Leaves in the air,
Fall colours everywhere.
What on earth could we use these leaves for?
We had at least 3 ideas, maybe more!
Providing camouflage to hide our treasures,
Running like chipmunks, it was not a day of leisure.
Creating magic wands that cast spells,
Transformed us into frogs, trees, a painted turtle shell.
Burying each other and jumping out to surprise,
Of course a leaf fight was bound to arise!
Roofs for our forts for when the rain came,
More leaves please! The forest heard us proclaim
All in a day of play at forest school,
Unanimously we agree that autumn leaves are pretty cool!
The rain was no obstacle for us in Meaford today! The puddles were ripe for the jumping and it helped us fine tune our shelter building. We were keen observers of what the animals we saw are up to this time of year, and tried to mimic their behaviours. We noticed that some creatures are slowing down, while some seem to be running around in a frenzy of activity with the colder temperatures. We did not find any salamanders this week and are curious if they are getting ready for winter. More investigations required!We also investigated different tracks for animals in our neighbourhood and tried to find some on our wanderings. Coyote or dog track always raises an exciting debate!
Ask your forest school student about birch bark and the animal they impersonated today!
A windy day greeted us at Memorial Park – sure signs of fall in the chilly, leafy air. After our opening circle we hopped on the bus and headed to Metcalfe Rock for our first field trip! We spent the morning rock climbing, an exciting challenge which was a totally new experience for many of the students. Challenge by choice was encouraged and students climbed as high as they wanted to go, with some even making it to the top of the climb. After lunch we hiked through the Crevice trail (a side trail of the Bruce trail), which led us right to a cave! Dark and mysterious, the Ice Cave did not disappoint! One of the most exciting moments seemed to be getting to turn on the headlamps worn on our helmets, but as we did want to test the darkness of the cave, we turned them all off for a quick minute to experience it with our other senses. We discovered there was still light sneaking in from multiple holes, which led to some discussion about how the cave was formed, and why there was still ice in it in the summer. Ask your child for more details, as well as the story about the braided root tree.
The car ride home was surprisingly lively after all that exercise and fresh air, as we were singing some fun campfire songs. You might have heard us singing as we pulled up to the parking at the end of the day. We will definitely be practising these songs so that you too can be taught them!
Have you ever pretended to be a raccoon, exploring the world around you in the dark? Or embodied a fox, chasing mice through the fields? Or spent valuable time with a tree, getting to know it personally? All in a day’s work at forest school!
As the leaves begin to change, the students are getting a solid lay of the land at Memorial Park. The connection the students feel to the forest is more apparent each week. The question “when are we heading to the woods?” starts getting asked at ~8:50am. A favourite place is “The Forts” (as they marked it on our big map), and they can now easily lead us to this spot. The journey there is never direct though as it always involves many an interesting plant and creature sighting! Caterpillars and spiders are abundant and crowd pleasers, and the salamanders have not disappointed us yet with a sighting each week.
Thank you to all who came out to “Meet the Teacher”! We will see everyone next week for some new adventures!
The sun was out and so were the critters, both the children and the animals that is! We worked on finding stillness and sharpening our senses while playing camouflage, skills that came in handy while searching for life in the forest later on. A salamander, toads, many caterpillars and bugs, and even two pileated woodpeckers were spotted by our keen owl eyes. Time was well spent getting into journaling, which was taken on keenly by the group. Today’s recordings were things that we noticed in our immediate surroundings. By the end of the semester we hope the journals will be full of observations and stories weaved into a bigger picture of nature connection.
With the summer winding down we took full advantage of the warm weather and spent the afternoon at the beach. Swimming was a highlight, and likely last dip in the bay of 2019 for many! A memorable day for sure.
We look forward to exploring nature again with you next week!
Blue skies welcomed us to Memorial Park today, where old and new faces had the opportunity to explore the park together. While the playground adjacent to the school building offered a fun opportunity to begin building peer relations in the early morning, it was the forest that offered up it’s true magic to us today. On our wanders we happened upon countless bugs, lush moss, a salamander, toads, and many plants that sparked lively conversations. The trails offered us room to run and the trees a place for practicing some quiet reflection. Filling in some special spots on our map helped us feel oriented in the new location. Travis helped us get into sit spot mindfulness with a story, but alas a snake discovery proved very distracting! There were lots of laughs and “wows” as we eased back into the flow of a forest school day. Forts in the woods and the critter discoveries were brought up by many as highlights at the end of the day. We are looking forward to what the forest will teach us next week. In the meantime, be sure to ask about beach glass, how to skip a rock and the best place to find salamanders.
She’s back! Our mama robin that is! We were so happy to notice her this morning and couldn’t help but check on her nest… three more bright blue eggs to hatch in the coming weeks! We love gaining her trust and sitting close to observe her care for her eggs. It’s an awesome way to quiet our minds and connect to the birds. We tend to notice them more throughout the day after we make this small connection.
Some especially fun things that we appreciated this week were holding baby chicks (!!), playing on new tree swings, climbing trees in the forest (and enjoying the fresh tree canopy to protect us from the rainfall), and perhaps the tastiest of all… baking over the fire! Students loved dicing potatoes, chopping leeks, measuring oil and best of all… cooking it over a fire they made! They loved being involved in the prep work and I think that helps make it taste even better too!
I’m sure they’ll love to share this special dish with you too!
It’s been another awesome few weeks at our Meaford Forest School! We’ve been enjoying our time exploring in our forest – plenty of imaginative and recapulative play. Students always enjoy taking on the roles of various hunter and gathers, climbing trees, hiding in our shelters, and moving around like all sorts of forest creatures! We have spent a lot of time in the woods lately; becoming stewards of the land and really taking time to slow down and just be in nature – no matter the weather! We have been really appreciative of the little robins tending to their babies! It’s really amazing to be nearby and watch the magic! We’ve built an instant connection to birds through this experience (and not just because we’re fascinated with worms)! It’s opened our eyes to all sorts of birds in our neighborhood – like the bright warblers dancing in the trees!
But that’s not all! Spring is such a great time to learn about ethically harvesting and gathering some delicious wild edibles! This week, we really enjoyed spreading our previously made wildcraft violet jelly with our fire-roasted bannock! It was an awesome way to cap off another special week together! And if I’m honest, a slightly bigger hit than the garlic mustard pesto we made the week prior!Thanks again for following along in our nature journey!
It’s been a little while since the last post and there’s plenty to reflect on! We have been having all sorts of fun spending our days outdoors.
To no surprise, students absolutely love mud! And with our mud kitchen in full effect, there’s no end to it! Whether we are stomping our boots, measuring globs, mixing and serving up various mud treats, or enjoying exfoliating hand spa treatments, the creativity is contagious! The basics for a mud kitchen: a few bowls, pots, spatulas, plenty of mud, but most importantly, some kids keen to get messy and dive in! There must be a correlation between the degree of fun someone has and the amount of laundry afterwards. Thanks families for understanding that play (especially muddy play!) is synonymous with learning and an integral part of our program! This hands-on experience teaches us so much!
We have made some pretty significant transformations in our forested space these past few weeks. There are plenty of new shelters (debris and lean-to) and special trees and sit spots that the students enjoy and tend to. We happily care for this new-to-us space and always try to leave it better than we’ve found it. That means treading lightly on the land, and picking up more than our share of rubbish.
One student reminded us a few weeks back that “the forest has the absolute best air ever. You can even feel it!” And last week we were able to taste it too! Students are learning about some wild edibles, including our current favourite trail snack…. Trout lilies! I wonder what magic we will discover this week?
With the heavy rain last week, our students are becoming seasoned forest school kiddos. Many of them declared rain days to be their favourite… mostly because there are so many more worms!
Many thanks to you for reading and believing in the importance of nature-connection for kids!
What a great kick off to our Meaford Program! We spent these beautiful days becoming familiar with the lay of the land and getting to know our new group of friends. We have already established a wonderful, fun loving sense of community, who are keen on spending entire days outside learning from (and in!) nature.
What better way to dive into it, than jumping in puddles, making mud treats, jumping over and under logs, and climbing up trees. All hands were in deck as we collected sap from our maple trees and began boiling it down into syrup. But better yet was the sweet reward of drinking it straight from the source! We were feeling very grateful for our tree friends and all that they provide for us!
We tapped into our animal forms by sneaking into new forested territory and building shelters, fairy villages and much, much more!
We are really grateful to be able to spend our days outdoors together! What an awesome way to start off our Spring!
Thanks for reading along. There are more pictures posted below.
Kim
