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!
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!
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!
Another pretty awesome week we had, starting off with a pretty epic mud kitchen, some hard core obstacle course construction and our imagination even helped us become local farmers.
With all the rain this morning, our students were lucky and discovered 3 rainbows. We pondered about rainbows and why they appear after a rain storm. We all came to the conclusion it was a beautiful sight to see after the dark clouds moved past. This also allowed us to find all the Green Trees (Pine, Spruce, Cedar and Hemlock), which hold magical properties and special medicine. Mother Nature is pretty fascinating!
Our Chickadees ventured to a new part of the forest this week and discovered the Mysterious Forest which led into time spent alone, group play, magical powers of the world, new paths, train stations along with courage, patience and awareness of one self and the natural environment. Ending our day with an amazing puddle discovery full of splashing, jumping, running and laughing.
Thanks for stopping by to read about another great day at Forest School, and we had such a mix of weather from heat, sun, rain, thunderstorm, lighting, chilly wind, hail and then back to sun, our students are getting used to what Fall is all about.
This morning our students warmed up by our new fire pit (Thanks Jennie), and with some familiar games that kept us working up a sweat, we also introduced a new skillful game called scout. This was child invented, and quickly became a favourite of ours that we plan on continuing to play and work towards becoming skillful scouters, hiders and planners.
Today was also the start of our natural first aid kits, and we are lucky enough to have a HUGE patch of Spotted touch-me-nots or Spotted Jewelweed right by our building. Our students harvested some and put the stems in a jar and covered it with oil. Within 4-6 weeks we can then strain the contents and make a salve – this will become a remedy for Poison Ivy. We continued to wonder through the forest and found more gems like our friendly neigbourhood Garter Snake, which welcomed more questions and firsts for some, journals, sit spots, lots of construction with forts and plant identification – with our new I.D cards (Thanks Matt).
A big Thank you to all the students who helped out with making our Pear Sauce, and while having too much fun we ran out of time to cook it, but we are happy to report all pears were still eaten raw, coated in cinnamon, ginger and vanilla – YUM.
Reminders – We are going a Field Trip to Metcalf Rock, and we couldn’t be more exited to show all of our students a new space and a place where they take their families!
This week we welcomed the rain, and while some of us may stay inside to stay dry, our students embraced the rain and discovered our soil ecosystem, which was full of life! We even learned a new song called Young and Wild – ask your child to sing it for you!
While some of our students started their day playing rain hockey/rain soccer, some were working on their powers that controlled the weather (wind), and discovered magical crowns, similar to what the fairies wear.
We then ventured to “hot chocolate mountain” and really began diving into the dirt, which brought extreme discoveries. Ranging from frogs, millipedes, HUGE worms, spiders, ant farms, magical willow monsters, and even a Red Spotted Newt! This was a great find for our students because it was new, and the second ever found on Bygone Days Property.
Along our adventure we even came across our pear tree, and we thought it was a great day to introduce our students into cooking over the fire, and we are so proud of the teamwork for stick collecting. We are continuing each week to work towards building our fire skills with our 3 D’s (Dead, Dry and Down) – which is even harder when it’s wet outside, but our sweet reward was worth the wait!
We love taking the time to sing, dance, get really muddy, explore and investigate even if it’s the roots of a plant! We love to give children the guidance and empowerment to try new things even if its letting a spider walk on their leg, and as one of our students said today, ” I’m scared of spiders but I’m trusting myself”.
What do you do when your brother is moving and delivers you a trailer full of good, usable wood? Well, it turns out the answer is a lot! Students imaginations ran wild this week as we set them loose (so to speak – tool-use is an integral part at FNS, but we do have guidelines!) and their creations came to life. We had gardens built, benches, boats (both small and kid size), docks, tables and much more. Epic wooden forts were created; hammers, butter knives and figurines were carved; and even a bat box was built and hung up in Maple Forest.
As the days unfolded, our students shifted their focus to community building, and more specifically figuring out what could be built or created to better our time at Forest School. Some students remade our main fire pit to include cardinal directions (and a new fire pit in Mysterious Forest). Others uncovered the need of a new bridge in Maple Forest and were fast to work. One student even recognized the need to clean up our river after the big rains and all the trash that had been swept down it. There’s more stories along the same lines, but the point is that we are seeing one of our key “indicators of awareness” coming into play: service to the community. It’s one way our students show us they understand that they are an important part of a greater community, and they are wanting to support one another. It’s a great feeling on our end!
As usual, throw in our core routines to the mix, some play, some adventure, some mud, some rain, some sun, some hammock time, some ukulele and new songs, and a delicious Wild Violet Jelly (recipe to follow soon!) and call it a week well spent!
A big shout out to our PA Day program – we had a blast exploring and discovering with you!
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!
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
