We rang in the last week of summer with some very hot, then cool, then crazy windy and rainy weather!
This week at Forest School we saw many adventures unfold and really dove into the joy of following emergent interests. Full on “stores” opened up in the forest (see in depth details below); fires were sparked with only a magnifying glass, cedar and the sun; going canoeing and receiving mail from the Fairies; shelters were hastily constructed with impending grey clouds looming; visits to fossil mountain and long hikes; and so much more.
This week we also introduced two more of our core routines: Sit Spot and Journaling.
For those of us new to Sit Spots, here’s a quick overview. Our students’ sit spots are chosen by them and become a natural space that we visit all the time. They get to know this spot as they would a best friend – noticing any and all changes throughout the year. It’s a place to sit still, alone and quietly where we develop the quiet mind and a deeper connection with nature (and arguably one of our most important routines).
Journaling acts as a way for us to keep records of our adventures. It helps train our minds to pay attention to the details and we try and keep a journal regularly. In the past we’ve given students journals, but we chose to make our own this year and made some pretty awesome ones this week! We’re hoping this gives children a little more ownership over their note taking, mapping, drawings, stories, poetry and everything that will fill those pages with. In essence, journaling helps support many of our core routines (Expanding our Senses, Sit Spot, Questioning and Tracking, Mapping, and Story of the Day).
One last story for this week.
A magical moment unfolded with our Tuesday Snowy Owl group at an area known as the Fort. As you know play is a huge aspect of our programming (check out this blog Play-based Education: The joy of shared Adventure for more details on play), and on this day unfolded a great example of “Socio-dramatic Play”. This type of play sees children acting out and recreating situations they have seen. It’s the chance to jump into the role of real (or potentially real) experiences.
It started with this: one child picked up some leaves to “buy” a shell from another. Before we knew it, “property” was being purchased, precious things were being mined and sold, a police force was created (along with a jail) and the little society was born. Children even had wooden “debit cards” and we literally had a thousand yellow leaves floating around – enough that we needed a vault and an armored vehicle to move “money”. The swings and slide were being rented, trees were bought and sold, and in all the chaos it all just seemed to make so much sense. And that’s the beauty in it.
(Sidebar to unpack later: it’s interesting to see the views of children owning, purchasing and profiting from nature… and thus makes us wonder how they see the world and our role? Maybe it’s nothing, maybe it’s more – but could be a powerful reflection of society from their view.)
From our educators point of view on play, it was inspiring to see the complex levels of the society unfold. And because we love co-conspiring in play with the students, our educator held the role of banker (and then became the chief of hiring security and police, and payday – like we said it was pretty complex.) It’s remarkable when given time and space what can develop as each child brought in their own opinions, ideas and roles – and all ideas were welcome by everyone.
First off from all of us at FSFNS, a HUGE welcome (or welcome back) to all of our new students, parents, guardians and friends of Forest and Nature School! We are extremely excited for this upcoming year and all of the adventures that are waiting to be had. If you are new to our program and reading this for the first time, welcome to our weekly(ish) blog that recaps some of the highlights, learning and stories from our past week. We publish all of our blogs to our Facebook page, along with pictures and upcoming events, so be sure to follow us by clicking here.
As this was our first week back at FNS, we focused heavily on community building and getting to know one another. We wandered and explored all over our 86 acres of property; searching out new and exciting discoveries. Each day a different story unfolding as we followed emerging student interests. If, and when, we found something significant, students could add it to our giant Forest School Map. These discoveries could be anything from a good climbing tree, to trails, to a special frog place – anything students felt connected to.
Mapping is one of our Core Routines at FNS. In a nutshell, we like to always be oriented to the compass directions and understand our landscape from a bird’s eye view. We draw maps not only to locate features, but also to tell stories of the areas we explore. Students name the places we go – fossil mountain, maple forest, golf ball trail – that reinforce connection with the areas and give us a common language to use. It’s not about creating the perfect map, but rather engaging in the process. It’s something we look at every week – check out the map in our classroom the next time you are in!
Wandering is another one of our core routines. Sometimes, we like to set off and explore without an agenda or destination, or even purpose. The point is to be present in the moment – not worry about time and simply follow the curiosity.
And curiosity took us many places this week! We hiked along trails, set-up forts in the forest, chased after bugs and identified them in field guides, went canoeing, fishing, created dams, made fires and so much more.
It was a good kick-off to the year! Thanks for joining us on our first week of FSFNS!
Cheers,
Your FNS Team
(Aislinn, Matt, Michelle and Krista)
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)
It’s been awhile since our last post and we’ve been up to so many adventures! It’s hard to sum up (and remember everything – we have go to keep up on this blog!). From expanding our knowledge on wild edibles, hiking new trails and rock climbing, we have been super busy!
All of our older classes have now had the chance to visit one of our favourite places – Metcalfe Rock. This gem, located in the Kolopore Uplands, is a magical place to explore, play and uncover new things. We certainly pushed our limits rock climbing up the Escarpment – and many of us for the very first time. We are so proud of our students for stepping beyond their comfort zones and trying something new!
Our students are also getting really good at identifying wild edible plants. We have had some more real tasty stir fries (including our favourite – leek and asparagus!) and garlic mustard pesto sauces. We were even able to find some morels!
As the spring unfolds we also see our pond coming alive, too. And with the warm weather we’ve caught many frogs and turtles, and other little critters. It’s been cool catching dragonfly and damselfly nymphs, then connecting with them again as they are out flying around now, eating those unwanted bugs. We are also watching tadpoles grow bigger, birds make nests and have their babies, and bigger mammals (like our neighbour the groundhog) go about their day. It’s this repetitive connection with place that is so important – and so interesting! It’s allowed us the opportunity to see and feel connected to the changes this spring. It’s been quite a treat to see and engage with all of this awesome creation and we know there is more to come!
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.
After our opening circle, and a sweet dance party to start off the day, we put our adventure caps on and tested our bear-hunt skills as we twirled, growled, hopped and stomped our way through a maze. And we were off on the hunt, along the way being sidetracked (as normal!) from the hunt itself and jumping into lots of creative and fun play. Students opened up a clay store, a McDonalds drive thru (featuring the “McBug”), cooked elaborate meals and even made some “chili” (sumac, garlic mustard and mud). They were lost in their imaginative play for quite some time, letting the teachers in every so often with a taste test here, and a “hey check this out” over there. It’s some of our favourite moments!
During our picnic lunch we read some parts of Curious George, which naturally led to setting up a pulley trap (with a banana peel in it) and trying to catch him. After hauling it up and letting it drop countless times, we finally tied it up and were able to catch him!
Meanwhile, we also checked in on the mailbox and had received a letter from the Grape Valley Fairies. It thanked us for all the hard work we put in last week rebuilding their village and they gave us a special gift – honourary fairy names! So we wrote these names down on wood cookies and painted some sticks to create a windchime to take home so all fairies in the world knew we were friends!
And that’s our magical day!
Reminder – next week is a holiday so no Forest School! Enjoy the Sunshine!
What a hot and beautiful day we had! After our opening circle, we dove into (or rather quietly sat into) a sensory awareness activity that got us using all our senses. After some games and further core routines, we headed out for a lunch out a Grape Valley.
Students spent the day searching for critters in the water, building fairy communities, adding to their shelters and getting stuck in the mud! We headed out to be the first FNS group to explore the new trails in Maple Forest and found a lot of exciting things along the way. Edible trout lillies were everywhere and we took (sustainable) advantage as these delicious treats don’t last long! We meandered our way through the Forest, uncovering places we had never seen before. And before we knew it, it was time to head back. But one more treat on the way – a patch of Garlic Mustard! This is one tasty invasive!
Wednesday
Wednesday’s group was visited by a beautiful male Indigo Bunting during our opening circle. We took the time to just observe and see what he was doing, making note of appearance to identify later. After a sensory awareness activity, we were ready for the day!
After snack, the students took a lead role in our Tick Awareness by creating a student-led natural spray to help deter ticks from coming after us. And while we’ve never had a tick on our students at Forest School, we want to keep in that way and knowledge is power. After covering ourselves in it, we headed out to Grape Valley in Maple Forest for lunch.
While there, imaginations came alive, structures were built and the hunt for new creatures was on. We found some strange looking aquatic bugs we later identified as caddisfly larvae and big beetle known as a Meleo. We hiked all the new trails that have been developed which has opened up some awesome new areas to explore and then something really cool happened – the students self-organized to clean up garbage along it and ended up filling a whole bag. What group of environmental superheroes!
Throw in some delicious wild edibles – trout lily, leeks and garlic mustard – and a huge nesting site of bank swallows on Fossil Mountain, and we’ll call it a successful exploration!
Thursday
Thursday brought forth all sorts of emergent interests in our students. We started the day with some teambuilding by conquering the “chocolate river” by using “marshmallows” to cross it (ask your kids!). After our opening circle we spent some time on sensory awareness with our journals in a quiet place. This led us into our check-in and before we knew it, snack had arrived. After snack, we had a quick lesson on tick prevention and awareness before jumping into the role of Geese and learning firsthand some of the perils they face on their long journeys – not everyone survived! Some of our students were focused on birds throughout the whole day and we were able to identify new ones and wonder what they were up to. We even followed some circling vultures to see if we could find their target.
Another theme throughout the day was plants. We worked to together to get our gardens in place, plant the peas for our living tee-“pea” and students even took the initiative to build their own wild edible garden in their sit spots – complete with some of the plants we foraged: garlic mustard, wild strawberry, wild carrot (Queen Anne’s Lace), leeks and more.
And still we had some students dive into amphibians – frogs and toads to be exact. We found eggs and tadpoles and caught a whole bunch of different critters.
And still some other students were really into to building bug homes and making clay.
It’s awesome when we can all share one space, and follow our passions and interest together and apart!
Friday
We started off the day with a silent lava crossing teambuilding challenge and our students rocked it! After our opening circle and check-ins we spent some time building and playing in our sit spots. As it was a chillier day, some students took on the task of creating a fire with flint and steel and were successful!
Our next adventure began after lunch as we headed west to discover some new trails. Along the way, we caught some frogs and uncovered a mass area of toad eggs (now named Toad Egg Bay). Further along, we spotted a pile of bones that got us wondering what had happened.
As we started along the trails we focused our attention downwards and the many wild edibles that have sprung up. Students tried Garlic Mustard, sampled the ample trout lillies and uncovered big patches of leeks. And though not edible, we found that the trilliums are in bloom (so watched out step!) and even identified some Jack in the Pulpit sprouted up.
FYI: We’ve got an edible plant workshop with Naturalist Brian McLelland-Tuck coming up on Saturday June 2nd with a few spaces remaining. At Forest School, your children will be learning a lot about safe foraging and eating, and this workshop is geared towards parents and educators to help them get involved in this special learning. Email us asap if you’d like to register, we only have a handful of spots remaining ($20/person).
We had a sunny day at FNS today and what better way to start than with giant bubbles (and they seriously could’ve done this all day)! But alas, when we checked our mailbox, a special letter had arrived from Queen Sadie of the Fairies of Grape Valley. They needed our help – after that huge winter storm just a few weeks ago (crazy eh?!), their homes and village had been destroyed and they needed us to lend a hand to rebuild. They gave us a map marked with red stars that showed us where to find special materials along the way and we were off. After arriving, students were busy at work creating homes, docks, restaurants, roadways and even helicopter landing pads for the fairies. The fairies will be quite pleased with all their efforts.
Sidebar: The swallows have moved back into to the cliff of Fossil Mountain and it is incredible! We took a breather and just watched them go about their day.
On the way back, we followed one of our brand new trails (thanks Rad Adventures!) through Maple Forest and got a peak at some newly accessible areas to us. We eventually dove off trail and stumbled upon a brand new space we aptly named Spiky Forest. We were treated to trout lilies and garlic mustard along the way to tide us over until we made it back for lunch.
After a picnic lunch we had some (optional) barefoot time! It’s such a great way for us to connect to nature, and your kids might have some dirty soles tonight. We read one of our favourite books (Everyone Needs a Rock – Byrd Baylor) and then went on a search to find the perfect stone. These rocks became our students gratitude rocks – ask them about it!
We slowed down at the end of the day and took some time to be quiet in nature and focus on senses other than sight, after which it was time for our Story of the Day (debrief).
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!
As what happens often at Forest and Nature School, our teacher plans were totally derailed right away with our Chickadees on Monday. And it was a simple statement by one of our students that did it: “Hey, look at all the birds!” and the tone of the day was set.
We spent some time just observing the birds, listening to their songs, and seeing how close we could get. And then we just had to make some toilet paper roll binoculars to help us see them better! Which naturally led us to a bird hunt, though before we could leave, we had to get into the right mindset – of both bird and birders. Students and teachers took turns being birds and trying to spot each other. We practiced our sneaking and hiding to make sure we could capture the “birds” in their natural arm-flapping, squawking state.
And while playing this game, we came across a real bird’s nest in a maple tree! We all agreed we were such lucky chickadees! So we decided to take a few sample nests out of our Natural Museum, and got to compare the nests of robins, orioles and others. They were all different, but had many similarities, and all of our students picked which one they would like to live in and told us why.
So finally it was time for our bird hunt! And off we were – but along the way were so many other cool things! And though we noticed a few ducks, but inevitably the bird hunt was postponed, as students found other interests to pursue. And that’s our favourite part as teachers – watching the play, discovery and stories unfold, usually in totally unexpected ways.
And all that was done before lunch! In the afternoon, with the hot sunny day, we stayed close to home and dove into some really cool art projects and, of course, mud baking!
