Category Archives: Olympics

Survival Olympics (or Mary had a little lamb…)

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Hey Folks,

We had some fun this week putting some of our survival skills to the test in a collaborative, cooperative and competitive style Olympics we nicknamed the “Forest School Timber Tour”.   Our days varied greatly Tues-Thurs with different events geared toward developing and testing various skills – each day uniquely designed with the specific class dynamics in mind.  Some events were even created by our students en route.  We pushed ourselves physically, mentally and creatively, and in the end all agreed that no matter who won, everyone had fun.

To get an idea of what happened over the week, here’s some of the events:

Individual:
Tree Toss – a whopping 33’2″ by one student!
Obstacle Course – new FS record 43 seconds!
Singles Tug of War
Planking
Race around the Pond
Sling Shot Competition

Team Competition:
Flag Design and Cheer
Broom Ball
Ultimate Capture the Flag
Forest School Idol Music Competition
Balance Beam

Cooperative:
Fire Building (Magnesium and Steel)
Shelter Building
Orienteering
Plane Crash Survival
Lava Bridges
Human Knot, Tarp Flip, Hula Hoop Circle and more.

On Friday we approached things differently and focused entirely on teamwork with initiatives that earned students “Timber Dollars” that were used for buying gear to create the ultimate campsite.  We’re really proud of everyone’s hard work (and persistence!) in achieving their goals.  And through that persistence, our students were able to light the fire with only minutes to spare!

At the end of all days we handed out (wooden) medals to our winners! And a big shout out to all the sportsmanship award winners – you showed us that even through competition, we’re all still good friends.

Next Week: Animal Tracking!

Cheers,

Matt, Kim and Tamara

PS. Confused about the title? “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was our official Olympic Anthem.. ie one of only 3 songs Matt can play on the recorder.

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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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