Hey Folks!

We had a fun (and wet!) week at FNS in Collingwood!  We got our first real taste of chillier weather this week and greeted it with open arms – we even had the fire in our hot tent going to keep us nice and warm!

Students this week continued diving deeper into our core teachings, specifically Bird Language.   We learned all about the different ways birds communicate and how to tap into what they are saying.  We spent quiet time deeply listening in our sit spots, practiced our fox feet to minimize our sound wake and even presented skits made up about the different types of bird calls.  Our particular favourite was the “Juvenile Calling” skits – we’ve got some really good actors!

One of our favourite memories this week (and most spontaneous) was “FNS Court” with the Teachers as the judges.  The students asked us to play Crow’s Nest – a favourite invented by them.  We asked them to justify why they should play.  They took this quite seriously and grabbed the field guides, presented well thought out arguments and even changed one key player in the game (the weasels) to Otters because it “just made more sense after the research”.  (We can’t plan this stuff – and hence why we love our emergent curriculum!)

We also took a deeper look at tracking this week and were not disappointed.  Using a 5W approach we uncovered story after story of the animals we share our spaces with.   This meant looking closely at tracks, fur, and a higher than usual amount of dead creatures including a chipmunk, muskrat and goose.  In these sometimes hard moments, it’s incredible to watch the care and love from our students as they create funeral ceremonies, complete with speeches and songs.

On Friday, we also finished up an ongoing project.  On week one, we gathered Jewelweed (good for everything, but famous for fighting poison ivy) and Goldenrod (good for aches) to infuse in oil.  After a few weeks of sitting on the windowsill, it was ready to go.  We heated up some beeswax, added shea butter and the oils to make a cream concoction the students called “Golden Jewel”.

Otherwise we were up to the usual – rescuing snakes and frogs from the well, creating new “secret” (and not-so-secret) group spots and forts,  building fires, haiku poems, journaling, dehydrating and bagging lemon balm for tea, tracking bleeding geese, playing animal form games and the millions of other little things that happen that are too many to list.

Cheers,

Matt, Krista and Emily

Hey Folks!

What a welcomed blast of warm weather this week – though the chilly mornings are a reminder that Winter is on its way.  This week we noticed a lot of Fall changes occurring at the Collingwood School – leaves changing, birds migrating, flowers beginning to wilt (especially the goldenrod!) and each and every day, the overabundance of Woolly Bear Caterpillars.  So many in fact that our new address for one of our winter prospector tents is “45 Woolly Bear Dr.”, indicating the amount of caterpillars caught in one area!  We had Woolly Bear Races, Olympics, Towns and Schools created throughout the week (sidebar: pretty interesting as teachers to watch this unfold independently each day this week without prompt.)

Which got us thinking: why are there so many this year?  Or have we not noticed them before?  With some student research we found that the Woolly Bear is a fascinating creature.  We dove in to our field guides to uncover all the mysteries of this cuddly creature – and we weren’t disappointed:

-We learned it turns into an Isabella tiger moth and can live up to 14 years!
-We discovered that some hatch in Fall, and then FREEZE over the winter.
-We found out first hand they play possum and curl up when scared (unfortunately for some of our racers).
-We learned they eat pretty much any plant.
-And in folklore, that the relative amounts of brown and black hair can predict how harsh the Winter will be (though scientifically this has been debunked and actually is due to age and moisture.)

Of course throw in journaling, sit spots, Wolf Pack (a great Animal Forms game!), blindfolded navigation, barefoot hikes, clay factories, setting up the Prospector Tent (Thanks Tuesday Snowy Owls!), quieting the mind, chickadees up close and personal, carving, fire-making, fresh goldenrod tea and tea bag prep for Winter, climbing trees, community building and more, and it was full week!

Cheers,

Matt, Emily, and Krista

Hey Folks!

Our Fall field trip this year was back to beautiful Metcalfe Rock for some climbing and caving where our Collingwood school also got to meet our sister schools from Meaford and Wasaga Beach.  As if hiking through ancient cedar forests, drinking water straight from the Earth and exploring and playing at this magical place weren’t epic enough, students challenged themselves with Rock Climbing and Caving through the ancient limestone rock.  We stood alongside and watched comfort zones being pushed, nerves being tested and the inevitable huge smiles of pride that followed.   We’ll keep it short this week and let the pictures below speak for themselves!

There’s a reason we return year after year!

Matt, Krista and Emily