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!
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.
We had a much needed wet week this week! We remind ourselves on these rainy days just how much the plants, animals and ponds need this weather – we’ve even got a song about it! And even more fun was our first taste of snow!!!
Student interests took us all over the place this week:
-We made fires with flint (slag from a railroad track) and steel by catching a spark on Charcloth.
-We solved the mystery of what seemed like all of our Juniper trees shredding every berry – it was the amazing group of Cedar Waxwings!
-We learned about brand new Wild Edibles with our local expert and friend Barefoot Brian.
-We worked away with our carving knives to create masterpieces for the trading blanket (or just for fun)
-We jumped into the role of herbivores, omnivores and carnivores – and found out what it takes to survive.
-We made epic mud slides, conquered mountains and won birch bark crowns.
-We watched bubbles come from trees.
-We foraged, made and drank wild teas.
-We identified the core values of our group.
-We tracked deer.
-We learned about Bird Language…. first hand and were able to sneak away unnoticed from intruders.
-We found scat – and lots of it!
-We uncovered legends and identified the local trees that were apart of them.
-We built forts and shelters and stores.
-We let our imaginations (and ourselves) run wild.
We had a ton of fun (and even learned some things along the way)!
As adventures unfolded today at forest school, I found myself in awe of the skills that the Chickadees will carry with them, that come from our play and interactions with nature. I even saw future careers unfolding before my eyes. As we dug in the sand for fossils, I imagined them at an archaeological dig. As we created a museum for the rocks, fossils and shells we found in our dig, I pictured engineers designing and planning infrastructures. Negotiations for sharing the building materials and magnifying glasses cast images of lawyers and CEO’s. Band practice broke out with some blocks and wooden dowels which had me imagining music teachers, writers, musicians playing for an orchestra. When a cricket was found on a hat and the children ensured it was safely set off of the path so as not to get trampled, conservationists and ecologists were standing before me. In the words of Dr. Seuss, “Oh the places [they’ll] go”!
We had another action packed week at FSFNS with lot’s of creativity, construction and exploring! Here are some of the highlights:
Carving
Tool-use is a common thing with our students and this week we got out the knives and began whittling away. Students sat around the fire making spoons, spears and butter knives. With the trading blanket happening at the end of the session, we’re eagerly starting to get our projects underway!
Lakeside
The big pond is a favourite for students! This week we spent lots of time exploring, building and even renovating! Our Thursday group decided it was time for a total revamp of our campsite and does it ever look awesome now. We also saw mud slides created, full story lines of storefronts unfold, clay factories open for business and even a spa. While there, we uncovered a creature – the giant water bug aka “toe biter” and learned about the gruesome nature of how it kills it prey. With water levels so low this year, we noticed two newly formed islands in our pond. This week we learned they are even accessible with boots!
Animal Forms and Tracking
Most groups this week got first-hand knowledge of what it feels like to be both prey and predator. We had a couple of epic tracking sessions that unfolded over a few hours where students practiced this amazing skill – as well as sneaking and hiding! We also uncovered many signs of animals in our forests and figured out the stories behind them – deer beds, tracks, dead animals, fur and other leftover signs. With some groups, we also played a classic – “Survival” – where carnivores, omnivores and herbivores are pitted against one another, as well as Mother Nature.
Milkweed
This was our plant of the week and inspired many to practice their fire skills. We learned all about it, made note of areas we could harvest it on our map and even had a song written about it, to go along with Pete Moss’ “Wildflowers”
“There’s a wildflower name Milkweed,
It’s one that the Butterflies need.
Light it up with Flint and Steel,
Make a rope from what you peel”
Seed Collecting
Naturally before we burned the Milkweed fluff, we saved the seeds! And we didn’t stop there – we collected sumac, maple, blackeyed susans, evening primrose and much more! Likely your kids came home with some small package of something!
Up close and personal with Birds
After endless patience, we were rewarded with the trust of the chickadees in Mysterious Forest! These little creatures are now landing on our hands to get birdseed – and even on one person’s head! To do so, our students stayed still and silent, on the ground, camouflaged and even up in trees. It was truly an amazing moment for them. We were also treated to a number of cedar waxwings enjoying the juniper berries above us and the discovery of a dead cormorant we were able to identify because of it’s beak.
Throw in the usual and we had another great time learning and playing outside!
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.
We had a fun (and wet!) week at FNS in Collingwood! We got our first real taste of chillier weather this week and greeted it with open arms – we even had the fire in our hot tent going to keep us nice and warm!
Students this week continued diving deeper into our core teachings, specifically Bird Language. We learned all about the different ways birds communicate and how to tap into what they are saying. We spent quiet time deeply listening in our sit spots, practiced our fox feet to minimize our sound wake and even presented skits made up about the different types of bird calls. Our particular favourite was the “Juvenile Calling” skits – we’ve got some really good actors!
One of our favourite memories this week (and most spontaneous) was “FNS Court” with the Teachers as the judges. The students asked us to play Crow’s Nest – a favourite invented by them. We asked them to justify why they should play. They took this quite seriously and grabbed the field guides, presented well thought out arguments and even changed one key player in the game (the weasels) to Otters because it “just made more sense after the research”. (We can’t plan this stuff – and hence why we love our emergent curriculum!)
We also took a deeper look at tracking this week and were not disappointed. Using a 5W approach we uncovered story after story of the animals we share our spaces with. This meant looking closely at tracks, fur, and a higher than usual amount of dead creatures including a chipmunk, muskrat and goose. In these sometimes hard moments, it’s incredible to watch the care and love from our students as they create funeral ceremonies, complete with speeches and songs.
On Friday, we also finished up an ongoing project. On week one, we gathered Jewelweed (good for everything, but famous for fighting poison ivy) and Goldenrod (good for aches) to infuse in oil. After a few weeks of sitting on the windowsill, it was ready to go. We heated up some beeswax, added shea butter and the oils to make a cream concoction the students called “Golden Jewel”.
Otherwise we were up to the usual – rescuing snakes and frogs from the well, creating new “secret” (and not-so-secret) group spots and forts, building fires, haiku poems, journaling, dehydrating and bagging lemon balm for tea, tracking bleeding geese, playing animal form games and the millions of other little things that happen that are too many to list.
What a welcomed blast of warm weather this week – though the chilly mornings are a reminder that Winter is on its way. This week we noticed a lot of Fall changes occurring at the Collingwood School – leaves changing, birds migrating, flowers beginning to wilt (especially the goldenrod!) and each and every day, the overabundance of Woolly Bear Caterpillars. So many in fact that our new address for one of our winter prospector tents is “45 Woolly Bear Dr.”, indicating the amount of caterpillars caught in one area! We had Woolly Bear Races, Olympics, Towns and Schools created throughout the week (sidebar: pretty interesting as teachers to watch this unfold independently each day this week without prompt.)
Which got us thinking: why are there so many this year? Or have we not noticed them before? With some student research we found that the Woolly Bear is a fascinating creature. We dove in to our field guides to uncover all the mysteries of this cuddly creature – and we weren’t disappointed:
-We learned it turns into an Isabella tiger moth and can live up to 14 years!
-We discovered that some hatch in Fall, and then FREEZE over the winter.
-We found out first hand they play possum and curl up when scared (unfortunately for some of our racers).
-We learned they eat pretty much any plant.
-And in folklore, that the relative amounts of brown and black hair can predict how harsh the Winter will be (though scientifically this has been debunked and actually is due to age and moisture.)
Of course throw in journaling, sit spots, Wolf Pack (a great Animal Forms game!), blindfolded navigation, barefoot hikes, clay factories, setting up the Prospector Tent (Thanks Tuesday Snowy Owls!), quieting the mind, chickadees up close and personal, carving, fire-making, fresh goldenrod tea and tea bag prep for Winter, climbing trees, community building and more, and it was full week!
This week our chickadees jumped right into action playing games, digging for treasures and discovering a hidden gem just outside our classroom – a chestnut tree! This brought so much interest from why does the seed pod have spikes?, What’s inside?, What animals eat this and how do we open it up? This gave our students the opportunity crack open their findings and take their seed home to plant their very own chestnut tree! We even gave our little chipmunks the chance to act out their animal and scurry to find all the hidden chestnuts and bring them back to their den before the Prey (Fox and Honey Badger) could catch them! Well done everyone.
Our afternoon was filled with so much imagination which was surrounded by finding the wild wolf that was let loose in Bygone Days along with fort building, tree identification, bracelets and necklaces, fire bundles, mud construction and a very popular Wooly Bear Hotel. Everyone was so thoughtful making sure these caterpillars were safe, had lots of food, bedding, shelter and even a tanning room.
Due to Thanksgiving falling on a Monday this year, everyone at Forest School wishes all our students and families and very happy and safe Thanksgiving! We will see you all in two weeks!
