Thanks for stopping by for another great day at Forest and Nature School, and with all this beautiful weather we didn’t waste any time. We welcomed all of students with the sound of ukuleles, which led to lots of singing and our students even playing their own tunes this morning. We are always encouraging our students to express themselves through song, dance, art or story telling, and we welcome more instruments every week!
Our students were in full swing this morning playing child led games, working on our hunting and hiding skills, which make our students amazing trackers and are even starting to build relationships that embody respect, communication and genuine empathy. We have so much to learn from each other and this is why we encourage our older students to spend time with our younger students, which naturally happens and the learning is abundant!
Today we challenged our younger students and continue to wander and explore our new Forest School home, and while all of our students work on core routines, each students day unfolds differently. Some students focused on the little things like catching new creatures (tree frogs, millipedes, caterpillars, cicadas, and one legged grasshoppers!). Plants were a big topic today from ground mushrooms to acorns falling from the sky, along with which animals we can catch (chipmunks and squirrels). Some of our other students worked on construction projects, identification, journals, art work, ultimate hiking, tracking and we even started collecting Cicada exoskeletons!
We continue to build our school map which lead us to all of our amazing finds and continue to make the Blueberry trails our own personal magic forest. We look forward to seeing everyone next week to make some more music!
Aside from our core routines, our days varied a lot this week (as they typically do) so check out the highlights below!
Tuesday
On Tuesday we embraced a beautiful day and celebrated a special birthday. After our morning circle, check-ins and sit spots, we were off for a lunch out to the wonderful Mysterious Forest. We learned a new game about fur trading that let our students jump into the roles of Europeans and Indigenous Peoples around the time of contact. We did this to build off prior knowledge and while the game was incredibly fun, the more important part was the thoughtful and inspiring debrief with our students. (Behind the scenes this is part of our Core Teaching – Heritage Species: Wisdom of the Ancestors). And of course we had some time for climbing trees, and reading and making up poetry as well.
Wednesday
We started our Halloween with pumpkin carving and cooking the seeds over a fire… they turned out a little burnt, but tasty considering we had no oil! After our core routines and an impromptu Halloween Costume fashion show, we headed out on a wander. At a place called “Mushy Beach” (aptly named as we pulled sinking people out) we invented a new game: Crow’s Nest. It was all about sneaking, moving quietly and “channeling our inner weasel”, as a student put it. (Behind the the scenes, this targets our indicator of awareness of Quieting the Mind, and core routines related to Animal Form, Questioning and Tracking, and even Sit Spot.)
Later in the afternoon, we returned to the ruins of our dam from a month ago. This time it was reinforced with a spillway (pipe) to let out any overflow. It was awesome to watch ideas come to life and young minds work together to create something epic. And we got a first hand look at erosion and alluvial fans from the debris of the “river”. We also had some students make some cool clay creations.
Thursday
From tea on the fire (and a new tripod cooker built), to human knots, to snakes on the trail and our new fur trading game (see Tuesday for explanation) – the Thursday group was super busy!
One fun and creative moment that unfolded that we want to share with you occurred with our newly updated Mud Kitchen. It started in the morning with a couple students creating “recipes” for nature soups, drinks and salads and writing them down in their journals. Fast forward to Free Play in the afternoon and suddenly the whiteboard is out with “Nature Cafe” written across it. Before long, there are more cooks, servers and patrons of the restaurant and inevitably a currency system. And eventually pretty much the entire group is involved. It was magical! (Behind the scenes: this is a great example of symbolic and socio-dramatic play!)
Further, and what really made us as educators so proud, was that the “ingredients” for the recipes were specific plants that we have learned to identify over the last few years. And each recipe was pretty complex, requiring at least 8 different plants!
Friday
We started with tea over the fire again (catnip and cedar) and got ready for a wet and cool day! If the weather was an issue, the kids didn’t let on as they embraced the day. We headed out on an adventure that led us to Mysterious Forest. We played a huge game of Sardines where one person hides and the others hide alongside that person when they find them. Playing in such a big space that is so well treed gives us the sense of being lost or at least being away from others and alone. (Behind the scenes: this one of our pillars of risky play)
We made our way back, pretty wet and ready for a warm-up and lunch. After lunch we read a Nootka legend from the Pacific Northwest called Octopus and Raven. The students then created or interpreted their own legends in dramatic form. They were inspiring tales! (Behind the scenes: Storytelling is one of our fundamental Core Routines)
If you’ve read all this (thanks!), you can see we had a pretty fun week. Every group we have is so different and we are so thankful to have the space and freedom to follow the interests of our kids – it really makes for unique days. A big thanks to our student’s parents and guardians for knowing the value in this!
We are CAVING next week for our Painted Turtles, Snowy Owls and Blue Herons! Please dress to get wet and muddy.
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.
