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

 

McBugs and Monkey Traps

Hey Folks,

After our opening circle, and a sweet dance party to start off the day, we put our adventure caps on and tested our bear-hunt skills as we twirled, growled, hopped and stomped our way through a maze.  And we were off on the hunt, along the way being sidetracked (as normal!) from the hunt itself and jumping into lots of creative and fun play.  Students opened up a clay store, a McDonalds drive thru (featuring the “McBug”), cooked elaborate meals and even made some “chili” (sumac, garlic mustard and mud).  They were lost in their imaginative play for quite some time, letting the teachers in every so often with a taste test here, and a “hey check this out” over there.  It’s some of our favourite moments!

During our picnic lunch we read some parts of Curious George, which naturally led to setting up a pulley trap (with a banana peel in it) and trying to catch him.  After hauling it up and letting it drop countless times, we finally tied it up and were able to catch him!

Meanwhile, we also checked in on the mailbox and had received a letter from the Grape Valley Fairies.  It thanked us for all the hard work we put in last week rebuilding their village and they gave us a special gift – honourary fairy names!  So we wrote these names down on wood cookies and painted some sticks to create a windchime to take home so all fairies in the world knew we were friends!

And that’s our magical day!

Reminder – next week is a holiday so no Forest School! Enjoy the Sunshine!

Matt and Krista

More Pics:

 

 

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

More Pics:

 

 

 

Catching Wind, Carving Spoons and Creating Shelter

Hey Folks!

Well did we ever get hit by Winter again this week!  We dawned our creative caps and here’s our recap below:

TUesday

After our core routines (smudge, check-ins and sit spots) we took a deep dive into the world of shelters on Tuesday in hopes of mastering this bush craft.  We learned about the fundamentals of three important natural shelters: Lean-to’s, Debris Shelters and Teepees.   After snack, we made our way to Grape Valley, in Maple Forest.  Students divided into to teams and erected two awesome shelters – one huge debris shelter and the other a “Derbris-to”, which is a newly named hybrid.   We added a bridge across the river by upcycling a used pallet all in an effort to create our new little community in the woods.  We had some fun on the natural grape swing before heading back for (a late!) lunch.  After some Forest School Idol, we ended our day with some unstructured play and reflection time.

Wednesday

What a wicked blizzard we had a Bygone Days! We braved the gusting winds, but were forced to stay pretty close to the Schoolhouse throughout the day.  After our core routines and sit spots, we jumped into designing crafts and making our visions come to life.  Many students felt drawn to planting seeds and came up with creative ways to give them a jump-start in life.  We made a bunch of self-waterers  out of old pop bottles and string, and also elaborate irrigation systems of pipes and containers.  We saw many different greenhouse blueprints come to life as we learned about the effects a greenhouse can have on a plant (and the planet).  Don’t be surprised if your child came home and immediately put their concoction in a south-facing window to maximize the sun’s energy – our student’s way of bringing a little sunshine to a very cloudy day!

We saw lots of other projects come to life to as we were really only limited by our imaginations.  Clay pots and gravy boats, carved hammers, painted tiles and wood and so much more.

We wrapped up the day with flying kites, making make-shift tarp shelters in the wind and a team-building challenge.

Thursday

After our core routines students dove into some fun using materials from the classroom and nature.  We saw some incredible things:

Water devices created with recycled bottles and pool noodles
Golf clubs that attach to arms
Shakers that also snow
Carved spoons, guitars and so much more
Pompoms from scratch
Fidget beads and sword holders
Self-watering plants
and much more!

After lunch, we headed out to our “Original” Campsite for a bonfire, some quiet reflection time in the woods along with a story, and some creative play.  Minus a sudden darkening of the skies and a 10 min snowstorm, we had glorious weather all day!

Friday

On Friday we ventured out to the little known Grape Valley after a lesson on shelter building.  Students added their special forts to our growing campground community out there.  We installed new shelters, a new bridge, began a rock wall and even discovered a huge old tree that turned into a “hotel”.  It’s a stunning tree on a hillside, so a simple step up on the North side (to essentially a natural platform) gets you 15ft up on the South side – an instant favourite!

And then a nice, light snow began and we decided to slow things down.  We gathered round the fire pit, read a story about quiet places, and took some solo time reflecting in the silence of the woods.  Upon return, we uncovered there’s a lot of noise in silence.

After lunch, we headed out to sit spots where the “Sumac Store” was opened carrying a variety of products – most notably Sumac Popcorn for the Forest School Idol competition.  And while the teachers were yanked off the stage, good times were had by all.  We also had some students work hard against the snow to earn their Fire Keeper beads by lighting a fire using flint and steel.  Congrats!

Next Week:
Monday – welcome back Chickadees after a week off! We are at the school.
Tues-Thurs  – FIELD TRIP! We are going on various hikes and will be gone for most of the day.  Please ensure you child brings a backpack!
Friday – Natural Art at Bygone Days!

Cheers,

The Forest School Team

More Pics:

Survival Olympics (or Mary had a little lamb…)

Hey Folks,

We had some fun this week putting some of our survival skills to the test in a collaborative, cooperative and competitive style Olympics we nicknamed the “Forest School Timber Tour”.   Our days varied greatly Tues-Thurs with different events geared toward developing and testing various skills – each day uniquely designed with the specific class dynamics in mind.  Some events were even created by our students en route.  We pushed ourselves physically, mentally and creatively, and in the end all agreed that no matter who won, everyone had fun.

To get an idea of what happened over the week, here’s some of the events:

Individual:
Tree Toss – a whopping 33’2″ by one student!
Obstacle Course – new FS record 43 seconds!
Singles Tug of War
Planking
Race around the Pond
Sling Shot Competition

Team Competition:
Flag Design and Cheer
Broom Ball
Ultimate Capture the Flag
Forest School Idol Music Competition
Balance Beam

Cooperative:
Fire Building (Magnesium and Steel)
Shelter Building
Orienteering
Plane Crash Survival
Lava Bridges
Human Knot, Tarp Flip, Hula Hoop Circle and more.

On Friday we approached things differently and focused entirely on teamwork with initiatives that earned students “Timber Dollars” that were used for buying gear to create the ultimate campsite.  We’re really proud of everyone’s hard work (and persistence!) in achieving their goals.  And through that persistence, our students were able to light the fire with only minutes to spare!

At the end of all days we handed out (wooden) medals to our winners! And a big shout out to all the sportsmanship award winners – you showed us that even through competition, we’re all still good friends.

Next Week: Animal Tracking!

Cheers,

Matt, Kim and Tamara

PS. Confused about the title? “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was our official Olympic Anthem.. ie one of only 3 songs Matt can play on the recorder.

More Pics:

If we build it… they will have fun.

Hey Everyone,

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, 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!

Thanks,

Kim, Matt and Krista

More Pics:

A picture is worth a thousand words…

Hi Friends!

This week brought another great day at Forest School, and today was all about Nature Photography and spending time looking at nature from different points of view.  We also enjoyed games, our weekly check ins, reflection time and exploration.

A large portion of our day was spent playing around with cameras, and taking pictures of anything that caught our eye! We talked about composition, contrast, different landscapes and how a picture can tell a story. Thought out the day we brought our focus back on our 6 guide lines of picture taking– Getting close, Leading Lines, Rule of thirds, Natural Framing and Points of view.

After practicing with our cameras we ventured out to the Sugar Shack, which led our students into a Nature Photo Scavenger Hunt. Below are two photos our students took, and it was great to see what our kids saw through their point of view. We will let the pictures speak for themselves.

   

Shout out – We wanted to say HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY to our big man Layne!

You are incredibly creative, curious and very independent young man. You are a joy to have around each week, with all your jokes and stories, and we look forward to many more weeks to come! We hope this year brings more laughs, play and adventure! Happy Birthday!

Along with our photography theme, we also got creative and earned a craft bead today! Our kids got the chance to create a masterpiece of their choosing. They were given natural objects along with string, beads and paint. Dream catchers and magical sticks (painted sticks) were a big hit. The task was to set their art piece in nature and take a picture of it. Great job everyone!

         

Oh yeah – this happened today! We bumped into Al and he let us taste some of his Pure Canadian Maple Syrup, tapped right from our own backyard! Needless to say it gave the kids extra energy to run back to the Sugar Shack and check on all the Maple trees. Thanks Al!

 

 

Next Week – Due to the unseasonal weather temperatures, we will be switching some weeks around. We will learning all about tapping Maple Trees and tapping for Maple Syrup.

Side Note – If your child has a swiss army knife they are welcome to bring it, as we will be introducing whittling around the fire. We promise to send them home will all ten fingers, and toes!

Thanks for checking in this week!

Krista and Neal

Check out our amazing pictures our kids took….

  

    

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

  

   

   

Say Cheese, Trees!

***This is an archived post from 2017 – our programs are still suspended until further notice – March 2020***

Hey Folks,

Students had the opportunity this week to play around with photography.  We got up close and personal with nature and had the chance to see things through a completely new lens.  We started the day by playing around with cameras, learning how to work them and testing them out.  This led us into various activities, including a “find my picture” hunt and inevitably a full on Nature Photo Scavenger Hunt.

In the afternoon, we went on a long hike around the property and took our photography one step further. We learned about and integrated some different tricks and tips for nature photography:

We learned about “Getting Close”, and seeing the world through a macro lens:

We learned about the use of “Leading Lines”, likes trails or fences, to lure the viewer into the photo.
  

We learned about the “Rule of Thirds” and how to better place things in a photo.

We learned about “Natural Framing” to capture a photo inside the photo and frame our pictures a little differently.
      

And finally, we learned about using different “Points of View” in our photos – stepping into a worm’s or ant’s eyes, or seeing like a bird.

Thanks to all the parents who were able to dig up a camera for their child to use.  With your help, we were able to equip everyone with their own camera for the day!

Next Week:
Although the nice warm days made photography a lot of fun, it also melted the rinks! So because of the weather, we will not be skating next.  The positive side to this is that the warm days and cool nights have the Sugar Maples flowing, so we will be doing our Maple Syrup day in lieu of skating.

See you next week,

Matt and Kim

More Photos:

Snow is warm(!?)

Hey Everyone!

Finally some snow for us to play in!  We took full advantage of it this week by diving into it (figuratively and literally).  Our day focused on different scientific aspects of snow.  To start the day, we wrote down everything we knew about snow on paper, then we crumpled them up and had a “snow”ball fight.

After we shared what we already knew, we shifted gears to discover new things.  We debated why snow appears white;  we studied the anatomy of snowflakes with magnifying glasses in hand; we even made a bit of snow by throwing boiling water in the air (though this works better at colder temps).   We also made predictions about melting and how much water would remain from 3 cups of snow (FYI Snow-water equivalent varies with temperature – we found about a 6:1 ratio on both days).  Later in the day we were able to apply this to real life in our sit spots, noticing that the ice levels were up due to the early January melt.

After a few games and some core routines, we asked ourselves – So, how is snow warm?  We took a look at snow as an insulator and built on our past knowledge of animal survival in the subnivean zone by creating a village of Quinzees. We even diluted food colouring in water to make “paint” for the snow and have the most colorful Quinzees in town.

Colourful Quinzee City!

Of course, with emergent learning our focus there was always time for the establishment of a “firework” factory (pylons filled with snow, then colored) to open up and sell “fireworks” in exchange for snow balls.  Oh, and of course a first hand look at avalanches with snow tumbling off roofs!

Congratulations to our bead recipients!  3 Bingo Beads, 5 Litter-less Lunch Beads for 4 weeks straight with no waste in their lunches, 1 Teaching Bead for a wonderful lesson on building a Quinzee, 1 Bravery Bead, 1 “Al’s” Bead for consistent kindness and humility, 5 Shelter Beads, and 2 Curiosity Beads.

Also, a big THANKS to Natasha for stepping in for Kim this week as she was on a Winter camping trip.

Next Week:
Fishing – most likely this won’t be ice fishing as we were hoping due to the lack of sturdy ice.  We will, however, still learn about fish and get a chance at fishing!

Until next week,

Matt and Kim

More photos for you:

 

 

Who needs snow for snowshoes…

Hi Friends!

Neal found a full fire extinguisher…or at least the kids thought it was full…it was empty, but the reactions were priceless!

We would like to welcome back all of our students to Free Spirit Forest School for the winter semester and we are happy to introduce one of our newest teachers; Neal!

This week was all about getting comfortable with outside travel.  We took time to set our intentions for Forest School meaning, how we treat fellow classmates and things we want to let go of either personally or physically.

The lack of snow didn’t slow us down.  We kept positive and made the best of our icy, winter wonderland!  We are looking forward to the rest of our  semester and all the adventure it will bring us through exploration and curiosity. The sky is the limit!

Forest School 2017 Class Photo

We welcome our new class of 2017! They are strong, hilarious, curious and a genuinely happy group of kids that we are excited to spend every Thursday with!

   

“The Earth Ship” is now our drop off and pick up location so we decided to start our day with a quick exploration around our new grounds. We found a wonderful moment when our students built their very first firepit. Many hands helped with this project and we couldn’t have had a better turn out! Through communication, working together and hard work our students built their first project together.  Great job guys and gals!

One of our tasks of the day was to create our “Forest School Agreement” between students and teachers. It was  wonderful to see all students participating in delivering what they want to get out of Forest School. We discussed respect (personal, other students boundries and our surroundings), listening (the difference between hearing and listening), communications and many many more.  Check out what the kids came up with!

Our last adventure of the day was to gain the skills and knowledge to hunt down objects to create their own “emergency” snowshoes. We cut sticks, braided willow twigs, used ripped up t-shirts and twine.   All of our students were able to create snowshoes that stayed afloat and held their body weight. We are super proud of all the hard work that went into their shoes and are excited to use them in further activities.

Dax showing off his “A” frame snowshoes

Congratulations to all our students who received their first of many respect stickers. Next week we are looking forward to giving away some beads! Keep up the good work everybody!

Next Week – Is all about wilderness survival! We will be looking at Food, Shelter and Fire…..we wonder what the kids think they will need to survive?

Thanks for checking in!

Neal and Krista

Continue to check out our day!