“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!
While Matt and Kim are away, Forest School gets off property to play! Through out our week all of our students embarked on two brand new trails located on the Bruce Trail called the Pretty River Trail and Loree Forest. We also welcomed with open arms our substitute teachers Carly and Noa. We had amazing weather, which gave our students positive vibes and lots of energy each day. After our core routines and student led games, our kids started the day with lots of energy and ended with tired legs and great memories. Check it out!
TUESDAY
We sprung the question “How has Forest School changed your life outside our classroom?” With some time in our sit spots to reflect our students had some very deep answers varying from improved self confidence, bravery, pushing comfort zones and in general just happier! It’s always great to see where we had started and how far we’ve come. After our morning student led games, our day was full on! While hiking in a sea of Trout Lilies and Trilliums, we came across Fox holes, Toads, Mud monsters, Spiders and tested our river jumping abilities. A huge Thank you to Rowan for bringing in a special gift for his fellow classmates, which was bubbles, and who doesn’t love bubbles.
WEDNESDAY
We brought out one of our favourite games – Kubb! We also spent some time building our sit spots and reflecting on our past week. Our Painted Turtles even came across a Bat flying around, deciding to name it seemed appropriate so Patty or Batman were the final two contenders, though we never did come to a conclusion. Everyone was eager to head out on our hike, which led us to familiar plants and animals. Students loved getting dirty today with all the clay we found, so much so that they turned into clay makers. Some of our masterpieces were bowls, cups and sculptures. We also found snow! Students loved “skiing” down the hill, and didn’t even mind the hike back up!
THURSDAY
Our students we excited and super prepared for our field trip, so we sprung into the van and headed to Loree Forest first thing. We challenged the kids to find just 1 Salamander, and they blew us away with a total of 60! We couldn’t believe it, but it’s true! We are so proud of all the dedication they had, and all of the excited screams never got old. We also discovered many new bugs, plants and some of the juiciest worms we have ever seen. If the kids were not making wild salads, they were playing with mud, snow and just enjoying our hike!
Congratulations to all our students who earned Respect, Love and Humility stickers! We also want to thank Carly and Noa for subbing in for Matt and Kim this week, we would love to have you back!
This week at Forest School we looked at our Eco System, and tied in some fun games along the way! It also brought opportunities for new discoveries, and an activity we haven’t done since last September, frog hunting! After our morning routines, our day started with an intense football game to get our blood pumping. We also challenged our kids with food-chain games along with an Eco System freeze tag! We were so active enjoying the beautiful spring weather, and a little too clean – so we had to get a little dirty, or it just wouldn’t be Forest School.
Our main lesson of the day was to learn about our Consumers (Animals and Humans), Producers (Plants that grow from the ground), and Decomposers (Slugs, Snails and Worms). We tested our knowledge with a skill testing questions, a mix and match game, and though it came challenging for all at the end of the game, we all had a better understanding of each topic. With all the hard work we did, it paid off and we got a fun game out of it!
So while we were on our hike surrounded by tons of producers, looking for evidence of consumers (Racoon tracks, Beaver and Canadian Geese) and finding decomposers (Snails, Worms and centipedes) we spotted our FIRST Beaver of the season! We now have a better idea of who is chopping down all those trees! It was a beautiful day to relax and so we spent a large part of our afternoon working on our sit spots where we reflect, write in our journals and explore our 5 senses. Using the knowledge from our earlier lesson, we brainstormed examples of Consumers, Producers and Decomposers and used our imagination to write a story about their favourite animal along with a food chain associated with them.
With all of the beautiful sunshine and heat today, we were over joyed to see our first frog of the season as well, which lead into an impromptu frog hunt! Our kids didn’t lose any agility over the Winter to catch our little friends, and in total we caught 11 Frogs! All frogs went back home safe and sound. Along with this fun activity, we even had time at the end of the day to do some fishing. Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything this week, but we are looking forward to our next opportunity.
Our Morning Glory starting to sprout
This week was full of Wisdom stickers, Respect sticker and Love. Exciting news – we are getting close to some prizes! There was also 1 Al bead earned, 4 Litterless Lunch and 2 Show and Tell Beads.
Next Week – We are going to be looking into the fun and exciting world of Birds!
Today our kids were all prepared for rain clouds, and maybe even some thunder and lightning, but the Thunderbird (mythical bird who controls the weather) must have been sleeping because we got the complete opposite! Sun, light, wind and maybe a couple rain drops..Feww! So we headed off property and explored more of the Bruce Trail, along with a new hiking path that connects to Loree Forest.
But before we marched into a new landscape, we got a fun introduction into planting! The top picks were Kale, Spinach, Lavender, Peas and Morning Glory flowers. We also had fun exploring our compost area (for soil), and who knew so much life was happening in the dirt! We found so many decomposers (snails, worms, millipedes and spiders). We will update on how our first attempt on our plants are growing!
We have to give credit to all our students for hiking ALL day through the overcast, sun and the heat. Everyone kept such a positive attitude, and supported each other along the way. We couldn’t have been more proud! With our kids exploring a new area these are just a few of the topics that brought discussion.
Hundreds of Trout Lily leaves (too early for the flower)
Escaping sap on a tree (great for fires)
Wild leeks (taste and smell so good)
Wild mushrooms (did not eat)
Hiking sticks
Fungi and Moss
Different types of rocks
Mud puddles (yup we got dirty)
Deciphering trees among many more!
There were many earned beads and stickers today, as well with some students getting pretty close to getting a Bingo Bead! We also caught up on some missed beads from last week. 10 Respect stickers, 2 Peer Support Beads, 1 Bravery Bead, 4 Show and Tell Beads, 2 Litter Less Lunch Beads and 1 very special Al Bead – for kindness, love and support.
Next Week – We are going to look at the relationship between plants and animals! Ecosystems here we come!
Side note – We actually hit 10,000 steps or more today! Our little legs worked hard.
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
The rain didn’t have us singing the blues today! Our busy little beavers were focused on tools, projects and problem solving. We were lucky to have one last week with warmer temperatures which gave us a lot of flexibility in our active play.
It’s been really incredible watching the growth and development in each child with their motor skills, confidence and teamwork…way to go everyone!
There was a ton of enthusiasm, laughter and fun this week! Here’s a “behind the scenes” look at all of our highlights and accomplishments of the day!
We started the day off by using our muscles and jumped into tearing down our shelters we made last week then built new ones. Last week fire was a big hit so our students wanted to take some time and work together and start a group fire. We learned very quickly that starting a fire is not as easy as it sounds. After all their hard work our fire was started and stayed hot until lunch time.
A big thanks to Emily for bringing in her rock/crystal collection. All the kids got to take a look at “golden tigers eye”, ” black lava stone”, “agate stone”, “rose quartz” and “fools gold”.
Everyone showed off their hammering skills with real hammers and nails! Every child went home with all ten fingers intact!
Later in the afternoon our students spent some time creating music with our homemade kazoos. Also, we apologize for the crazy weather today, we were on a roll with our creativity and made our very own rainmakers!
Our sit spots are a time where our students can reflect on their day and today was no exception. Our question of the day was – “Give 5 examples of how we treat people and how you want to be treated.” Some of the amazing answers were – “be kind, be respectful, help each other, love, like, hold someones hand, give people flowers when they are not happy, tell jokes and make someone smile.” Needless to say we have some seriously amazing little humans on our hands! Way to go parents for raising these sweet, genuine children that we get the pleasure of spending time with once a week.
We always save the best for last!! The main focus today was designing and building their very own bird houses! It was amazing to see how different all of our designs were.
Alice yelled from the Garden ” I heard a Wolf call!!” That’s all it took for our kids to run down to the Beaver River howling for coyotes with the hope of finding a wolf! Good news is no other animals called back!
To no surprise, there were lots of “Honesty” and “Respect” stickers earned today as well as:
1. Storytelling bead. Congratulations to everyone, you all worked so hard for them.
Next Week: We will be joining Collingwood Forest School for a BIG hike up to Loree Forest! Make sure to have an energizing breakfast to keep you fired up, and ready to explore!
Today we welcomed a new student named Izzy to our Forest School by introducing the smudging ceremony experience with her while explaining the meaning of it.
A Creepy Crawly bug day was the name of the game this week! Throughout the day the kids observed and held: spiders, centipedes, worms, banana slugs, frogs, fish, hornets, pink mushrooms, and much more!
Our students were excited this morning and hiked to the back of our property to find the floor of our shelter was missing! WHAT? Yes our floor went missing! After searching the property and coming up with possible solutions we were unable to find our floor which was also a great thing because our kids had the opportunity to create a new structure. This one is stronger, accessible for all students and even has it’s own fireplace! We even tested out the new fire pit by roasting marshmallows in it. They sure were tasty and we only lost 3 to the fire.
Next on the agenda was to create a worm compost. Our students brought in newspaper, egg cartons, saw dust, and food scraps. Then we went on a worm hunt, which started out with a discussion as to where these worms like to hang out. That would be dark damp areas, loose dirt, compost bins, and near to the surface!
Tip: If your soil is dry grab a hose and run some water over the ground, wait about a half hour, and the worms should rise up.
Our goal with our worm compost is to check in each week and see how they are doing. Are they mixing up the layers or compost and newspapers? Have they eaten anything? Do they need more compost? Is the soil wet or dry? After we are done with our findings we plan on putting these hard workers back into the ground by adding them into our existing compost.
We discussed our favorite bugs today and because our school is home to hundreds of bugs, we thought it would be awesome to create a bug hotel! The students collected: pinecones, dry grass, deadwood, fallen tree bark, empty tissue paper rolls, dirt, and newspaper to build the hotel. There was thought and discussion that went into the planning of which insects would like certain habitats. The kids will visit this area on a weekly basis and conduct their observations within their journals.
All of our kids worked really hard this week on their Respect, Bravery, and Honesty stickers. Next week we look forward to giving away a couple more beads!
Next Week: Is all about Tree Identification and First Nation totem pole exploration!
Thank-you for stopping by, we will se you next week!
We started off our day today with a group game called Kubb (pronounced: Coob). Essentially it’s viking chess – a great target game. Unfortunately it’s way to complicated to explain the rules – so here’s a link to what it is. After our intense game, we did our smudge, morning circle and sit spots. Then it was time to enter the wonderful world of bugs!
After learning about where bugs live (underground, on the ground and in the sky), we explored our site with magnifying glasses and guidebooks in hand, and in a very short while were able to identify over 30 different species of bugs. Everywhere we looked there was a mini-world of insects unfolding right in front of us. (The Wednesday group varied slightly in that they also had a chance to do a pond study as they didn’t get to it last week.)
We also learned about soil today and have started a project using worms, compost and the different layers. You may have noticed your child come home with a yummy Soil Sundae? Or maybe it didn’t make it all the way there.
Speaking of making things, we wanted to spend some time exploring what insects can do for us. And what better insect to use than a honey bee? It was amazing to see the knowledge the students already had and were able to share about bees. Did you know there are over 20,000 different kinds of bee species in the world? After role playing the life of a bee, we made chap stick and hand balm from locally sourced beeswax, organic coconut oil, shea butter, and a little peppermint to give it a scent. Pretty simple! We did this over a camp stove, but you can do it at home too! For a complete recipe, please click here.
Thanks to Healthy Kids Challenge Collingwood, the students also had a chance to create GIANT bugs, bug hotels, bug amusement parks and bug castles with the imagination playground. Check out the masterpieces in the pictures below!
A big congratulations to our bead recipients this week. 2 Teaching Beads: one to a student who brought in their birding field guide taught us how to use a guide and showed us all the birds she had seen in her own backyard; and one for a lesson on composting. 2 Craft beads were also given out for an interesting project on compost in a jar.
Next Week: We’re going to have some fun with trees!! Please remember to dress warm and have some extra layers – we’ve had some unusually awesome weather this fall, but who knows how long it’ll last.
