Happy Tuesday! We had a great day with our Chickadee program today, and as the title suggests, we did a lot of building.
Right away, we watched imaginations come to life as an old driftwood root became a house for Fairies. Equipped with a door, chimney, balcony, hot tub and much more, students couldn’t get enough of finding places for all sorts of cool additions until it inevitably became a mansion for our magical friends.
While laying the “driveway” for the Fairy House, a surprise critter was uncovered – a woolly bear caterpillar. This cascaded into a whole new adventure – “Let’s build a home for him!” After trying to understand this creature a little better, counting its feet and realizing it was a pretty good climber, this home transformed turned into an obstacle course of pine cones and woodblocks. And my oh my could it crawl and climb!
Students today were inspired by one of our favourite books Everybody needs a Rock by Byrd Baylor and before we knew it we were on an adventure to find a rock of our very own. Taking advantage of the sun, we painted our rocks outside and later created pebble art of birds, caterpillars and ants.
And in between all that: more play, stories, music, hikes, games, fire making and more. It sure was a creative day.
As often happens at Forest School, we head into the day with a plan – and sometimes it gets mostly ditched due to emerging interests and opportunities. What a pleasant surprise this week when we discovered that the loss of all our snow from the wavering temperatures last week resulted in an epic ice rink!
Our planned Science activities were put on the back burner, or at least shifted focus the minute we uncovered the rink. While we still did a few experiments – the water volume of snow, snow as an insulator, water and ice density, snowflake formation and even snow volcanoes – suddenly our days were focused on ice: it’s creation, how to travel on it safely, and inevitably it’s destruction. (Sidebar: It’s amazing how much kids love destroying ice!)
We watched as our rink turned into many different things over the week – from balancing acts to sliding competitions; broomball rink to human curling; and full on skating rink by Friday – it became our central focus over the week and was so much fun. Thanks for the flexibility of our parents in sending their kids to school with skates!
When we weren’t on the rink, we were off exploring the property and marveling at the changes that occurred with the wacky weather. One of the greatest things about Forest School is the repetitive exposure to the same places. Students make genuine connections to the land and have a vested interest in their creations and special spots. We got to see how our snow trenches didn’t survive the thaw, but our snow caves did (albeit smaller)! We were able to drill holes through the ice of the big pond and check it for safe travel while learning about potential dangers while making shortcuts. We discovered that our “Riverbed” campsite is aptly named and is covered in half a foot of ice and water now!
And all of this spawned from a simple question by a student – “Hey, can I clear off that patch of ice?”
Next Week:
We have a regular day at Bygones Tues-Thurs, and Fridays group will be going Cross Country Skiing at Highlands Nordic! Please bring skis if you have them, otherwise we have you covered.
Please remember to let us know your intentions for the Spring Session as spaces are filling up!
We welcomed our FNS friends back at Bygone Days this week and dove right into some fun winter activities! After opening our day with a ceremonial smudge, our morning circle and some teambuilding icebreakers to get to know one another, students were keen to lean into learning about all things SNOW.
One of our favourite stories this time of year is called “Over and Under the Snow” by Kate Messner. It certainly set the stage for our snowshoe (or hiking) adventures and helped draw students’ attention to the little things along the way. Whether we ventured around the pond, to Ducky’s Campsite, or all the way to Fossil Mountain, we recognized the magical world that exists underneath the snow in the subnivean zone and were excited to discover it firsthand! We found various tracks, scat and other signs of animals surviving this wild winter along the way too!
After identifying some of the ways animals survive the winter (migrate, hibernate or stay active), students were tasked with the mission of keeping their own “animal” safe during the winter (ie. ensuring their jello didn’t harden when left in the cold). Using some of the learning from earlier in the day, combined with their own creativity, students hid, burrowed, or simply insulated their “animals” in the snow. Some even huddled with other containers of jello to keep warm, like deer mice! Ask your child what technique they used and whether or not it survived!
We further explored some important safety considerations about adventuring in the winter and took an in-depth look at ways to stay prepared to prevent some of the nasty, but realistic consequences of winter – like frost bite or hypothermia. We discussed ways to prevent and treat these concerns and packed our own survival backpack, filled with important gear to keep us safe and prepared while out in the elements.
During Wednesday and Thursday, students had the opportunity to build emergency shelters. We had some creative and thoughtful designs – like a collaborative snow trench (which turned into an awesome snow-village among the sumacs), and individual snow caves that were dug into the side of Fossil Mountain using mostly just snowshoes!
Kudos to students on Friday who were able to brave the wind-whipping snow and hail! It’s a good reminder for students to be prepared for FNS – including a fleece neck warmer, extra mitts, hats and thick socks, and even extra boots if you have them! You can’t have too many layers at FNS.
We had an AWESOME first week at FNS and made some great new friends each day! We look forward to another season of learning, exploring, laughing and playing with new friends!
We had a wonderful last week of FNS and enjoyed adventuring around our nature playground in the freshly fallen snow. Of course, what better way to say good bye to some of our favourite places than by spending some quality time in them! Throughout the week, students enjoyed visiting various places, like Riverside Campsite, Ducky’s Campsite, Mysterious Forest, or circumnavigating the pond. It has been quite powerful to hear stories and reminisce about so many positive experiences and memories from the fall along the way. Your children have truly built a deep connection to the land and to one another.
On Tuesday, students spent some time building new snow castles and tapping into their creativity and imaginations to play and work together with their natural loose parts. They collaboratively moved the large pipes from our obstacle course to build an incredible human-size subnivean zone, and of course this also became an incredible new space for creative play and our new favourite competitive game, ga-ga ball! This treat was used and appreciated all week by other classes.
On Wednesday, we were treated with the presence of a metal detector brought in by one of our students. We went on treasure hunts and were rewarded with the uncovering of a lost tool from earlier in the Fall. Students also extended our collaborative loose parts to build a giant slide behind the school house, which is only getting more and more fun with the coming snow!
A significant experience arose for us on Thursday, as we were on our way to Mysterious Forest. Students followed some interesting tracks that led us to an up close understanding and investigation of the life-cycle. We uncovered the story of a fox vs. rabbit battle scene, including a sacrificed rabbit, scavenger prints from crows, and happy solitary fox prints trotting across the newly frozen pond. Students were captivated by this experience and truly intrigued by the layers that could be unpacked from a successful, natural hunting experience. Students brainstormed that the fox (and other scavengers) gain food for themselves/their family; birds could use the remaining fur for nests; and overall we gained a deeper understanding of predator-prey relationships and population size. And although we mourned the rabbit, we thanked her for her sacrifice and remembered our significant “Blueberry” experience from 2 years ago, where after a discovering a similar scenario, a few weeks later we were graced with the presence of four little fox pups, allowing for a more thorough and deeper understanding of the life-cycle.
Friday we spent time adventuring out to our Riverside Camp Site and around the big pond, following tracks, and creating stories. We enjoyed creating challenges and working together (or competing) to gain our personal bests, and even had time to explore the buildings of our village.
Throughout the week we also celebrated Winter Solstice with the lightning of ice candles, looking into the science behind shortest day of the year and its significance, and learning about some traditions from different cultures (looking at the pomander, an oranges studded with cloves) and other stories from the past. This is a very important day of the year for us and marks a new beginning.
We closed our fall session by gathering in a fire ceremony and sharing our favourite memories and experiences together. What a fun and thoughtful way to kick off the holidays!
We wish everyone a wonderful holiday, filled with joy, family, friends, adventure and play! Thanks for taking part in this Fall Adventure with us and we look forward to seeing you in the Winter!
What a wonderful snowy bluebird week!! We are so thankful for all of the snow and had a blast building and creating our new snow village! All week students spent time building quinzees and mini igloos, connecting tunnels, fashioning snow seats and creating wind walls around our outdoor fire pit. It feels like a special snow community, especially knowing all of the hands and hard work that has gone into it’s creation!
Most days students were also very keen to check out the snow on fossil mountain and of course we just had to toboggan down! We had so much fun zipping down, working together to build jumps, and learning about snow cornices and avalanches!
Thanks to FST, we have added a new classroom set of snowshoes and spent some afternoons breaking trail and exploring animals tracks along the way. What a fun way to travel around!
A special thanks to two students who brought in sweet grass to start our morning smudge on Thursday!
Reminder:
Next week is our final week at FNS before the Christmas break! Our winter session resumes the week of Jan 8. There are still a few spots left to register. We look forward to seeing you this winter!
Thanks for checking into the blog this week. We spent time learning about animal tracks and were fully prepared to discover all of the new (and old) prints on our beautiful property. To understand tracks better, students focused on learning various parts of a print, how/what to measure to correctly identify it using a field guide and how to use the print information to tell us about what’s happening (stride, straddle, direction of travel). Is the animal galloping, pacing, or stalking? Are they conserving energy or doubling back on their tracks? Are they moving to and from specific places, like shelter, food or water?
Whether we heard animals rustling, saw tracks, scat or deer rubbings, felt chew marks or scratches on trees, or smelled (though not nearly as well as animals!) animals, we could use all of our senses to discover various large, medium and small signs of animals nearby. We soon learned that animal tracking is both a science and an art- it’s not just about the actual print; we also need to be aware and process the entire environment while tracking to get a complete sense of the story!
Tuesday saw us jump into the role of animals with a game of Survival to start us off. We then headed out and around Mysterious Forest, where we discovered a lot of coyote scat, and prints, rabbit signs, and different burrows. Tuesday even brought the addition of Frarles (or Fred/Charles) our lovable, crooked live Christmas tree. Students also got crafty with some homemade wreaths, decorations and other play dough figures.
On Wednesday, students decided to stay close to a water source and we were amazed by all of the activity! We were able to track prints, discover more scat, and even follow a trail of a coyote stalking a goose – feathers, bones and all! Students seemed incredibly understanding after discovering a loss like this, especially when we explored the topic of needing to survive and took a deeper look at the life cycle. We also ventured off site to do some stalking of our own with the community healthy kids GPS challenge!
On Thursday, with freshly fallen snow, students enjoyed seeing some fresh squirrel, chipmunk and rabbit tracks in between the trees. We even ventured to the far end of our property for the first time, all the way past the maple forest and sugar shack. We spent some quality time out there with newly invented student-led survival and camouflage games.
On Friday, students were keen to go to both the water source and Mysterious Forest on the hunt for more tracks! It was really fun to see them using the guidebooks independently and creating their own understanding about what unfolded (be it an epic battle scene or a squirrel dance party after finding a lost nut!) Tracking animal prints lets us explore outside, feel closer to nature and hone our creativity and imagination! We also had a special guest – Mrs. Simpson (Matt’s Mom) – who taught us some American Sign Language to go along with the creatures we discovered. Thanks Sandi!
A special thanks to our Thursday class as well for diving in to help set up part of our new amazing plans for the winter: a Prospector Tent, with a wonderful wood stove!!! We love how helpful and curious our Forest School students are and how keen they were to be involved in this new addition. Just in time too for our winter session!
Despite having some warm places, please remember to bring extra clothing. In particular, we consider boots, hats, mitts and neck warmers a mandatory part of our outer wear. When these inevitably get wet, we can dry them by the fire/heater and wear our extras in the meantime! Remember, with our freshly welcomed snow, always wear snow pants/jacket, with some good fleece and wick away layered clothing underneath.
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.
We certainly had an awesome time this week at FNS! We learned about wilderness travel and the important parts of a map (making our own treasure maps around the site), honed our compass skills and navigated an orienteering course that some students worked hard to create for us! This course eventually led us to our dear Fossil Mountain – where we examined some contour lines up close… with our toboggans!
We had quite the range of weather this week, allowing us to get our mitts deep into some fun and creative snow structures. We built some epic snow castles and GIANT snowballs, livened up the designs with food colouring, and even raced down hills in our home-made sleds, GT’s and crazy carpets! By Friday, we could feel the sun trying hard to melt our creations, sparking imagination from our learners as they transformed a quinzee to an exploding volcano. It was a blast all week and our students were well prepared and eager to play in the first steady snow week.
Our students are already learning a lot about what it takes to brave the Winter. They are getting their practice at making and sustaining fires in the Winter, being prepared with their own Winter gear (and know the importance of back-up mitts and boots), and are especially making sure we keep hydrated, even though it’s cold out! Big thanks to everyone who made our first snow week such a success!
Speaking of all of this snow, don’t forget to sign up for our winter session! Click here to register!
It was a great week here at Forest School and we had a lot of fun as teachers exploring new places and old favourites with our students. On Monday, we held a trial day to introduce new children to FNS. It was a great day full of sharing our special places at Bygone Days, hiking, playing, making shelters, fires and building with hand tools. Thanks to all those who came out, we had a blast!
Once a semester we like take a field trip to explore our local trails. We live in a beautiful area and believe that place-based education extends to our community as a whole. This week, we went to 4 different natural places with a goal to explore, have fun and learn a few things along the way.
Tuesday – Clendennan Dam
Located in Clarksburg, this place is a gem! After checking out the dam (and racing sticks over it) we headed along the trails. This hike offers a beautiful cedar forest, perfect for tree climbing as our students soon found out. The Chickadees set up camp and played around while the Snowy Owls headed further down the trail – trampled across bridges, along the cliffs, through the forest and finally out to the Beaver River. Along the way we saw lots of animal prints, fish and after lunch we were even treated with the discovery of a Beaver Dam.
Wednesday – Duncan (Bruce Trail)
The Collingwood and Heathcote FNS’s joined forces for this day as we stomped our way through some of the muddiest trails we’ve ever seen… and you probably already know this from the state of your child’s clothing. But muddy kids = happy kids, right?!
We hiked for a bit, down hills, across streams and up ladders over fences then chose a nice spot to hunker down for lunch. While there, unstructured time unfolded in various ways – building forts (which became zombie refuges), fairy cities with playgrounds and restaurants, and good old fashioned group games.
Thursday – Eleventh Line Trail
With the weather on Thursday our plans changed and we spent a good half of the day exploring and hiking around our own property. In the afternoon, we stayed a bit closer to home and had an awesome time splashing through puddles, navigating log balancing beams and searching for the perfect hiking stick. Oh, and again, avoiding the zombies on the Deer Trail of course! Kudos to these kids for braving (and embracing) the wild rain and snow!
Friday – Kolapore
Friday was a special day and with the awesome weather we were able to explore a really special place – Al’s Cave. Located close to Metcalfe Rock along a side trail, Al’s cave is home to a Geocache. After a crash course in Geocaching, students were given the GPS and led the way. After some twists and turns, and climbs and descents, we found our way and entered the cave. After a bit more looking we were able to locate the Geocache, swap prizes, write our name’s down and learn about Al and why this place is so important to us. When we returned to the school, students were so excited we continued our Geocache adventure and uncovered 3 more!
It was a really fun week, and we’d encourage you to explore these places with your kids! Let us know if you need anymore details to get there! Before we wrap up, we wanted to send out a BIG WELCOME to our new students this week and last. It’s exciting seeing our community growing!
A big thank you to all of the students who helped create our wonderful FNS float for the parade – it looked fabulous and was a great group project!
Next Week: Wild About Maps!!
Cheers,
The Forest School Team
(Matt, Kim and Tamara – and so many more!)
Wow – what a great week we had with our Project Theme! Students took this opportunity to let their imaginations run wild and built so many different types of projects, including pencil and candle holders, carving projects, crossbows, creative signs for new home décor, an ice fishing stand, a giant cat bed, a home-made fidget spinner, a windmill, a wooden race car, and even new doll clothes from repurposed fabric. Students worked together to build community projects too, including a new swing, a gold panning mine from slides, buckets, nets and pipes, a raft and sail boat, some toboggans and a pulling sled from old skis (which will sure be handy with this fresh white stuff)! Some students even created signs to highlight some of our favourite places on site (like our not-so-secret forts, various campsites and the new “Wal-Matt” wild edible store!
We had a blast working safely and respectfully with tools, sharing equipment and helping one another out with the various projects being constructed. It was extra fun to have a chance to use some projects immediately, like the toboggans, boats and fishing gear. We visited many different spots on the property this week, including Fossil Mountain, where we tobogganed down the Concrete Factory (sand-bogganing on Thursday; snow by Friday!), Riverside, Lakeside and “The Original” Campsites where we had many fires to warm us up. We also explored the other side of the pond, where we found our first ever red-spotted newt on-site!
Some projects that were constructed went beyond physical creations and focused more on community and teambuilding – continuing on previous play, some students focused their energy on continuing their wild edible store and sharing their delicious creations (including a hot soup this time!), some students spent time building forts together and establishing new and improved shelters. It was an awesome week and full of adventure and play.
Without a doubt, you’ve noticed the dip in weather –and while we welcome the snow and all the joy it brings – please remember to bundle up! Pack extras (hats, mitts, socks), wear layers (fleece is great!) under your snowsuit, and don’t forget a thick neck warmer too! It’s also a great idea to have some hot food or drinks at lunch – soups and teas or cider are great this time of year. A HUGE props to the Friday group’s parents for layering up their kids – nobody was ever too cold and we were able to dive in and enjoy our first snowfall of the year!
