch or creation story, and then bargain with other students/teachers to create an exchange. If by chance the item they bring now means too much them to give away, or there’s nothing they want to trade for, it can always be removed from the blanket. And of course – this is all optional right from the beginning – though we are encouraging everyone to try!
So why do this?
There are a number of reasons with our main focus being connection with self, others, and the natural world. This type of activity develops relationship, gives value to time and effort, mastery of skills, fosters creativity and planning and so much more. We’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
We had a fun week at FNS with a lot of exploring (as usual!) and discovering many things along the way. We focused on using our “owl eyes” and and other senses to uncover some of the secrets of the forest. Along the way we found mysterious holes with empty snail shells all around it, dozens of nuts in a hole in a maple tree, a bunch of tunnels revealed under the snow, an unknown hornet nest – with a hornet still inside and, of course, tracks galore!
Every track tells a story is our motto and it was so much fun coming with likely (and unlikely!) stories for all these signs. Imaginations went wild, which leads to connection, which leads to research, which leads to even more connection. Behind the scenes: As you know, rarely do we tell our students the “answers” (a hard thing to do from a teacher’s perspective…) in an effort to build true, memorable connections with nature. We feel that the connection can be inhibited with a simple and quick answer. Instead, we like to spark and feed their curiosity and support them in the investigative work!
And thus, this is why we now know that bald-faced hornets build beautiful nests in trees; or that shrews like to stockpile snails for the winter; or that there is an undiscovered walnut tree somewhere in the vicinity – you get the picture.
One big part of our week for the older groups was when one of our class dogs uncovered a deer leg. We got up close and personal with it (totally optional) and pieced together the story with the our groups – coyotes. It gave us a somewhat rare opportunity to examine its cloven hoof and fur up close, and have a better understanding of the tracks we see and connection with fur we see stuck to trees. And while death can be hard subject, it led to meaningful and reflective conversation with our students.
Thanks for reading some of our highlights from this week.
Winter is here and we are so excited. A big welcome to our new students!
We saw a mix of weather which led to loads of different activities and explorations. Some groups nestled closer to the tent on especially windy and cold days, while others were able to hike out a bit farther and uncover all the changes in our Forests over the past few weeks. We hiked, played, scrambled, slid, jumped and sauntered our way along. Some of the highlights include finding bugs out in January, tracking animals, carving, learning about ice, boat races, stories, fires, giant curling, sliding down Fossil Mountain and building forts.
Our focus this week in one way or another with most groups, became tool-use. At FSFNS, students are provided the opportunity to engage with various tools throughout the day in an effort to master these skills. After a comprehensive lesson where students feel confident managing tools safely, they are allowed to use some tools independently. This week we had students carving and whittling, sawing wood for the fire and handling ice equipment (ice picks, ropes, augers).
With Winter here and our big pond frozen, it was time to learn all about ice safety. We went over safety expectations, learned about ice thickness, and what to do in an emergency. We drilled holes, measured the ice and eventually started work on our ice rink. And we are now also ready for ice fishing!
Everything, absolutely everything, tastes better cooked over a fire. Period. End of sentence.
Over the past couple weeks we have put our groups’ culinary skills to work and created some delicious masterpieces.
In the outdoor world, learning to cook over a flame is a key skill to know when venturing into the wilderness. Moreover, it helps develop many important and highly transferable skills. It’s a creative outlet that practices reading and basic math (measuring). It’s following a plan and seeing a project through. It helps develop patience, improvisation and risk management (knives, fire). It gives an appreciation for real food and a sense of pride in one’s work. It’s also a needed life skill and helps build relationships with others. And most of all, it’s fun!
Most of our meals were made directly on a fire over the past couple weeks, but some were cooked over a camp stove (new skill!) and others were even cooked on a homemade stove made of tin cans. Here’s what our folks came up with:
Mac and Cheese
Boil water on a camp stove, and then add pasta, let it cook then add the rest! Simple and delicious.
4 cups of water
Salt
2 cups pasta
3-4 Tablespoons of margarine
1 cup of diced cheese
4 tbsp of powdered milk (or in our case powdered Mac and Cheese)
Soup (“Mac and Everything but Cheese Soup”)
Boil water over fire, chop and add harder veggies first, bouillon, then macaroni. Carve a spoon and stir. Voila!
Half pot of water
2 cups pasta
Veggies – any you want (we used carrots, potatoes, onion)
1 can of Chickpeas
Veggie Bouillon cubes (3-4)
Soup (“Onion and Bean – Don’t forget the bouillon!”)
Cooked on a homemade tin can stove! Boil water and add everything – stir)
Half pot of water
2 cups pasta
3 onions
Green Beans
Veggie Bouillon cubes (Don’t forget em like we did!)
Cheddar & chive scones
Mix flour and butter until it resembles bread crumbs. Add salt and milk, and mix into dough. Fold in chives and cheddar and place in greased cast iron pot, then cover with coals in the fire.
3 cups flour
1 cup buttermilk
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup chives
1/2 cup cheddar
1/4 cup butter
Apple CrisP
Slice and fry apples in a bit of butter. Add everything else and cook until soft!
½ cup oats
6 tbsp flour
3 tbsp brown sugar and ¼ cup sugar
Some cinnamon
2 tbsp butter
Mac apples
“You smell like campfire” is something we often hear after a day at FNS. And more often than not, it seems to be said in longing, nostalgic way. Usually it’s followed by “I love that smell” and when we are really lucky, complete strangers will dive into fond memories of childhood or a specific moment – maybe a camping trip in Algonquin, a moonlit Yukon night, or some other magical place in time.
(Take a minute to think back to a particularly important campfire you once had… what are your feelings associated with this?)
Of course, we love the smell of campfire, too – it’s part of the job description. We have many fond memories over the past 4 years (already!) at FNS, and really want to take a minute to unpack just how important fires are to our program. They are so much more than just a way to keep warm (though that’s important, too!) or a hard skill to be taught.
Our students learn quickly how to build fires. They use magnesium and steel, which can be tricky but when they are successful, a spark ignites (womp, womp) in them… their confidence grows and they feel empowered. It creates real responsibility as they become keepers of the fire.
Further, fire is about coming together. It’s where we start and debrief our days, get creative and appreciate our friends. It’s where teamwork shines, through making the fire itself, playing games, and cooking meals. It’s how our community gets stronger, as we tell stories, sing songs, reflect and take breaks to just be together. It’s a safe space to talk about what’s on our minds. It’s also part of our human evolutionary history, what we call recapitulative play.
Every campfire we have is important. Just as the smokes lingers with us long after the fire has been extinguished, so too does the campfire and all of its significance leave imprints on us.
