It is amazing what rain, sun, and a few weeks will do for our Heathcote property. The shrubs and flowers have grown so much that we almost couldn’t find some of our sit spots. Our day consisted of the learning and widening our knowledge about wild edibles and plants! With so much to talk about we focused on the famous poison ivy, along with it’s friends poison sumac and oak. We also focused a lot on expanding our imagination, teamwork, communication and respecting those attributes. Check out our wicked day!
A couple of weeks ago our students started their potato gardens, which have now started to sprout amazing leaves – soon enough we will be able to cook up those home-grown spuds! A toad hunt served as an excellent addition to all the excitement today, which included our respectful catching and releasing rituals. Midway through our hunt, Taven came across, what we believe to be a rat skull, YUCK! (but it was pretty cool!) To add to our discoveries through out the day we even came across two baby moles hiding in our compost area. We are hoping to see them again next week!
One of our main tasks throughout our day was to find a new or familiar plant life and identify it from our nature books. Some of our finding were Queens Anne’s lace, Mustard Garlic, Buttercups, Dog wood, and many more! It is great to see our students taking the initiative to gain more knowledge and educate their fellow classmates on their findings. Our students also learned very quickly that it is hard to decipher between some plants due to many of them looking the same, as well as being unsure about whether or not a plant is safe to pick, or eat!
Staying true to our lesson, our afternoon consisted of digging into our seed library! We came across some cucumbers, mint, daises, peas, beans, lavender, spinach, zucchini, kale and sunflower seeds. Our students were given 6 decomposing containers and the opportunity to plants 6 of their favourite seeds. Active play was also a huge part of our afternoon, along with the whole class participating in a game of “Farmer and the Horse”. This game was one of the highlights for all of our students, and while some played this all afternoon, others played in their sit spots, became fire keepers, and identified more plants.
Today there were 4 respect beads earned, along with 2 litter less lunches, 1 shelter, 2 show and share and 6 curiosity beads. Great job to everyone!
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” – Chinese proverb
We enjoyed another awesome day at Forest School, and with the highly anticipated fishing day, our students were all super excited to get their day started! Throughout our morning we taught each other about frogs, turtles, fish and fun/interesting facts about water. One of our favourite parts of the day was creating worm bubbles, which left us with more happy memories to remember for a lifetime. Staying on the topic of worms, our students quickly realized they needed worms to fish! Finding the perfect spot to dig for worms was super easy, and though not all students wanted to touch them, we all worked as a team to collect what we needed.
After lunch we relaxed by the Beaver River all afternoon, while most of our students didn’t have a fishing pole, this gave us the opportunity to create our own. Searching for that perfect stick, rolling up the fishing line and attaching the hook, are some skills we hope stick with our kids. After going over safety rules we spent the rest of the day working towards 3 goals. Our first goal was to hook 2 worms onto our hook (thank you to everyone who helped each other out on this one!) Our second goal was to work on our pond study. Each student had to find 2 creatures, and identify them from our books. We have some great detectives in class, we found Water striders, Dragonfly nymphs, Minnows, Tadpoles, Crayfish, Whirling beetles and a huge leech! Our third goal was to catch and release 2 frogs each. We love a good frog hunt – I mean, who doesn’t!?
Thanks to those for bringing in their show and share gems, we love to see these items and learn something new each week! Our kids earned an abundance of stickers along with 1 Leadership bead, 1 Bingo bead, 6 Peer support beads, 1 Al bead and 2 Bravery beads.
Reminder – Our registration is now open for the start of September 2017. With more days available and new age groups!
Next week – We are going to be planting food, and looking into wild edibles!
We had an amazing dose of vitamin D while enjoying the summer weather today, and all the heat and humidity didn’t slow our kids down one bit! This week we touched on the topic of bee’s, while still enjoying our regular routines. We started our day with a student led game “Bee-ing Human” similar to tag, but this got us working up such sweat that we had to cool down with blowing bubbles! And who doesn’t love bubbles! While sitting in on our check in’s, the question “If you had a superpower that could help change the world, what would it be?” This got our kids thinking all about bad guys, controlling the weather and the ability to help end world hunger with ‘Mother Nature’ capabilities.
While our Painted Turtles were working on their sit spots, some of them decided to get their hands dirty and make mud pies and cakes. They even took the time to decorate them with dandelion’s, but for some reason, no one seemed too interested in tasting it.
Our morning discussions brought us to our first lesson about bee’s. We buzzed over to our journals and started writing and drawing all the information we knew, and our students know a lot! We even looked at the ‘Honey Bee’ anatomy. Last Spring, we were lucky enough to find an abandoned bee’s nest, and had the chance to dry it out and were able to feel the outside (which feels like really thin paper) and the honey comb inside. Getting up close to the nest really put things into perspective for our students. After our lesson it naturally led into our bee themed game! Called “Get to the Honey” this game included 2 Bee guards, 2 Bee forgers, 1 Queen Bee, and 2 Bears! The goal was for the bears to find the hive and get all that honey, but wait! You don’t want to get caught by the guards (their stingers really hurt). While the guards are protecting their home, the forgers are buzzing around trying to find nectar and pollen. Phew! Our students quickly discovered there is never any down time for a bee whether it’s, foraging, protecting, feeding the larva, or building upon the hive. The truly discovered the meaning behind the phrase “you’re a busy bee”.
With a high of 32 degrees our afternoon was fairly relaxed. Between frog hunting (6 in total and a bullfrog which got away!), making lip chap (which was super easy and only consisted of bee’s wax, coconut oil and peppermint oil) we enjoyed finishing off our day with a well deserved river dunk.
Thank you to Emily and Taven for your Show and Share, as well to all of our students who showed respect and love for one another! Our day was full of recognition! 4 littler less lunch beads, 1 bravery bead, 1 storytelling bead, 2 fire beads and 1 bingo bead! We are even getting super close to winning some prizes for our stickers! Keep being awesome Painted Turtles and Snowy Owls!
While Matt and Kim are away, Forest School gets off property to play! Through out our week all of our students embarked on two brand new trails located on the Bruce Trail called the Pretty River Trail and Loree Forest. We also welcomed with open arms our substitute teachers Carly and Noa. We had amazing weather, which gave our students positive vibes and lots of energy each day. After our core routines and student led games, our kids started the day with lots of energy and ended with tired legs and great memories. Check it out!
TUESDAY
We sprung the question “How has Forest School changed your life outside our classroom?” With some time in our sit spots to reflect our students had some very deep answers varying from improved self confidence, bravery, pushing comfort zones and in general just happier! It’s always great to see where we had started and how far we’ve come. After our morning student led games, our day was full on! While hiking in a sea of Trout Lilies and Trilliums, we came across Fox holes, Toads, Mud monsters, Spiders and tested our river jumping abilities. A huge Thank you to Rowan for bringing in a special gift for his fellow classmates, which was bubbles, and who doesn’t love bubbles.
WEDNESDAY
We brought out one of our favourite games – Kubb! We also spent some time building our sit spots and reflecting on our past week. Our Painted Turtles even came across a Bat flying around, deciding to name it seemed appropriate so Patty or Batman were the final two contenders, though we never did come to a conclusion. Everyone was eager to head out on our hike, which led us to familiar plants and animals. Students loved getting dirty today with all the clay we found, so much so that they turned into clay makers. Some of our masterpieces were bowls, cups and sculptures. We also found snow! Students loved “skiing” down the hill, and didn’t even mind the hike back up!
THURSDAY
Our students we excited and super prepared for our field trip, so we sprung into the van and headed to Loree Forest first thing. We challenged the kids to find just 1 Salamander, and they blew us away with a total of 60! We couldn’t believe it, but it’s true! We are so proud of all the dedication they had, and all of the excited screams never got old. We also discovered many new bugs, plants and some of the juiciest worms we have ever seen. If the kids were not making wild salads, they were playing with mud, snow and just enjoying our hike!
Congratulations to all our students who earned Respect, Love and Humility stickers! We also want to thank Carly and Noa for subbing in for Matt and Kim this week, we would love to have you back!
We had another super busy day at Forest School and though our blog will be short it is full of sweetness! Mother Nature sure gave us a lot of rain this past weekend, so much that our property was over run by water! It was amazing to see what the water moved and brought into the property, water sure is powerful. This week at Forest School we planned on working on some existing and new projects, but instead we decided to venture out in to 3 stage which hosts hiking and biking trails.
This morning we worked on our green thumb and planted our first of 4 potato towers. Getting into pairs our students were eager to get their hands dirty to dig holes, plant potato seeds and hang out in the compost. Each tower has 4 potatoes and we are super excited to see there growth each week. We can’t wait for french fries!
We were also super lucky with the amazing weather today, and it makes everyone so excited for summer. This weeks hike took us to a brand new location for Forest School – 3 stage – located just outside of Gibraltar. Hiking deep into the woods gave our students the opportunity to remove any pent up energy, while finding new discoveries along the way. Everyone came across many familiar plants and noises, and while moving rocks to discover life underneath, we found our first salamander! Some of us hugged trees, became zen with yoga poses and played hide and seek. This was an amazing hike, and we hope that our students take their friends and families to explore this part of the Bruce Trail.
After we checked in on our 2 bird nests (with baby birds chirping away), there were lots of stickers earned and given out. Today we had our first Bingo bead, as well as 1 peer support, 4 litter less lunches, 1 story telling bead, 2 curiosity beads and 1 Al bead.
Next week – We will be buzzing around the topic of Bees.
This week at Forest School was dedicated to continuing our education about our feathred little friends, Birds! With our in-class lessons and hands on games, we packed our day full of physical activity. This morning we put our students to the test, and worked together to start a fire without a match! Thanks Aaron for sharing your flint and steel, and great job to Jack for starting it, we even timed it at 7 minutes and 49 seconds. Between our fire starting and teaching each other how to fish, we discovered our second Beaver! We even found 3 bird nests with mommy protecting her eggs, which fit our curriculum perfectly. Check out our epic day!
Our day was too beautiful to be inside, so we only spent one lesson indoors. There was a big discussion about what makes a bird, a bird! Is it their feathers, wings, beak, hollow bones or just their great personality? Either way birds are pretty cool animals and getting the chance to not just discuss them, but feel their feathers, and get up close an personal with their nests is a great opportunity to invoke more curiosity. While we spent some time on our journals, we also took a moment to create our “Forest School Binoculars” out of toilet paper rolls. Through out our day we saw many Canadian Geese, Robins, Chickadee’s and Turkey Vultures.
Our students dove right into their role of Canadian Geese for the game “Canadian Geese Migration” this morning. Our little birds had to migrate down South safely, and be aware of all the risks associated with migration. Our flock of birds had to fly from each resting stop, making their way through beautiful landscapes full of clean water and food , natural disasters, oil spills and landfills and a SURPRISE from the hunters! Our students discovered some of the challenges these birds face on a daily basis, and that nature isn’t nice all the time. It was sad to say not all Canadian Geese survived, with starting with 9, and ended up with 2!
This afternoon we let our creativity take over, and made natural bird feeders with peanut butter, honey, bird seed, pine cones and sticks. Some of our students even made “human-feeders” with bracelets and necklaces made from Cheerios and pipe cleaners which led us into our bird feeder game, and then into the ultimate “Chickadee Vs Blue Jays”. It’s not always easy being a bird, our little Chickadee’s had to fly to the bird feeders and take their food back to their nests, but WAIT! Those pesky Blue Jays are trying to steal food from the Chickadee’s nest! All of our little birds worked so hard to fill their nest with food, but the Blue Jays won the battle, flying away with 25 pieces of food. Good news is all birds went home with some food in their nests!
Today there was an abundance of Love, Wisdom and Respect stickers earned! We are getting close to some prizes and Bingo beads! Thank you to Izzy for bringing in your Whale book, it was super awesome to look at all those pictures, Congrats on the Show and Tell Bead!
Next Week – We will be working on some new, and unfinished projects!
This week at Forest School we looked at our Eco System, and tied in some fun games along the way! It also brought opportunities for new discoveries, and an activity we haven’t done since last September, frog hunting! After our morning routines, our day started with an intense football game to get our blood pumping. We also challenged our kids with food-chain games along with an Eco System freeze tag! We were so active enjoying the beautiful spring weather, and a little too clean – so we had to get a little dirty, or it just wouldn’t be Forest School.
Our main lesson of the day was to learn about our Consumers (Animals and Humans), Producers (Plants that grow from the ground), and Decomposers (Slugs, Snails and Worms). We tested our knowledge with a skill testing questions, a mix and match game, and though it came challenging for all at the end of the game, we all had a better understanding of each topic. With all the hard work we did, it paid off and we got a fun game out of it!
So while we were on our hike surrounded by tons of producers, looking for evidence of consumers (Racoon tracks, Beaver and Canadian Geese) and finding decomposers (Snails, Worms and centipedes) we spotted our FIRST Beaver of the season! We now have a better idea of who is chopping down all those trees! It was a beautiful day to relax and so we spent a large part of our afternoon working on our sit spots where we reflect, write in our journals and explore our 5 senses. Using the knowledge from our earlier lesson, we brainstormed examples of Consumers, Producers and Decomposers and used our imagination to write a story about their favourite animal along with a food chain associated with them.
With all of the beautiful sunshine and heat today, we were over joyed to see our first frog of the season as well, which lead into an impromptu frog hunt! Our kids didn’t lose any agility over the Winter to catch our little friends, and in total we caught 11 Frogs! All frogs went back home safe and sound. Along with this fun activity, we even had time at the end of the day to do some fishing. Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything this week, but we are looking forward to our next opportunity.
Our Morning Glory starting to sprout
This week was full of Wisdom stickers, Respect sticker and Love. Exciting news – we are getting close to some prizes! There was also 1 Al bead earned, 4 Litterless Lunch and 2 Show and Tell Beads.
Next Week – We are going to be looking into the fun and exciting world of Birds!
Today our kids were all prepared for rain clouds, and maybe even some thunder and lightning, but the Thunderbird (mythical bird who controls the weather) must have been sleeping because we got the complete opposite! Sun, light, wind and maybe a couple rain drops..Feww! So we headed off property and explored more of the Bruce Trail, along with a new hiking path that connects to Loree Forest.
But before we marched into a new landscape, we got a fun introduction into planting! The top picks were Kale, Spinach, Lavender, Peas and Morning Glory flowers. We also had fun exploring our compost area (for soil), and who knew so much life was happening in the dirt! We found so many decomposers (snails, worms, millipedes and spiders). We will update on how our first attempt on our plants are growing!
We have to give credit to all our students for hiking ALL day through the overcast, sun and the heat. Everyone kept such a positive attitude, and supported each other along the way. We couldn’t have been more proud! With our kids exploring a new area these are just a few of the topics that brought discussion.
Hundreds of Trout Lily leaves (too early for the flower)
Escaping sap on a tree (great for fires)
Wild leeks (taste and smell so good)
Wild mushrooms (did not eat)
Hiking sticks
Fungi and Moss
Different types of rocks
Mud puddles (yup we got dirty)
Deciphering trees among many more!
There were many earned beads and stickers today, as well with some students getting pretty close to getting a Bingo Bead! We also caught up on some missed beads from last week. 10 Respect stickers, 2 Peer Support Beads, 1 Bravery Bead, 4 Show and Tell Beads, 2 Litter Less Lunch Beads and 1 very special Al Bead – for kindness, love and support.
Next Week – We are going to look at the relationship between plants and animals! Ecosystems here we come!
Side note – We actually hit 10,000 steps or more today! Our little legs worked hard.
This week Forest School brought us another day packed full of learning, exploration and discovery. When our students arrived this morning, we were shocked to discover the difference in the landscape on our property from last week. It was amazing to see how high the Beaver River rose, but with the river taking away some of hiking paths, it gave us an opportunity to explore new areas.
Our topic this week was all about our local animals, we spent our morning playing games like “Ocelot tag” which was led by Emily, one of our fellow students. Some highlights of the day were making nests, continuing building our shelters and working towards starting fires without matches. We also brought out our collection of animal prints, and took time to learn 5 new footprints to add to our journals, as well as playing a footprint matching game to test our knowledge! Our big winner was Taven for getting 6 out of 9 correct.
While we explored the great outdoors, we tried to live like animals. Imagination play, and working on our imitation animal calls provided great opportunities for our students to have a good laugh. Some of us pretended to be beavers, dinosaurs, wolves, and sloths – and some even hugged trees! Our 3 epic games of “camouflage” was a great way to mimic animals hiding from their predator, and an awesome segway into our main lesson of learning, and teaching their fellow peers something new about their favorite animal. We dove right into our animal books, and found all we could about our furry, and not so furry little friends. Some of the animals we learned about were the Pig, Fox, Armadillo, Yellow Jacket, Wolf, Chickadee, Red headed Woodpecker and Coyote. Great job everyone for all your efforts in researching the animals you wanted to learn more about!
Our last fun activity of the day, in light of the holiday fast approaching, was to have an Easter egg Hunt! All were found except 2! Maybe well find them next week as a little treat!
We would like to send out a BIG thank-you for all the show and tells today – 4 in total! We had a cool branding piece brought in on some wood, wolf information books, flint & steel, and a super neat rock with crystals inside called a geode! We are SUPER lucky that we all love to share, and teach each other new things! Watching our students be so intrigued by the information each individual possesses is incredible! Each, and every one of our amazing Forest School kids teaches us something valuable, and interesting each day!
This week was full of support! 8 Respect and Love stickers, 5 wisdom stickers, along with 1 peer support bead.
Next week – We will going off property to explore more of the Bruce Trail! Get ready for some hiking!
Fresh spring air, and a brand new semester welcomed back all of our fellow Forest School students today, as well as a few new faces! This week at school we dove right back into our regular routines (smudge, check ins) and were all super excited with reconnecting with everyone.
Our morning was all about exploring our grounds, and discovering passions, and curiosity within us. There was also an abundance of tree climbing, shelter building, making new friends and imagination play. We also found an abandoned bees nest!
During our morning hike we came across a large piece of land that was taken out by Beavers! We couldn’t believe the destruction one little furry friend is capable of! This also opened up an awesome discussion, and got the kids using their critical thinking skills. How strong are their teeth? How many Beavers took all the trees down? Where did they build their dam? How long did this take them? We did come across a pile of trees…there might have been a Beaver spotting…it was unclear but we will re visit this site for more investigation.
We also took time to reflect back to the fall, and revisit our fire starting skills, to work towards the Fire bead! It was awesome to see how many students remembered what a fire needs to survive (fuel, oxygen and heat), different types of fuel (tinder, kindling and logs) and how we put fires out (water, stomping and sand).
Our first day back came with lots of love and respect stickers. Along with 2 peer support beads, 2 fire beads, 1 show and tell bead and 1 animal-tracking bead. Great job to all our students! What a way to kick start our spring semester.
