Snowy Days

Dear Snow,

Thank you for coming to visit us at Forest School. With your arrival there are some exciting changes to Bygone Days! The tent is a new addition and a warm, fun place to enjoy our snacks and lunch, read stories and listen to the soft pitter patter of you falling on the roof.
The Chickadeees were so excited about the tent this morning, but were quickly drawn outside by the anticipation of all the activities you provide for us! We pulled each other on the sleds and even went tobogganing! You also provide a refreshing treat (we will have to wait a bit to see if November snow tastes better than December snow!)…don’t worry though we made sure to only taste the fresh fallen snow!
We have noticed that you are cold, fluffy and sometimes slippery, weigh down the tree branches, and create a hush across the land. Although it takes us longer to trek, we went on an adventure to Ducky’s campsite where we played and worked together to build snow forts. It would be ideal if you stuck around so we can add to our forts next week.
We are so thrilled that you have arrived Snow, and we look forward to more fun with you!
From Monday’s Chickadees, Emily and Krista

Snow Snow, stay and play!

Hi Friends,

Mother Nature sure did hand us a bag full of every type of weather this week, and we still loved every minute of it! Each day at Forest School always looks a little different and discoveries are always unfolding, but some things were consistent throughout our week – like how the snow makes sounds seem more dense, less birds and noise, our well known hikes have become more challenging and there is much more to discover and create in the snow.

Some of the highlights this week that we cannot forget are:

  • New Creations at Lakeside
  • Quicksand and Waterfalls
  • Legends and Plant Identification
  • Snowstorms
  • Discovering Duckies Camp site
  • Eagle eye on Fossil Mountain
  • Fire Building and Flint and Steel
  • Prospectors Tent
  • Dangerous Baby Squirrels
  • Raccoon Touch
  • New records with Fossil Mountain Sledding
  • Fan favourite Fox and Bunny game
  • Fort building with snow

We look forward to another great week ahead of us!

The FNS Crew

Snowmageddon

Hi Folks,

I think we were all super surprised this morning when we saw so much of that white stuff! We can’t believe we almost forgot how beautiful it is. Our students had a beautiful moment at the start of our day  – venturing into the woods, we all found a quiet, personal space where we caught cotton ball size snow flakes with our tongue. It was so quite with no wind or birds to listen to we were in awe of the silence. We observed so much, and we are so proud of our students and their amazing owl eyes.

It was amazing to see all our builders at work this morning ranging from epic igloos, snow city with walls, towers and a full volcano in the middle, snowmen and a race car track fully equipped with a pit stop and stands. Our students even had the chance to play a Forest School favourite game – Fox and Bunny. A game of endurance, chance and pure luck, along with a new twist from a student – the Elder Bunny. The magical bunny that can bring a bunny road block back to life! It was a huge hit, so you should ask your child about it.

We continue to track, explore, share, reflect and build relationships with each other, ourselves and our environment. Thanks for a great snowy day!

Krista and Travis

Making friends with Birds

Hi Friends,

We had a special visitor come knocking at the schoolhouse today. We will give you three clues to guess who:

1. They could fly
2. They were persistently searching for something in the wood on the outside of the schoolhouse
3.  If they were in a band, they would be the drummer
If you guessed a woodpecker, you are correct! After observing the busy worker with binoculars and using our bird books to guide us, we discovered it was a male Downy Woodpecker. Be sure to ask your Chickadee for some more fascinating facts pertaining to woodpeckers (interestingly, Downy Woodpeckers have been observed in mixed flocks with chickadees in the winter…maybe our friend was testing out our flock for the winter!). Woolly bear caterpillars, a lively game of capture the flag and a book club in the fort were other highlights of a sunny Monday at Bygone Days.
Until next week
Emily + Krista

Music is everywhere!

Hi Folks,

Thanks for stopping by for another great day at Forest and Nature School, and with all this beautiful weather we didn’t waste any time. We welcomed all of students with the sound of ukuleles, which led to lots of singing and our students even playing their own tunes this morning. We are always encouraging our students to express themselves through song, dance, art or story telling, and we welcome more instruments every week!

Our students were in full swing this morning playing child led games, working on our hunting and hiding skills, which make our students amazing trackers and are even starting to build relationships that embody respect, communication and genuine empathy.  We have so much to learn from each other and this is why we encourage our older students to spend time with our younger students, which naturally happens and the learning is abundant!

Today we challenged our younger students and continue to wander and explore our new Forest School home, and while all of our students work on core routines, each students day unfolds differently. Some students focused on the little things like catching new creatures (tree frogs, millipedes, caterpillars, cicadas, and one legged grasshoppers!). Plants were a big topic today from ground mushrooms to acorns falling from the sky, along with which animals we can catch (chipmunks and squirrels). Some of our other students worked on construction projects, identification, journals, art work, ultimate hiking, tracking and we even started collecting Cicada exoskeletons!

We continue to build our school map which lead us to all of our amazing finds and continue to make the Blueberry trails our own personal magic forest. We look forward to seeing everyone next week to make some more music!

Travis and Krista

 

Every track tells a story

Hey Folks,

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.

Cheers,

FNS Crew

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Let It Snow

Hey Folks!

Ready for our song of the week?…

Oh the weather outside is delightful (not frightful) and the campfire is so delightful (too)… and since we’re an emergent, student-led program with no set place to go… let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  (Did you sing it?!)

Snow!!! We love snow at Forest School and what a wonderful way to kick of the soon-to-be Winter Season… and we took full advantage of it all week long.   Snow is a natural Loose Part (and one of the best!) and it wasn’t long before students were hard at work building and creating.  Over the course of the week we had berms, ramps and jumps created with the help of straw bales in an ever-changing course for toboggans; entire snow families were made, including the tallest in FSFNS history; a quinzee village sprung up and even an igloo!

With the fresh snow over the course of multiple days, we also focused on our core routine of tracking and questioning this week.  We found so many cool tracks in snow – deer mice, foxes, dogs (especially Aden, Arys and Nuka), coyote, cat and rabbits.  Every track told us a story as imaginations came alive and the animals were brought to life.  We even caught a shrew when it’s subnivean tunnel was accidentally collapsed.  Oh, and we tracked people, too, in epic games of “Track and Seek”.

Throw in some good old fashion sledding, winter games of camouflage, extreme sardines and crows nest (behind the scenes: we use these activities to activate our quiet mind, and jump into animal forms), hot fires in the tent and campfires outside, hiking, sliding down fossil mountain and so, so, so much more… and we’re in a  true Winter Wonderland.

Side note: We worked on our float this week for the Santa Clause Parade – come see it today in Collingwood at 5 pm!

Have a great weekend!

The FNS Team

 

Nature Detectives

Hey Folks!

This week saw a drop in temperatures and the sights, smells, sounds and sense of Fall in the air.  And with these changes there were a few other changes we discovered along the way.  Not only were the plants seeming to wither, but there was a noticeable loss appeared in the animal kingdom too! Death was a subject that came up a few times this week – with a turtle funeral, a mysterious shrew discovery, a few fish and a frog.  Sometimes, this can be tricky to navigate as these hands-on discoveries can be tough for some, while others approach with intense curiosity.  As teachers, we see these as teachable moments in life-cycles, respect of nature and much more.

A quick Snapshot of the week

One particularly interesting story unfolded for our older groups on Thursday and Friday while out wandering… and no doubt if your child was part of those groups you’ve heard of the dead goose we stumbled upon.  At first, this was a sad moment for some and a sense of empathy was evident – we had watched these birds all year swimming and playing in the pond.  This discovery soon led to curiosity with this up close encounter… and a story began to unfold – what  had happened here?  It became a mystery to be uncovered!  And suddenly we were overtaken by an obsession to figure it out.

We looked for clues – coyote, goose, duck, racoon and deer prints were all around.   We followed them and tried to figure out where they went.  We found feathers and scat to be identified everywhere!  We got out our Field Guides and measured lengths and widths of everything, and looked up any potential ideas we had.  Students set out their theories and added to them until we had several different, plausible  and cohesive stories.  And whether they were right or not, it doesn’t matter – it’s all about the process.   Before leaving, they picked wild flowers, laid them down and said a few kind words about the bird.

Questioning and Tracking is one of our Core Routines (as well as Wandering and Using Field Guides in this case).  Students are encouraged to ask questions about everything and we, in response, ask questions to them.  They become detectives unraveling  nature’s mysteries.  This collaboration was fascinating for our students as it captured their imaginations.

Oh! We should also mention all of the fires that our students made with magnesium and steel; the pumpkins that were painted and decorated; the hikes we ventured on; the pears that were gathered and cooked on the fire; the “fairy seeking missions”; the epic animal style games of capture the flag; and so many more adventures that happened this week!

Cheers,

The Forest School Team

PS Thanks to all those who came out to our Open House Thursday night! We had a great time building community!

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May the Forest be with you.

Hey Folks!

Worms and insects are out.  Turtles and Frogs are sunbathing.  Birds are singing and making nests.  Spring is here and here’s the recap of our week, enjoy!

Tuesday

With emergent interests at the forefront, we were a little all over the place on Tuesday with an overarching theme of Spring – though it felt more like Summer! We began our day with some of our core routines and games, then jumped into plant ID.  We set the stage – 8 mystery plants that need to be identified and limited time periods to peek at the master copy!  Students did an excellent job of uncovering and naming various plants using just small pieces of them including clover, willow, dogwood and more.

Afterwards, we had to take advantage of the warm sun and headed out on an adventure, nets in hand just in case.  We played around the big lake, dammed up our stream, climbed fossil mountain and found and caught an incredible amount of critters!  Frogs, tadpoles, a blind fish, some green eggs and 2 Giant Water Bugs aka Lethocerus americanus.  In addition, we found a kill site from what we guessed was last fall, and tried to unravel the mystery of what occurred.

In the afternoon, we got crafty and did some painting and made “seed” bombs.  Seed bombs (clay, soil and seeds) are meant to be tossed anywhere and make flowers grow.  Let us know how yours do!  We finished up with a teambuilding initiative – choose the right path – and before we knew our day had flown by!

Wednesday

Similar to Tuesday, our Wednesday group was excited about searching for water creatures – and determined to find a Giant Water Bug.  After a thrilling “Ring Toss” Tournament, we were on our way to the West side of the big pond in hopes of capturing some critters.  We were able to snag some striders, a tadpole and frog pretty quickly, but as the rain began to roll in our hopes dwindled on catching a Giant Water Bug – until at nearly the last moment, a log was moved and we got one!

We decided to head back as the rain picked up, and along the way were treated to a nesting Morning Dove in a cedar.  A big props to the student with the keen eyes!  On our way to get dry however, the rain stopped (as was our day: rain, sun, rain, sun) so we stopped too to spend some quality time at our sit spots.  It wasn’t long until students were drawn to a huge puddle – a bridge went up, frogs eggs were spotted and inevitably shoes came off to squish in the clay.

After lunch – and a quick thunderstorm that sent us inside for a bit – we dove into a teambuilding initiative (island hopping) and students did extremely well coming through with the fastest time to date!

After our story of the day (debrief) it was to say adieu for another week.

Thursday

The rain didn’t slow us down on Thursday as we lit ourselves a nice big fire to dry off and stay warm.  In fact the wet weather actually inspired us to get building on our shelters in our it spots.  And who can resist a giant puddle full of clay?  And hundreds of striders – so much that our students shoveled out a section, built some walls and created a strider sanctuary.  Some students even took on the initiative of building a tee-“pea”: a living garden structure designed to grow peas and provide shelter!

In the afternoon we ventured west with nets in hand.  With the cold weather, we were sort of surprised to find a turtle out on shore, but happy nonetheless.  And while we didn’t spot any giant water bugs, we did get up close and personal with a mama morning dove sitting on her nest in a cedar.  As we ventured more, we uncovered tons of fossils, found that the bank swallows have returned to Fossil Mountain and followed some fresh deer tracks.

On days like this, we’re reminded that rain is a good thing as flowers are starting to bloom!

Friday

The morning clouds gave us a heads up – take advantage of the sun because we’d likely have rain later.

Our students set the stage today when they imagined a mini jungle life playing itself out in the grass – think “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”.  Therefore after doing some core routines (smudge, animal forms, quiet time) we headed out to our Sit Spots to play, build and get up close a personal with bugs.  Specifically we built a bug hotel!  Complete with pine cone rooms, sumac rooms, bark rooms, and mud rooms.  Holes were drilled in locks, mini hammocks were made and even a pool was put in for the striders.   It turned into more of a 5-star bug resort, and students eagerly sought out bugs to add to it.  Worms, Potato Bugs, Striders, Centipedes and even a Wooly Bear caterpillar (named Crawly) all checked in.  With lunch looming, we headed back, just in time for the torrential downpour.

The sun made it’s return shortly after, and we continued with our bug theme shifting our focus to bees.  After some students made some beeswax chap stick to take home, we chatted about threats to the bee population and the ramifications it could have.  We explored pesticide use, habitat loss and other critical issues.  And then we dove into the roles of bees in a macro-model we call “Bee-Safe” where bees must retrieve pollen without getting tagged by some of the “threats”.

After a final barefoot walk through the gigantic puddle, we called it a day.  Happy May the 4th Star Wars fans!

Cheers,

Matt and Krista

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Where the Wild things are… and Robins in the classroom.

Hey Folks!

What started out as a bit of a scary weather day, turned into an awesome day at Forest School!  As the temps became mild, and snow fell instead of freezing rain, our students spent all day playing, searching and building in the snow.  It started with a secret hideout, made of a tarp and snow wall (and a nearby hammock) and our adventure grew from there.

After reading the book “Where the Wild Things Are” and noticing some funny tracks in the village, we were off on a hunt to find where the “Wild Rumpus” had occurred the night before.  We followed the tracks and some clever clues, and meandered our way to not only find the location of the party, but the homes of all the friendly Wild Things!  And we noticed one thing in particular – one of them had a mailbox.  So we drew some pictures and sent a letter to the Wild Things in hopes of receiving one back next week.

After some quiet time in nature – quiet enough for a Robin to come right up close to us – a cool thing happened!  That very Robin flew into our classroom to say hello.  We watched and observed it, and got some up close looks at it.  We then started to think about what it may be thinking and how it may be feeling.  Students showed a lot of empathy, and when the Robin figured it’s way out the door, we all let out a big cheer!  And afterwards, we had her following us around on our hike and felt a kindred connection with this creature (now named Reindeer the Robin, not be confused with Robin the Reindeer – ask your kids).

Oh, and a side note, something that all students loved was using our digital temp reader.  We measured how warm our hands were, the heater, snow, even the Robin.  It’s a good investment if they’re on mega sale!

Have a great week!

Matt and Aislinn

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