Free Spirit Forest and Nature School

Nurturing Connection with Self, Others and Nature

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

More Photos:

Hibernate, migrate or keep active!

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Hi everyone!

Today was packed full of exploration, curiosity and new skills! With our focus on wilderness survival we decided to gear our day towards learning about our furry little friends and how they survive our harsh, Canadian winters. Our students decided to start their day by working towards a new bead – “starting a fire without a match”. What a great way to start our day. Thank you Lara for bringing in your show and tell item which also acted as a tool for our fire. This hand held flint and steel was a challenge for some but after lots of persistence and determination we were able to start our fire.

“This is the best fire I have ever seen” -Izzy

After reading the book “Over and Under the Snow” by Kate Messner our students had the opportunity to visit the back bush and search for evidence of our little friends living under the snow. We found animal prints, animal holes, tunnels and fur under the snow. We also had a lot of fun “skating” and dancing on the ice that was left over from the storm earlier this week. This activity touched on three elements for animal survival – Hibernation, Migration and Keeping Active!

Hibernation (also keeping warm) is a huge part of survival; it is also something we strive for every day at Forest School. One of our goals of the day was to get the kids to brainstorm and idea. How would they would keep a jar of water warm and from losing heat in the cold? The challenge was accepted by all! We spent some time pretending our jars were animals and the outer layers (rubber pads, cloth, bubble wrap) were the fur and fat. We buried our jars in snow and will check on them next week just like the wild we believe that some will survive and others will not.

We took a moment out of our day to act like birds for the “Amazing Bird Wilderness Survival Game”. We paired up and each team received a “Bird information card” which included information about their diet and habitat. Their goal was to migrate through this large scale board game while coming across man-made and natural obstacles such as high winds, oil spill, clean windows, BB guns and other predators. We started with 12 birds and only 6 survived.

With all of this talk about animal survival, we then spent some time discussing how we would survive in the winter. We started our first survival kit that we will continue to add to over this semester. We continued to improve on our shelter building skills and some of our students tried their hands at a new skill – the bow and drill. We learned it was harder than it looks and when it starts to smoke, it smells like marshmallows!

With all that was going on we still found time to learn yet another new skill from one of our students. Thank-you Dax for showing your fellow classmates how to make a “slip knot”, and all of our students were able to complete one knot after the demonstration. Congratulations for earning the Teaching bead!

What a day for stickers and beads! Our stickers included 10 Respect, 8 Wisdom and 1 Bravery, and our beads included 1 Teaching, 3 Fire, 10 Shelter and 1 show and tell. Congratulations to everyone!

Next week – Field Trip!

Have a great week

Neal and Krista

Our day was awesome!

Subnivean Cities

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Making our own Subnivean Zones

Hey Everyone,

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

More Photos:

Principal Jennie salting the driveway – thanks!

Who needs snow for snowshoes…

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Hi Friends!

Neal found a full fire extinguisher…or at least the kids thought it was full…it was empty, but the reactions were priceless!

We would like to welcome back all of our students to Free Spirit Forest School for the winter semester and we are happy to introduce one of our newest teachers; Neal!

This week was all about getting comfortable with outside travel. We took time to set our intentions for Forest School meaning, how we treat fellow classmates and things we want to let go of either personally or physically.

The lack of snow didn’t slow us down. We kept positive and made the best of our icy, winter wonderland! We are looking forward to the rest of our semester and all the adventure it will bring us through exploration and curiosity. The sky is the limit!

Forest School 2017 Class Photo

We welcome our new class of 2017! They are strong, hilarious, curious and a genuinely happy group of kids that we are excited to spend every Thursday with!

“The Earth Ship” is now our drop off and pick up location so we decided to start our day with a quick exploration around our new grounds. We found a wonderful moment when our students built their very first firepit. Many hands helped with this project and we couldn’t have had a better turn out! Through communication, working together and hard work our students built their first project together. Great job guys and gals!

One of our tasks of the day was to create our “Forest School Agreement” between students and teachers. It was wonderful to see all students participating in delivering what they want to get out of Forest School. We discussed respect (personal, other students boundries and our surroundings), listening (the difference between hearing and listening), communications and many many more. Check out what the kids came up with!

Our last adventure of the day was to gain the skills and knowledge to hunt down objects to create their own “emergency” snowshoes. We cut sticks, braided willow twigs, used ripped up t-shirts and twine. All of our students were able to create snowshoes that stayed afloat and held their body weight. We are super proud of all the hard work that went into their shoes and are excited to use them in further activities.

Dax showing off his “A” frame snowshoes

Congratulations to all our students who received their first of many respect stickers. Next week we are looking forward to giving away some beads! Keep up the good work everybody!

Next Week – Is all about wilderness survival! We will be looking at Food, Shelter and Fire…..we wonder what the kids think they will need to survive?

Thanks for checking in!

Neal and Krista

Continue to check out our day!

Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland…

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…with snowshoes!

Off to Maple Forest

Welcome back everyone to our Winter Semester at Free Spirit Forest School – and what a great kick-off we had! This week was all about getting comfortable and really enjoying the Snow – and evidently ice on Wednesday. Though buses were cancelled both days, that didn’t stop us from exploring. We built snow forts, went tobogganing, pretended to be animals lurking in the snow and much more.

After an epic snowshoe all the way to Maple Forest and back before lunch, we learned all about this important method of travel – its history, the different styles and their inspirations, and the many, many uses of a snowshoe. Did you know that snowshoes date back thousands of years? The students were put to test afterwards in teams by coming up with a design and developing their very own “emergency” snowshoes. With braided twigs, sheets of wood, torn jean strips, even a full shirt, each team’s idea differed, but in the end all kept their users afloat on the snow.

Emergency student-created snowshoe!

Congrats to our Bead Recipients this week – 1 Peer Support and 3 Show and Tell. We have sent home a list of beads (or click here to see it) that students can be working towards this semester.

Also, A HUGE THANKS to you, the parents, for your awesome layering and extra clothes – all students were warm and happy despite the weather!

Next Week:
We’ve planned a Winter Survival day, but this may be adapted depending on the amount of snow we get. Regardless, we’ll be exploring, playing with new friends and appreciating our green spaces!

Also, this week was a good wake-up call for us in implementing a Snow Day Procedure. We will be following the Simcoe County District School Board. If buses are cancelled, we still run. However, if it’s a full on Snow Day and everything is closed, we will adhere to that.

See you next week!

Matt and Kim

More Photos for you:

Snow Day?

You are as wonderful as a snowflake

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Our Fall 2016 Video!

Hey Everyone!

On our last day of Forest School this year, the students’ skills were put to the test with an Amazing Race. Just like in the show, the classes had to work their way through Team Challenges, Road Blocks (completed by one person) and Detours (choice between 2 activities) while earning materials (tinder, kindling, a pot, etc) along the way for their final challenge of the day.

The Amazing Race encompassed almost everything we’ve covered this semester. Various challenges, like the tarp flip, human knot and blindfolded hikes, showed us just how well these groups worked together as teams. The group dynamic here was quite powerful! Other activities challenged hard skills (knots, compass and GPS use, and fire building) while knowledge tests showed us just how much they’ve learned and retained this year. We even called on skills we haven’t learned here, like clues being translated from French!

No matter the challenge, they rose to it. Throw in some snowshoeing, tobogganing, “skating” on the pond, and cedar tea made over the fire (the Final Challenge) and we’ll call it a day well spent outside.

In the spirit of the day, we spent a good chunk of it debriefing the year and looking forward to the next aspects of Forest School. Students were reflective when filling out their report cards and gathered all their stuff (sticker boards, journals and medallions) to take home. As many of you know, we wrapped the day up with a gathering at the Earthship for some drinks and a movie (see above for the movie!)

A big, big thanks to you, the parents, for believing in what we are doing and trusting in us to accomplish this. We couldn’t do it without your constant support. It’s been a real pleasure teaching, learning and growing with your kids. We are loving the sense of community that is developing with this program and are eager to keep it going! See you in the New Year!

Next year:
-If your child or children are returning, please send them back with their journals and medallions so they can continue collecting new beads.

-While we will still be using the property at Bygone Days, we are excited to be calling the Earthship our home for the Winter Semester! (How incredible is it that our classroom is in an Earthship?!) Drop off and pick-up will be there (633 Sixth St) at the same times.

– Please note that we’ve put up a tentative schedule for the Winter Semester on our calendar.

Enjoy the Winter break! Have a happy and healthy holiday and Merry, Merry Christmas!

Kim and Matt

More Photos:

There’s snowhere I’d rather be

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Hey Folks,

We’ll do a breakdown by day this week, as the days seemed to unfold with some variance this week!

Tuesday
After our usual ceremonial start to the day, students were tasked with the challenge of setting up a tarp structure nearby – large enough to fit everyone in it and sturdy enough to weather the storm (ie. Matt with a bucket of snow). They’ve been learning about natural structures throughout the semester and had the opportunity to sew their previous knowledge together for this activity. Because of their incredible teamwork, creativity and resourcefulness, this was a huge success for our students.

Making a tarp shelter

Thanks to Mother Nature, snowshoeing is our new preferred form of locomotion when we are traveling around the land. So we ventured into the woods where we made char-cloth, practiced our flint and steel sparks, shared stories, contributed to our existing natural shelters, listened to a teaching bead about fire nests and simply enjoyed our first real snowfall at Forest School… all around our student-made fire!

Earning a teaching bead: teaches us how to make a fire nest to start the fire.

Wanting to warm ourselves up, we tapped into a local resource we have and used the Youth Centre space for lunch! What a great space to play low-organized games and take part in cooperative learning! Students also had a nice warm place to master some new knots that will be helpful moving forward! Some students were able to master multiple knots, including the bowline, double figure-eight, truckers-hitch, half-hitch, slip and more.

We finished our day off back at By Gone Days after another snowshoe out to our far campsite. Here we filled out fire-kits, recognized some peer appreciations and enjoyed some active play in our shelters. We just love seeing your children engage with one another outside using their incredible imaginations – some being waitresses using sheets of crisp snow, others spending snow-money to buy material for their nature-house, and others still just climbing and falling into the deep snow-covered ground.The benefits of child-initiated play are vast – including motor skill development, healthy social development and increased activity level. But sometimes, it’s as simple as hearing the giggles and laughs, and watching the creative play unfold. The way that they connect with one another and interact so fully with their environment surely shapes how they will see nature for the rest of their lives.

Wednesday
The students on Wed couldn’t wait to jump into the snow. They dropped off their packs, suited up with snowshoes and were off to take advantage of the fresh, untouched powder! After our usual morning routines (smudge and check-ins, done inside because of the weather!) the students were given the challenge of setting up a tarp they could all fit under. Because we’ve made numerous natural shelters already, this was the very last challenge in order to earn their shelter beads. With huge gusting winds and drifting snow, they sure did earn them!

As the winds picked up even more, we moved inside and practiced other hard skills. Students created their long-awaited fire kits (thanks for the jars everyone!) with birch bark, saw dust, candles, cattails and more. We created and tried using a bow drill. It was hard, tiring work but with the friction we were able to make smoke and we are confident that next time we’ll be able to start a fire from it.

working hard to catch a spark!

Students were also given the chance to earn their Knots bead today. The mission was to learn a Bowline knot – see if your child can recreate it at home! Some students were able to master other knots as well including the double figure-eight, truckers-hitch, half-hitch and more.

After lunch, a couple fantastic Craft Bead presentations, and some exploratory-time, the Sun finally came out and we were off to brave the conditions again. Students got on their snowshoes and off we went – straight into the wind! We cut across the field and found shelter in the trees. Once out of the wind, students built their own shelters and we finished the day gathered around a small fire.

Congrats to all Shelter and Knot bead recipients, as well a Travel Bead, Teaching Bead (for teaching compass skills), Nature Lover Bead, 2 Craft Beads, and some Reflection Beads!

Next Week:
Hard to believe it’s our final week of the Semester! We’ll be having some fun in a Winter Wonderland “Amazing Race” style challenge.

Afterwards, we invite every to our Final Celebration at Bygone Days farm is the weather is good and if it is freezing, windy and or snowy then we will host it at the Collingwood Earthship 633 Sixth street at 3:15 pm.

A big thanks to all the parents for having everyone dressed perfectly for the conditions this week! We’ve noticed that a scarf or neck warmer, second pair of gloves and extra socks would be a great addition to the winter clothing list.

Cheers,

Matt and Kim

More photos:

Follow Me!

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Hey Everyone,

Though tough for drivers, the snowstorm over the weekend was sure welcomed by us! It gave the perfect amount of time for local animals to run around and have their prints frozen in place for us to discover. As the temperatures warmed up, we were able to also see lots of tracks captured in the mud.

Tracking animals was our goal this week – and we were after much more than just footprints. Deer hair on trees, animal pee and, yes, even some coyote scat were all welcomed signs. We also used our ears to hear if animals were giving themselves away… turns out there is a lot of noise in silence.

Overall, we found a bunch of different animal tracks. Lots of white-tailed deer, some red foxes, rabbits, geese and other birds, and of course, Aden! He also gave us a first hand look at canine paws – toes, claws, dew-claws, and the heel. Some students even put their skills to use to track the teachers and find them!

On both days, and in different areas throughout Loree forests, the children were drawn to the hills and made impromptu slides with all the snow. It was magical to see the imagination, teamwork and good old fashion fun come to life.

Towards the end of the day, after completing Track ID 101, finding tracks, GPS tracking, and interpreting a picture of tracks by creating a story of what happened, the students had one more task to complete before receiving their Animal Tracking Beads: survive “Survival”. And they did. Congrats to all our new Tracking Bead recipients!

In addition to the Animal tracking beads, we gave out a record this week – 3 beads to one student, in one day! A couple of people received the Nature Lover Bead, other earned their Reflection Beads (for 15+ journal entries), a few creative Craft Beads were distributed, and a wonderful Teaching Bead on the origins of Popcorn. With only 2 weeks left, please encourage your children to finish up any bead work!

Next Week:
Shelters!!!

FRIENDLY REMINDERS:
Even though we are now into some Winter weather, we are still pretty comfortable at Bygone days. We plan to be outside as much as possible so please remember to send your children with layers… too many is better than not enough. At minimum your child needs a good warm toque and mittens/gloves, warm coat and snow pants, with a back up pair of splash pants. A back-up pair of gloves and hats would be good too. Remember – we are out exploring and sometimes that means snow, puddles, mud, etc. Thanks to everyone who is ensuring this – learning can’t happen when we are cold.

Our classroom is unheated and usually not much warmer than outside. On our end, we have:
A new Chiminea to have a fire going nearby
Small heaters to dry gloves
A kettle and tea (please send your child with a mug if they would like some; and it warms the hands!)
Extra gloves/hats just in case; and
For especially cold days, access to a warm space at the Youth Centre (though this is our last resort)

And one final thing! We’ve had some inquiries about Forest School for the winter semester. Just to clarify, some parents thought their children were going to be automatically enrolled in the winter semester which is not the case. If you want to enroll for the winter semester, you need to go to https://fsforestschool.com/register/. Or you can email Jennie Elmslie at freespirittours@hotmail.com . Spaces are beginning to fill up!

Challenge: Go out and explore this week with your child!

Thanks!
Matt and Kim

More photos:

Spoons and Mittens and Tire walls? Oh my.

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A close inspection of the bathroom wall in the Earthship

Hey Folks!

What better way to start our “Projects Day” than with a visit to one of Collingwood’s coolest projects – The Earthship. Aptly named because, like a spaceship or sailing ship, the Earthship gets everything it needs from the Earth and will be completely sustainable! This inspirational project taught us many things:

The potential of using recycled materials to build (ie. tires and bottles for walls)
Concepts around geothermal and passive heating
Creative ways for rain water collection
The significance of having a green house inside the house and a community garden out back.
The impact of volunteering – we heard that some students and their parents have worked on the Earthship too. We know that many hands make light work!

Maybe even most importantly, visiting the Earthship showed us the power of a dream come to life. A big thanks to “Principal” Matt for giving us a tour of his soon-to-be home and sharing with us the process of making his dream come true. Check out a recent article on it here or the website to volunteer and learn more.

Back at the school, we used this motivation to get into our own projects. After learning about our (fairly strict) guidelines, some students started a natural craft by beginning to carve wood into spoons. This project was a good lesson in visualizing, cultivating patience and taking things slow. We hope to have a finished project by the end of the semester!

Starting our spoons

Students also had the opportunity to tackle another big project using recycled material. They up-cycled an old fleece blanket into new mitten liners by hand sewing. Most students loved developing this new skill and made some pretty amazing mittens! We heard a lot of buzz about making these as Christmas gifts.

Homemade mitten liners

Throw in some slacklining, team building activities, and the beginnings of our fire-starter kits and we called it a day!

Congrats to our 2 Craft Beads and 1 Storytelling Bead recipients!

Next week:
Animal Tracking! We are off on a field trip to Loree Forest.

Cheers,
Matt and Kim

More pics for you:

If you never get lost, you never get found

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Hey Everyone, have you ever been lost?

This week we challenged our students to see how they would survive a night lost in the woods. The morning had us off to our old campsite to take some quiet space alone to reflect on what it would feel like to be lost – what would you be thinking? What would you do? What could you use around you to stay safe?

During our debrief around the fire, we uncovered that immediately your psychology and attitude are a huge aspect to dealing with a survival situation. We called this S.T.O.P. – Stop, Think, Observe and Plan.

We then dove into the 4 Core attributes to Survival which, on both days, students were able to brainstorm on their own through discussion. Shelter, Fire, Water, Food – and in that order. The most important thing is staying warm (which we had first-hand experience with this week – and thanks to you, the parents, for all the great layers you sent your kids with!)

We had a lot of fun putting the 4 Cores into practice and students realized that they already had a lot of the skills needed. We made fires, shelter and did some exploratory hiking (and even “Sand”boggoning on Wed). In teams, we played out a scenario involving a plane crash and prioritized 12 items we would need and why – there were no wrong answers, just a need to justify. Oh, and how could any Survival day be complete without a little Animal Survival game?

Congrats to our Peer Support Bead recipient, 2 Reflection Beads, 1 Craft Bead and an amazing Storytelling Bead!