Free Spirit Forest and Nature School

Nurturing Connection with Self, Others and Nature

Here fishy, fishy… (or “they don’t call it catching!”)

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Hey Everyone,

We did not anticipate the extreme amount of excitement around fishing! Students arrived with their tackle boxes and rods in hand and were ready to go. As teachers, we couldn’t have been happier with that energy (and will now likely plan another fishing day in the Spring semester!)

With a few weeks of sub-zero temps, we were able to get out onto “Willow Pond” and have a go at ice fishing! But before heading out, we needed to cover the basics…

Our students had a lot of previous knowledge, skills, experience and fish stories this week. We quickly refreshed on the parts of a fishing pole and found sticks and pieces of wood to replace the rod and reel for our ice fishing needs. Students also learned a clinch knot today in order to attach their hook to their line. We then brainstormed ideas about what kind of fish live in the area, where the best spots would be to fish and different things to use as bait. Our bait today? Roe from a wild local Salmon.

Learning a clinch knot

And then we were off! We grabbed our auger, went over important ice safety rules and partnered up. On the ice, students had a chance to drill out their own holes, set up their lines and practice a LOT of patience. With games going on on the side and fire built to keep us warm (and warm cider!), the students kept a constant eye on their lines. There was so much excitement, students on Wednesday even decided to forego free play in order to continue fishing. Although we did get a few nibbles, and fish could be seen below the ice, unfortunately no catches. Next time though!

Everyone was drilling holes!

After fishing, we decided to become fish. Students became local Salmon, traveling down the Beaver or Pretty River trying to make their way to the Bay, then back again to the spawning grounds without being caught by predators or fisher-people. All this while jumping “waterfalls”, avoiding turbines and climbing the fish ladders, in a macro-model we like to call Hooks and Ladders. This was followed by a great debriefing session with some thoughtful insights from our students.

“Hooks and Ladders”

Our last task of the day: creating emergency fishing kits to add to our survival kits. These kits include a small amount of line, a hook and a small balloon to use as bobber.

Emergency Fishing Kit

Congratulations to our bead recipients: 1 Bingo Bead, 3 Show and Tell Beads and 2 Knot Beads!

Next Week:
Field Trip: Cross Country Skiing!

We had a lot of fun this week, and we’ll leave you with this photo when students were asked to create their own fish. This is “The Donald Trump” Fish:

“Donald Trump” fish

Cheers,

Matt and Kim

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Snow, Snow and more Snow!

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Hi Everyone!

Our first toboggan of the day.

Today we welcomed back winter with open arms, excited to spend our whole day exploring the snow. It couldn’t have been a more perfect time because this week, our topic was “Snow”. We also welcomed our guest Tomoko visiting from Barrie, and moving to Japan for 2 years. She participated in our morning routines (check ins, fire starting, smudge circle and shelter building).

She was kind enough to bring us a gift (paint and paint brushes), so we thought we would show her the Forest School way and return the favor with a gift of our own. We made Tomoko her very own medallion to keep as a reminder of her time with us. She received Fire, Friendship, Shelter and Travel Beads for going outside of her comfort zone, learning new skills, and being such great company to us all. Thank you Tomoko for visiting us it was a pleasure to have you!

With the start of our day challenged by puzzles, games, looking at different types of snowflakes (needle, column, prisms, and dendrites), and building inventions, we thought we would begin with a fun “Snow Hypothesis”. Our task started with 3 mason jars and some snow. We packed our jars with snow, and recorded our observations and measurements. The conclusions varied from student to student, but we all agreed that the water level was at least half of the snow we packed.

Jar #1- 6 cups of snow – hard packed to the top

Jar #2 – 3.5 cups of snow – loosely packed to the top

Jar #3 – 2.5 cups of snow – Very loosely packed to the top

We then thought back to a couple of weeks ago when we discussed animal survival, and keeping warm in the winter. The long awaited “Quinzee building” was the perfect activity to get hands on and build shelters similar to those of wild animals in our area. We learned very quickly that many hands make light work, and it takes a lot of muscle power, and endurance to collect all the snow. But that’s what were here for – to learn, be a team, and have fun!

Thank you Luke for helping out your fellow peers and telling us what you know about Quinzee shelters. After diluting food colouring and water our students connected to their inner creativity and made their house a home! So much teamwork went into all of our buildings – 4 in total and all the kids were very proud of their shelter bead.

Taking time in-between building, and decorating our Quinzee shelters, we took advantage of all the fresh powder, and I mean POWDER!…. 3 feet was the deepest we found. Everyone strapped on some snowshoes, grabbed a toboggan and headed to Fossil Mountain to enjoy the beauty of the untouched, fluffy snow. We worked up a sweat hiking, tobogganing, more hiking and even more tobogganing.

Thank you Dax for bringing in your Show and Tell item – home made bouncy ball. Something we will have to try later in the semester.

Big week for stickers and beads 2 Fire Beads, 1 Litter-less lunch Bead, 1 Show and Tell Bead, 7 Shelter Bead, 1 Leadership Bead, 1 Winter Wonderland Bead and our first “Al” Bead for kindness and humility.

Great job to Lucy for starting your first fire today with ONE match!

Next Week – “1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish” All about fish and maybe if were lucky and have some good bait we can catch a fish!

Thanks for checking in this week!

Neal and Krista

The rest of our day pictures

Snow is warm(!?)

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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

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Let the games begin!

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Hi Friends,

Lighting our torches on fire.

You could smell the team spirit in the air today! We hosted our first annual “Winter Olympics” and the Weather Gods were on our side bringing us snow! Our students were put to the test today, mentally and physically and came out on top! Before our games started we had to decide which countries our groups were going to represent, Canada or Switzerland! We then proceeded with the games by running around our pond in a relay race style torch run! “Let the games begin”.

Start of our torch run.

Team Switzerland

Team Canada

Our first game of the day was Broom ball! It was a perfect way to introduce teamwork, hand eye coordination and communication to our day. It was a great challenge for all and a great way to see some of our hockey players use their sweet skills. It was a tight match full of suspense, highs and lows, close calls and amazing goals. A well played match by all and to no surprise the score ended up being Canada 2 and Switzerland 1.

After broom ball, we traded our braun for brain power and played an intense game of human size “X’s and O’s”. This game brought challenging times to our younger Painted Turtles, but created some friendly competition and leadership opportunities for the older Snowy Owls to swoop in to assist our wee ones with another Canadian win ! Canada 5 – Switzerland 2.

Our next challenges consisted of Super duper slip and slide – having a run way of 60 feet into a slide of snow. After a couple trial runs and learning that jumping on our knees didn’t get us anywhere we got the hang of it. The longest distance was 6 feet. We also tested our physical ability with long jump and limbo.

Switzerland coming into the lead.

If you have never played Kubb (similar to Viking chess), you need to! It’s an awesome game based on pure luck – so don’t be a sore loser. Our students caught on quick and the game was full of cheers. We had a bunch of lucky students knocking over all the pegs and were left to knock over the King for the win!

Our last challenge of the day was bobsled. We used PVC pipe cut in half and small wooden balls. Our challenge was to work collectively as a team and start the ball high, and aim for the buckets. After a lot of brainstorming, many attempts and new strategies later, we nailed it! We are so proud of everyone working together!

Out of all the games we ended with a TIE!

Our closing ceremony was a great way to end our day with a few last words, and to congratulate our amazing team players. It was wonderful to see how we all worked together, communicated and challenged ourselves by stepping out of comforts zones. Many laughs were had, and memories made during our Winter Games. One of the many highlights of the day: Lara putting the fire out. She miss judged the strength of her arms and tossed water on the fire and half of it hit another student instead of the fire. Somebody’s been eating their veggies!

Congratulations to all the new beads earned Fire and Show and Tell, with an abundance of stickers, 4 layers, love, respect and a huge high five to Lucy for earning the first bravery sticker, for getting out of her comfort zone and participating in our morning smudging ceremony.

Also a big thank you to Kaysa for working on her survival kit and showing the class what she added: a knife, flashlight, duct tape, hand warmers, tin foil, and of course more chocolate.

Reminders** – Students can earn Bingo stickers for doing activities at home! Just share what you did! (Photo evidence doesn’t hurt).

Next Week – The Science of snow!

Thanks for checking in this week,

Neal and Krista

Bonus Pictures

Our “Winter” Olympians

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Wow! What a wonderful day for our Olympics. Though we lacked the obvious winter appeal, we made up for it in high-energy games, creative play and an incredible spirit of the games! Upon arriving at Bygone Days, students were divided and asked to choose (or create) a country (Canada vs Nepal; Greece vs The Bernese Mountain Dogs) for the Winter Olympic Games. Our Olympians relayed the torch around the pond, lit the fire, swore an Olympian Oath with a focus on participation and having fun, belted out their cheers and set off for our Olympic Games. The first match was an epic sport that was new to many students… BROOM BALL! What a fun way to transfer familiar skills and technique to a new invasion game activity! This game was a highlight for many of our students, along with the shootout afterwards for the Tuesday crew and a student-inspired javelin toss for Wednesday’s.

Javelin Toss

Ice-broom-bowling

Broom Ball

After Broom Ball, the Olympians had the opportunity for another team challenge: BOBSLEDDING! Students were tasked with the challenge of working together to move marbles from one location to another, using their bobsled (a half-piece of PVC). This activity appears to be simple, however as we discovered, there are so many factors that contributed to a successful experience. It was an incredible tool to debrief group dynamics and to emphasize the importance of each member’s action on the team. It was powerful to hear the individual groups brainstorm solutions, communicate effectively and listen to their peers, repair mini-ruptures that happen during high-stress situations, and ultimately work together to transport as many marbles down their shoot as possible! What a great way to energize the group!

Working together on the “Bobsled”

Our next activity included more target practice for the Olympians. Students threw disc’s to hit various hoops, earning points depending on distance or angle. This activity helped with focus, allowed for team camaraderie and brought the competition of the games even closer together, for both days!

For our final challenge, Tuesday’s group chose to play an ultimate match of Kubb (essentially Viking Chess) to decipher the winning team. It was here that Canada was able to make a 2 point comeback on Nepal, ending Tuesday’s Winter Olympic Games in a TIE! Now, Wednesday’s group opted for an epic game of Capture the Flag, where, believe it or not, none of the flags could be found! This too ended Wednesday’s Winter Olympic Game in a TIE! (We swear we aren’t just giving out participation awards, haha!)

Kubb

It was a really fun day today. It was quite nice to see the difference between the groups. Tuesday’s students were really keen to imagine and create new structures with the PVC pipes and create giant slides as a group. Wednesday students were eager to build the fire, make their own tea and give offerings to the trees, or spend some quiet time working away at their spoons. A lot of new crafts came out of this week – some DIY axes, incredible home-made snowshoes, and spoons. Our Show and Tell experience was awesome! Thanks for working on these beads at home and sharing your experiences with us.

We had quite a few new bead recipients this week, including 6 Show and Tell Beads, 2 “Al’s” Bead for kindness, and even a Bingo Bead already! We also gave out a well-earned Teaching bead for some awesome yoga lessons to start and end our day. A big congratulations to our students for working so hard!

FYI: If you were curious if our amphibians survived their week-long hibernation… they did!

If you haven’t received our newly accommodated Winter Schedule, be sure to check out our website. Next week, we will be exploring The Science of Snow! Looking forward to seeing you!

Matt and Kim

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Hibernate, migrate or keep active!

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Hi everyone!

Today was packed full of exploration, curiosity and new skills! With our focus on wilderness survival we decided to gear our day towards learning about our furry little friends and how they survive our harsh, Canadian winters. Our students decided to start their day by working towards a new bead – “starting a fire without a match”. What a great way to start our day. Thank you Lara for bringing in your show and tell item which also acted as a tool for our fire. This hand held flint and steel was a challenge for some but after lots of persistence and determination we were able to start our fire.

“This is the best fire I have ever seen” -Izzy

After reading the book “Over and Under the Snow” by Kate Messner our students had the opportunity to visit the back bush and search for evidence of our little friends living under the snow. We found animal prints, animal holes, tunnels and fur under the snow. We also had a lot of fun “skating” and dancing on the ice that was left over from the storm earlier this week. This activity touched on three elements for animal survival – Hibernation, Migration and Keeping Active!

Hibernation (also keeping warm) is a huge part of survival; it is also something we strive for every day at Forest School. One of our goals of the day was to get the kids to brainstorm and idea. How would they would keep a jar of water warm and from losing heat in the cold? The challenge was accepted by all! We spent some time pretending our jars were animals and the outer layers (rubber pads, cloth, bubble wrap) were the fur and fat. We buried our jars in snow and will check on them next week just like the wild we believe that some will survive and others will not.

We took a moment out of our day to act like birds for the “Amazing Bird Wilderness Survival Game”. We paired up and each team received a “Bird information card” which included information about their diet and habitat. Their goal was to migrate through this large scale board game while coming across man-made and natural obstacles such as high winds, oil spill, clean windows, BB guns and other predators. We started with 12 birds and only 6 survived.

With all of this talk about animal survival, we then spent some time discussing how we would survive in the winter. We started our first survival kit that we will continue to add to over this semester. We continued to improve on our shelter building skills and some of our students tried their hands at a new skill – the bow and drill. We learned it was harder than it looks and when it starts to smoke, it smells like marshmallows!

With all that was going on we still found time to learn yet another new skill from one of our students. Thank-you Dax for showing your fellow classmates how to make a “slip knot”, and all of our students were able to complete one knot after the demonstration. Congratulations for earning the Teaching bead!

What a day for stickers and beads! Our stickers included 10 Respect, 8 Wisdom and 1 Bravery, and our beads included 1 Teaching, 3 Fire, 10 Shelter and 1 show and tell. Congratulations to everyone!

Next week – Field Trip!

Have a great week

Neal and Krista

Our day was awesome!

Subnivean Cities

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Making our own Subnivean Zones

Hey Everyone,

What an interesting day we had for our ~~Winter~~, wait scratch that, Freezing Rain Survival days. We went into this expecting to create quinzees and spend all day in the snow, but who could’ve guessed our snow would turn to ice so quickly!? So what can we do but make the best of the situation?? And that’s exactly what we did.

Our day was focused on what animals do to survive during the winter. After visualizing and becoming the animal of their choice, students were asked what they would do to survive in the winter. Some said they would sleep, others would hunt and others said they would move to somewhere warm. This covered all of our bases and in essence they already knew: hibernate, stay active, or migrate.

After reading an incredible story (Over and Under the Snow by Kate Messner – seriously check it out if you don’t have it) to set the tone for the day, the students designed their own “Subnivean Cities”. This under-snow layer captivated the imagination of students, and we were even able to explore the real thing outside once the rain subsided.

Over and Under the Snow

To get a little more in depth with hibernation, students were teamed up and given a jar half-full of water. Their mission? To ensure this water doesn’t freeze even after being left outside for a week. Students attacked this challenge head on and started to come up with super creative ideas to insulate and protect the water. The water jars became their “Frogs”, Snakes” or “Turtles”, and when the layers were complete they now needed a safe space to hibernate. Outside the students searched and found ideal places for their “amphibians” and “reptiles” to sleep… buried deep in the ground, insulated by debris, dirt and snow. We’ll see what happens next week!

Insulating our “frogs” for hibernation

Add in some time playing student-created games, tracking animals and one another, engaging in a creative Forest School buff fashion show, having a bonfire while reading legend, and completing an adventurous hike to find a geocache, and it seems we had quite a busy day.

And still the students returned to the classroom for one final challenge. In partners, they were given a particular bird species outlined like a Pokemon Card that showed their strengths, habits, diets etc. As this specific type of bird, students had to navigate a human-sized board game to show just how difficult migration can be and the potential threats that birds can face en-route. By the end, only a couple groups were able to migrate safely, but we developed really great insight about birds and their journeys during the winter.

(We had a request from a student for a copy of this game – it can be printed out by clicking here)

Migrating

Congratulations to our 3 Show and Tell bead recipients for bringing in a spider man web shooter, a handmade pair of moccasins and some awesome Polaroid pictures. We also gave out 2 musical beads for some stellar renditions of songs from the Lion King and a Bravery Bead!

Next Week:
Field Trip! We’ll be heading out to do some Cross Country Skiing!

We sure had practice with our balance on all that ice this week – here’s hoping for some snow next week.
Matt and Kim

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Principal Jennie salting the driveway – thanks!

Who needs snow for snowshoes…

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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!

Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland…

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…with snowshoes!

Off to Maple Forest

Welcome back everyone to our Winter Semester at Free Spirit Forest School – and what a great kick-off we had! This week was all about getting comfortable and really enjoying the Snow – and evidently ice on Wednesday. Though buses were cancelled both days, that didn’t stop us from exploring. We built snow forts, went tobogganing, pretended to be animals lurking in the snow and much more.

After an epic snowshoe all the way to Maple Forest and back before lunch, we learned all about this important method of travel – its history, the different styles and their inspirations, and the many, many uses of a snowshoe. Did you know that snowshoes date back thousands of years? The students were put to test afterwards in teams by coming up with a design and developing their very own “emergency” snowshoes. With braided twigs, sheets of wood, torn jean strips, even a full shirt, each team’s idea differed, but in the end all kept their users afloat on the snow.

Emergency student-created snowshoe!

Congrats to our Bead Recipients this week – 1 Peer Support and 3 Show and Tell. We have sent home a list of beads (or click here to see it) that students can be working towards this semester.

Also, A HUGE THANKS to you, the parents, for your awesome layering and extra clothes – all students were warm and happy despite the weather!

Next Week:
We’ve planned a Winter Survival day, but this may be adapted depending on the amount of snow we get. Regardless, we’ll be exploring, playing with new friends and appreciating our green spaces!

Also, this week was a good wake-up call for us in implementing a Snow Day Procedure. We will be following the Simcoe County District School Board. If buses are cancelled, we still run. However, if it’s a full on Snow Day and everything is closed, we will adhere to that.

See you next week!

Matt and Kim

More Photos for you:

Snow Day?

You are as wonderful as a snowflake

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Our Fall 2016 Video!

Hey Everyone!

On our last day of Forest School this year, the students’ skills were put to the test with an Amazing Race. Just like in the show, the classes had to work their way through Team Challenges, Road Blocks (completed by one person) and Detours (choice between 2 activities) while earning materials (tinder, kindling, a pot, etc) along the way for their final challenge of the day.

The Amazing Race encompassed almost everything we’ve covered this semester. Various challenges, like the tarp flip, human knot and blindfolded hikes, showed us just how well these groups worked together as teams. The group dynamic here was quite powerful! Other activities challenged hard skills (knots, compass and GPS use, and fire building) while knowledge tests showed us just how much they’ve learned and retained this year. We even called on skills we haven’t learned here, like clues being translated from French!

No matter the challenge, they rose to it. Throw in some snowshoeing, tobogganing, “skating” on the pond, and cedar tea made over the fire (the Final Challenge) and we’ll call it a day well spent outside.

In the spirit of the day, we spent a good chunk of it debriefing the year and looking forward to the next aspects of Forest School. Students were reflective when filling out their report cards and gathered all their stuff (sticker boards, journals and medallions) to take home. As many of you know, we wrapped the day up with a gathering at the Earthship for some drinks and a movie (see above for the movie!)

A big, big thanks to you, the parents, for believing in what we are doing and trusting in us to accomplish this. We couldn’t do it without your constant support. It’s been a real pleasure teaching, learning and growing with your kids. We are loving the sense of community that is developing with this program and are eager to keep it going! See you in the New Year!

Next year:
-If your child or children are returning, please send them back with their journals and medallions so they can continue collecting new beads.

-While we will still be using the property at Bygone Days, we are excited to be calling the Earthship our home for the Winter Semester! (How incredible is it that our classroom is in an Earthship?!) Drop off and pick-up will be there (633 Sixth St) at the same times.

– Please note that we’ve put up a tentative schedule for the Winter Semester on our calendar.

Enjoy the Winter break! Have a happy and healthy holiday and Merry, Merry Christmas!

Kim and Matt

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