We trust everyone had a great long weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving. This week, we were back at our home base at Bygone Days after our paddling trips last week. We do so much over the course of a week at FNS, it’s hard to sum up – but here are couple things!
Macro Models
We like using macro-models to help reinforce learning. A macro model sets up parameters for learning in which students create their own experiences. They are community-building activities that have specific learning goals and are interactive representations of simple or complex systems. The participant becomes part of these systems to see, hear, and feel how the whole system operates and understand the parts involved, thus creating endless learning connections and experiences.
After seeing the salmon jumping last week, we became salmon this week in a model called “Hooks and Ladders”. Students start by “swimming” downstream while encountering all sorts of obstacles that salmon would face on their journey (predators, fishers, etc), then swim back upstream facing more obstacles (ladders etc) after some time spent in the bay. It’s a creative opportunity to get a better understanding of the life cycle of the salmon in our own ecosystem!
Tool Use
Some students this week had the chance to use saws and carving knives. After a comprehensive lesson and students feeling confident to manage tools safely, students are allowed to use the tools independently. We learn to respect and use these tools with care and create some wonderful things! This week we saw some natural hammers carved, wooden knives, wands, animals and much more.
After some crazy hot temperatures at the beginning of the week, it finally felt more like Fall towards the end. Which means it’s a good time to remind everyone that your children need proper layers to stay warm and participate fully, including rain gear. Check out our blog on layers and dressing appropriately.
We are also excited to announce we are opening up a Wasaga Beach Forest and Nature School beginning this Winter!
Our older groups this week geared up for their first field trip of the year – a paddle down the Beaver River. Collectively, the groups paddled anywhere from the Epping put in to the Slabtown Dam. The Fall colours were stunning and seemed to intensify as the week went on. All groups learned basic canoe skills, with our older students having the chance to learn to stern – and they nailed it!
Along the way, we took breaks for moments of silence in hopes of developing the Quiet Mind (one of our indicators of awareness) in our children. Of course we learned quickly that there is a lot of noise in silence. We were rewarded with the soft ripples of the current, wind blowing in the leaves, birds chirping, bugs singing and so much more. We were even visited by a Great Blue Heron, who seemed to travel with us every day – our guardian on the water.
Of course the highlight for many were the salmon running up river. If you have the chance, take your kids and go see them jump at the Slabtown Dam – it’s incredible right now.
Our Chickadee programs spent their days exploring Bygone days. Monday’s group dove into mapping as they created new homes and mapped bridges in hopes the Trolls will move in. Friday’s group was out paddling, building dams and got a sweet intro to fire making!
THanksgiving
It’s the perfect time of year to reflect on Thanksgiving as one of our core routines. At FNS we practice an attitude of gratitude and start everyday with what we are thankful for and we’ve found most students are eager to do so. It’s amazing what the kids come up with and share!
Throughout the day, we also find opportunities to give nods of thanks as we go about exploring. Each day ends with our airing of appreciations where students can thank one another, nature or anything else in our closing circle. It’s all about finding in ourselves a grateful heart.
And with that we’d like to extend a HUGE thanks to Jim, our Beaver River expert and friend for coming along with us this week to help out! And of course all the folks at Free Spirit in Heathcote for the help over the week.
We had an awesome last few weeks of Forest School full of excitement and adventure! Here are some the highlights below, and scroll all the way down to check out the pics. Thanks for the amazing year and see you in September!
Mountain Biking
We’ve got a ton of newly built trails at Forest School for Mountian Biking, so took advantage of this with a couple of our classes. Students wound their way through the meadows, hills and forest as they explored some of our favourite places (mysterious forest, maple forest) in a new way. We also left the property to try out some local trails together, while geocacheing along the way! Our kids were pretty tuckered out afterwards, but as we found out at our end of the year debrief, this was for some their favourite memory!
Ducks
Huey, Duey, Luey and Darkwing – 4 baby ducks that paid our Chickadees a visit a few weeks ago! Students eagerly fed and took care of these wonderful little creatures who have found a second home at Forest School. They built an elaborate play pen for them using all sorts of our “loose parts”. When it was time to go, it was hard to say goodbye!
Geocacheing
Did you know that the Collingwood Library lends on GPS units with dozens of geocache locations uploaded? It’s the ultimate scavenger hunt and our students rocked it uncovering 6 separate caches over the course of the days we did it. Ask your kid about it and plan your next adventure – there’s so much to discover!
Paddling
While the location and type of boats we were paddling varied, one thing for sure was the same across the board – beautiful paddling weather (with a narrow escape one day!). Our Friday group canoed along the Beaver River, for a peaceful quiet paddle with the river all to ourselves. We enjoyed a shore lunch (and a special homemade treat from one of students – thanks!) and some swimming in the rapids.
Our other groups set their sites on the Nottawasaga. Some groups took canoes, others took kayaks and some were even able to paddle all the way from the Sports Complex to Schooner Town. We saw deer, otters, beavers, countless birds and more. One thing we can guarantee is that a highlight for most was lunchtime – swimming and climbing at the sand dunes!
Our Chickadees braved the water, too, on the big pond at Bygone Days! They paddled all over and spotted lots of turtles out in the sun, and even caught some frogs!
Fishing
Our big pond is alive with creatures at this time of year and if you are familiar with our program, you know that we’ve caught quite a few! From nymphs to turtles and everything in between, our students love to hunt! We traded in our nets (or rather in addition to them) and grabbed our fishing poles and paddled our final week. Our students learned to tie knots, bait hooks and how to operate different styles of fishing reels, all while balancing in the water. The result was impressive – literally over 100 Rock Bass in a day. And to top of it multiple perch, a first for the big pond! A huge success for our students. Throw in some stand-up paddle boarding and swimming and call it a good day (week!).
Whirlpool and Pier Jump
To end of the entire season, our Friday visited the whirlpool (behind Matthew Way) for some swimming and exploring in the Pretty River. It’s a beautiful, naturally carved out hole in the river that you can “slide” down into on a natural rock slide. Afterwards we headed to the Collingwood harbour where brave students leapt into the frigid bay – a great kick-off to summer!
We want to thanks all the parents, students and our entire FNS community for the awesome year of adventure, play, learning and so much more this year. It was truly awesome!
See you in the Fall!
Matt, Krista and Kim (and the rest of the FNS team)
We got up to a lot of different adventures this week, check out the recap below.
Tuesday
As we explored our senses by taking away sight in a few games throughout the day, we gained a better understanding of how animals survive in the wild. We also sang our hearts out on Tuesday and even wrote our very own song – which rippled its way through the whole week. Some students put on their builder caps, too, and made a giant xylophone to hang from a tree!
When the rain cleared up, it was time for fun by the pond. And, as we were especially sneaky and quiet, we were able to temporarily catch and observe turtles, frogs and thousands of tadpoles. We even caught a snake in the Northern (“Unknown”) Zone!
Wednesday
We took some time in the morning to jump into the role of being a chicken (and a frantic one at that!) This, ironically, set us up for a quiet reflection: students got their journals, observed some real birds and got really creative with what they thought the birds’ conversations would be. This took the form of comic strips, full on scripts, birds with names and much more.
After snack, off to sit spots where we used over 250ft of donated burlap to beef up our shelters (a big thanks to our friends who donated it!). Our next task was to lend the folks at Bygone Day’s a hand by recovering their submerged boat in the pond. Students eagerly volunteered and we were eventually able to flip it – only to uncover that dozens of Rock Bass were hiding underneath and now trapped in the boat! Everyone got a chance to catch them.
At the same time an epic trench was being dug and a full on workforce was organized. Every person had their job -my personal favourite being Prime Minister (Me!). The socio-dramatic play became so immersive, that there was even a group meeting at lunch to discuss plans and details.
With the excitement around being in the Lakeside Area, we just had to return after eating. We laid out different options for students to follow their interests, with many choosing to continue work on the trench. Some grabbed their nets though and caught (and successfully identified) damselfly and dragonfly nymphs, while others harvested some Garlic Mustard and made a delicious pesto!
Thursday
Our students were really excited to spend time in their sit spots Thursday morning and spend time interacting with all sorts of critters. We were easily (and happily!) distracted by all the bird action – orioles, swallows, red-wing black birds, grackles and much more. We were captivated by the sounds and songs (and fights!) of these birds, Students were equally interested in the aquatic critters. In total, we discovered five baby painted turtles, found out what damselfly nymphs looked liked and of course caught some frogs. And this all before snack.
We decided to have a lunch out in Grape Valley where we played and hiked our day away. We checked in on the toad eggs we discovered last week – and now there are thousands of tadpoles! We brought a few back to the class to watch them grow (and a few lucky parents now have some of their very own!).
Friday
Our focus Friday was learning about plants and what’s good to eat – and what to avoid! We headed out to the far West of property to forage and collect what we could. We hiked around both Maple Forest and Mysterious Forest (and played some games in between) and found lots of leeks, garlic mustard, dandelions, wild carrots (Queen Anne’s lace) and trout lilies. We also successfully identified and imprinted in our minds our nemesis poison ivy (eek!) as well as stinging nettle (although also edible!).
After our huge success, including identifying huge patches of Canadian ginger, we headed back. And all the hard work paid off as we celebrated with a feast at “The Fort” fire pit. Students volunteered to chop, grind and gather the veggies as we collectively created a delicious stir-fry over the (flint and steel lit!) fire. Some students also made a tasty pesto from the Garlic Mustard – check out a recipe on our Facebook Page!
And now a shameless pitch:
Want to know more about the plants your kids are learning about so they (and you!) can safely eat at home? We have Only 4 spaces remaining for our Wild Edible Workshop on June 2nd from 1-4pm with local Naturalist Brian McLelland-Tuck. For more info visit here.
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!
What a fun week we had learning about ice safety and ice fishing! We had the opportunity to explore the big pond at Bygone Days and were thankful that the ice was thick enough to allow us to try our hand at ice fishing! In fact, it was SO thick that we could technically drive on it, if we wanted to!
Though we didn’t have much luck catching anything until the very last day, students seemed to really enjoy the experience and were all keen to use the auger and look down the holes! We had all sorts of equipment – tip ups, mini rods, handmade stick rods and more! A huge thank you to our friend Mark who brought in a pop-up camo hut for us to use on Friday! This dark hut allowed us to watch the fish swim by (at least most of them!) the glowing hole and it made for some real entertainment! Their focus was incredible and the loud cheers in unison felt like they were watching the Olympic Gold Medal Game! It was very exciting!
With the wonderful amount of snow we have at our FNS home-base, students worked hard to create, build and destroy all sorts of projects around camp. Great teamwork and collaboration always unfold from these student-led experiences.
Thanks parents for providing all sorts of proper gear this week – with ice fishing comes a sneaky sort of wet and our students were able to enjoy this experience because of all of the gear you helped pack! So thank you!
And a big shout-out to all of our bead recipients this week! Students are eagerly working hard for various beads and it’s creating such a fabulous and tight-knit FNS community!
“It’s so… refreshing… just being in a canoe.” said one of our students while we were paddling on the Big Pond this week. And we couldn’t agree more! Our days were all about fish, fishing and paddling this week, but were very different from one another. So we’ll break it down by day. Scroll down to the bottom for more pics!
Tuesday
After our core routines, we started off the week by heading down to Sunset Point after hearing a rumour that a HUGE bass had been caught there. After arriving, our Chickadees explored the shoreline and were able to find fossils, crayfish and other creatures. The older students baited up and patiently waited, and while we didn’t catch the elusive beast, we did nab a lot of Gobis – which led to a good discussion about invasive species. We used our nets and were able to catch at least 40 minnows too!
We headed back to Bygone Days, had our lunch and some free time, then hit the water again. This time in canoes, we decided to try our luck on the Big Pond. We paddled out in our canoes and to our pleasant surprise we were inundated with fish. Schools and schools of Rock Bass came after our worms and we were rewarded with catching so many we lost track. And then, right before we reeled in the very last time, a Perch! Who knew our pond was so full of life!
Wednesday
We rushed out Wednesday morning to join our schoolmates in Heathcote and got a chance to slackline, climb on their awesome tree gym, eat some yummy food from the garden and pop jewelweed seeds to our hearts content. Then we hit the water and did a paddle down a portion of the Beaver River. Along the way we saw fish jumping and birds galore. What a beautiful sunny day we had!
After arriving back and a quick lunch, we cast our lines out in the river. And were we ever rewarded! We are proud to say our first Forest School Trout was ever caught!
We headed back to the School with time to spare and met up with our new Master’s Student, Aislinn. She joined us in the canoes again as some students still wanted to fish so we set out on the pond. We found the fish to be biting again! And not to mention the 4 painted turtles we saw sunning themselves on a log. While all this was going on other students, having had enough of the water for one day, stayed ashore and opened up the “clay factory” and made a bunch of natural art.
Thursday
On Thursday we chose to head out to Slab Town and try our luck fishing in the river once again. Upon arrival, we spent the first bit simply admiring the massive SALMON taking runs at the old dam. They were huge, powerful and mesmerizing. We eagerly got to fishing, and though we didn’t catch a big salmon, we did get a trout and chubs. After exploring we also caught some crayfish. Before leaving, we ate lunch as nature’s television unfolded in a spectacular display of salmon vs waterfall. We didn’t see one fish make it up, but boy did we cheer them on!
We got back to the school and jumped into the role of salmon ourselves in a macro model we like to call “Hooks and Ladders” (click here for an overview). After navigating the obstacle course and all it’s danger, we got to see just how arduous the journey can be as a lot of salmon didn’t make it.
Enough about being fish, and back to fishing. We jumped in our canoes and tried out luck on the pond. While some students chose to paddle around and enjoy the views (even seeing a record 11 painted turtles), others caught a bunch of rock bass as they were jigging from their canoes. Another hot day well spent!
Friday
After our core routines, and with all the Salmon action on the River, we had to return on Friday to see nature at work. Again, we weren’t disappointed! And we even cheered one on as it got all the way up and over the hurdle.
We got to fishing pretty fast and immediately got a chub, and then a lot more courtesy our Chickadees! And though we were close to getting a salmon, it wasn’t in our fate today. Students were able to net a whole bunch of minnows (which became know as “burpies”) and uncovered other critters that live under the rocks. It’s amazing what you can find when you look really closely. Mayfly larvae were abundant and our students were able to identify them. We spent some time playing in the river, had lunch and then headed back to the school.
At the school, the Snowy Owls (and our “Painted Owl”) headed straight out onto the pond and were eager to catch some fish. The pond, as it had all week, didn’t disappoint. We worked together in our boats – one person paddling, the other fishing – and we were all successful. The Chickadees and Painted Turtles joined everyone on the pond after some building time and spotted 7 real painted turtles.
Next Week:
It’s our FALL HARVEST! This will look different from day to day, but it’s all about food and wild edibles. Our hope is cook a “stone” soup over the fire, so if you’ve got an extra veggie from your garden or one lying around, please bring it in!
Overall we had a really exciting week and were reminded why our “Fishing” days are always so popular. Thanks to everyone who brought in some gear! A big thanks to Carly who stepped in for Tamara this week at Heathcote and in Collingwood, and a big thanks to Matt Code for bringing in the Canoes! Also a big welcome to our Master’s Student from Lakehead University, Aislinn!
“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!
Wow. There sure have been some incredible changes around the land at Bygone Days. Students have really taken to ensuring that all of our nature-tasks, like filling bird feeders and watering plants, are looked after upon arrival. This noteworthy interest and initiative certainly compliments their ongoing commitment to environmental stewardship and helps build that awesome connection with the land! And lately, they are keen to jump into all of the treats that Mother Earth gives us in the spring…especially by the pond! Throughout the week, we saw tadpoles, frogs, water bugs, leeches and, our personal favourite: the courageous painted turtles sunbathing on logs (and even venturing out to share in some sit spots!) Students love this up-close experience with nature and seem to have developed a deep connection – it is a beauty to see it unfold!
We traveled off-site for another field trip this week – the ever so desired fishing day! What a beautiful day to spend by the bay! We learned a lot about different casting and jigging techniques, re-familiarized ourselves with fishing knots, explored with all sorts of lures, witnessed some creative minnow traps, hooked our own worms… and became especially close with the high-density goby, an invasive bottom feeding fish. We had some first-time catches, teasing nibbles, and a lot of patience for the great bambino! On Thursday, we headed back a little early to try our luck on the big pond at the school – no catches but a few nibbles!
Students really enjoyed trying their hands at fishing this week and after our awesome learning experience, all students earned their fisher-person bead! A special shout out to a rod-rescue mission by a Snowy Owl on Wednesday and an epic “catch of the day” by Matt (it was a fly away t-shirt!).
Three Housekeeping Items:
– With the incredibly warm weather upon us, we would like to remind parents to help students pack and remember their water bottles and hats.
– We have some sun screen and bug spray, but if you have a particular favourite, please bring it!
– As tempting as it might be to wear flip flops, please ensure that your child also has proper running shoes (rain boots for ponds, if you’d like!) for all of our busy day adventures (it’s poison ivy and tick season and we want to be extra careful). Closed-toed paddling sandals with heel straps are a great all around shoe.
-As the days get hotter, please send your kids along with a swimsuit as we may have opportunities to jump in the water.
Lastly, an additional reminder to register soon for next year, if you are interested, as it is beginning to fill up.
Thanks again! See you next week, as we take a closer look at bees!
We don’t think we could have asked for a better winter day to enjoy our first adventure with Ice fishing! There was an abundance of emergent learning, along with some role play learning! This was another week diving into our “knot book” and taking the time to learn some key knots of the day! We tested our ability with the “clinch knot” (which we used later in the day) and the “fisherman’s knot” – single and a double. Our knot knowledge continues to grow each week, and our students have been catching on so quickly! We were all super excited about the idea of catching a fish, what would we do? Eat it or let it go? While we did not catch anything we did learn some valuable lessons. You need to be quiet around your fishing hole, you must have patience; different types of lures attract different fish, and never bet on catching anything! What an amazing day!
We started our day by looking at the appearance of a fish and learning key features. The task was to match up the words to certain body parts and while some were easier than others (eyes, mouth, gills, scales) others were a bit more challenging (dorsal fin, anal fin, percotral fin). Overall our students were able to identify 2- 4 body parts. You should ask your child which body part they remember!
Most of our students had never fished before, and those who had were great leaders! Before heading out onto the “Willow Pond” we made sure we talked about ice safety while creating boundaries.
Our kids were super stoked to immerse themselves in learning to create their own fishing poles (wood string, hook and bait – pepperoni sticks) while talked about lures, weights, hooks, jigging, and casting. Phew!
It’s a good thing we have some pretty strong kids in our class because they were introduced to the “Auger”! Drilling a hole through the ice is hard work, and the kids learned that very quickly! They all had the opportunity to create their own fishing hole, and getting to experience the feeling of breaking through the ice was such a relief. Between our busy day of fishing and drilling we had time to play games “fishy fishy”, make snow angels, huddle around the fire to keep warm, toboggan, soak up the sun, and oh yeah, build an ice rink! We are hoping that it stays cold enough so that we can check on it next week, and have a little fun!
The start of our Ice rink
Just like a lot of animals, fish live a life full of challenges and obstacles everyday and not all make it to adulthood. Our last task of the day was to look at the ‘Life Cycle’ of a fish! But we didn’t just sit down and talk about it, we wanted to become the fish, and for that we have to learn the ‘Forest School’ way! Outside, running, macro-model learning! Our students had to start as eggs and become adults while overcoming fast moving water, turbines, large predators, hurdles and man made objects such as fish ladders. The goal was to get back to the spawning beds to where they were born! Not all fish survived…but that’s the wild!
Great job to all our students today, we are super impressed with all their respect, love, honesty and wisdom stickers! There was also 4 Reflection Beads, 1 Peer Support Bead, 1 Craft Bead, 1 Colouring Bead and 1 Show and Tell Bead handed out, WAY TO GO!!!
Next Week – Field Trip! We will be heading to the top of the Escarpment and visiting Scenic Caves Nordic Centre. Cross Country Skiing is on the menu as well!
