Welcome to the Tuesday Chickadee group friends and family!
Had you been anywhere near Bygone Days you would have heard us calling enthusiastically to one another “chicka-dee-dee-dee!” all day long. We worked on our quiet fox feet as well, to make sure that we don’t surprise all the critters before we get a chance to observe them.
Discovering our mutual love for frogs, we headed to the pond to search for some. We met the Painted Turtles group there and helped them work on a frog sanctuary, and fine tuned our magnifying glass skills with some interesting fungi found on a log.
As the sun moved across the sky we headed to Maple Forest, with a special mission to create some nests for our new found “eggs” (golf balls). The chickadees keenly took on a caring roll for their egg, and we came up with a game where each chickadee built a nest to camouflage their egg from the “weasel”. One egg was camouflaged so well it is still in the forest!
The laughs were rolling and the questions were flowing, it was a great day to be a Chickadee! I am looking forward to the new discoveries we will have next Tuesday in the forest!
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.
We are filled with gratitude for the wonderful welcome into the Wasaga Beach community from our new friends and families. Our day was filled with little moments that took us by surprise (literal surprise!.. aka spotted touch me not flowers), and big moments that brought us all together to build relationships.
We are very proud to say that all of our students have amazing Owl eyes (excellent vision) and identified plants and creatures that our teachers even missed. Our students were so eager to share their findings with their fellow peers and were constantly asking “I wonder” questions, which as educators we love as we want to keep those inquisitive minds pondering. We worked on mapping, tracking and our karate moves when we walked through unknown spider webs.
A lot of our students were new to this forested area, which made for lots of hiking and exploration. We were really looking to the ground for what Mother Nature had to offer and we were not disappointed. Some of the finding our student made were: Monarch Butterflies, Yellow Bears (Caterpillars), Huge Dragonflies, Inch worms, Tree Frogs, Fire Ants, Mushrooms, Ferns, Trees, oh and did we mention Millipedes? These friendly little fellas were abundant today showing us their legs, body and how they protect themselves. Our students were even lucky enough to have some firsts and felt what it was like to hold one. As one student said “it feels very ticklish and feels super cool”.
We want to thank you to all the students for coming into the Forest with us and exploring, wandering, playing and sharing their stories, we are very lucky to have spent our day with such awesome students.
Come back each week to see what we have been up to!
What an amazing day to welcome new and familiar faces back to Forest School, and our Chickadees didn’t waste anytime getting back into the swing of things. We had a busy morning filled with games, running, building, obstacle courses, a very talented band, and our returning students even helped with our morning fire!
Jumping into our core routines (opening circle, sit spots), our Chickadees were constantly practicing their Deer ears (excelling listening), Owl eyes (excellent vision) and Fox feet (being super sneaky). These skills were used while we found an abundance of small creatures only found by those who believe in the magic of the woods! Some of the smaller friends we found were Caterpillars, Spiders, Worms, Fire Ants, A Preying-mantis and Grass Hoppers (great job to all of those who caught one, and showing us that their pee stains your hands – But with a little hand sanitizer, cleaned right up!).
While bugs were the highlight of our day, mother nature provided moments for us to relax and learn about her other offerings, such as Plantain, Goldenrod and Walnut Seeds. Coming close to the end of our day we ended with an amazing and very skillful game of soccer.
We had a day full of laughing, adventure, exploring and first times, and we couldn’t have asked for a better group of chickadees to share our day with!
Thanks for stopping by,
Emily and Krista and the FNS Team.
Check out some pictures below to see how our day went!
We are thrilled to be opening up our new school in Wasaga Beach at the Nordic Centre on Blueberry Trail Rd! This beautiful area is the perfect backdrop for our FNS program with tons of trails to explore and all the mysteries of the forest waiting to be discovered.
Last week, we had an Open house that drew a great crowd of folks to come a check out the space. Thanks to all the new students and families that had the chance to meet their teachers and explore the trails and the “wax hut” – our new classroom complete with wood stove! Speaking of teachers, in Wasaga this year we’ve got two excellent mentors: they are Krista, a long time FNS instructor in Collingwood, and Travis, who is brand new to our program but no stranger to the outdoors. Get to know them by checking out their bio’s here.
Check back here weekly to see what the students have been up to on their journey!
Our FIRST EVER Snowy Owl Over Night Trip was an incredible success! With us, ten adventurous Forest and Nature School students paddled the windy Nottawasaga River, cooked their own meals, filtered their own water, started their own matchless-fire and slept in tents with their friends under the stars – some for the very first time. We were up close and personal with all sorts of neat nature experiences – from bugs to MASSIVE bald eagle nests, beaver lodges, baby swans, impromptu 6ft-fern-covered portages, and much, much more! We swam in the river, shared stories and made some incredible new memories and new friends, too. It was an absolute privilege to be a part of the team that helped make this experience unfold and to witness some of the learned FNS skills come to life too – what a great kick-off to the summer!
We’re so grateful to the families that supported and trusted in this new and unforgettable experience! Kudos to the students for pushing their comfort zones and workings so hard while on trip! We had an absolute blast!!
A big thanks to Jim, our faithful Forest School Friend and nature expert, and all the Free Spirit Team who made this possible!
A little reminder that that Registration for our 2019/2020 School Year is LIVE. You can register here or email us and we’ll be happy to connect with you!
We had a busy last couple weeks, but here’s a quick recap of all the fun!
Chickadees
These littler folks (Ages 4-5) have been up to a bunch of wild adventures over the past season. Don’t let their smaller size fool you, they hike forever and can be hard to keep with, even for the teachers! From mud kitchens, to epic forts in “the Fort” (our student-built sanctuary) to fairy hunts and bird watching, there’s no stop to all the fun. Of special note over the past couple weeks, the Chickadees tried out canoeing on the big pond! For some of them it was the first time ever and they rocked it. We caught frogs and turtles along the way, and had so much fun the first time, we did it all over again the following week! Our Friday group also had the chance to use the Imagination Station (loose parts) courtesy Healthy Kids Community Challenge – a bug thanks to them! And another special thanks to our Blue Heron (leader-in-training), Claire, who helped us out so much over the year!
Trading Blanket
Parents of older students have no doubt heard all about this year’s trading blanket! So many amazing and spectacular items were created and found for the end of the year’s tradition. We had spoons, bowls, baskets, skulls, fire kits, spears, sculptures, animal teeth, carver objects, bow and arrows, plants, lilac sugar, homemade creams, maple syrup, artwork and so much more. We were inspired by the creativity we saw, and our Thursday students even wrote a new song to commemorate the ceremony!
A moment to look back
As we wrapped up the year, we took some time to remember all the wonderful (and challenging!) things we did over the year. We did this by creating individual flags with pictures, words, timelines, maps and more on them. We shared our favourite memories and then used natural tie-dyes to make the flags even more colourful. In the end, they were hung on ropes in Mysterious Forest like prayer flags full of our group memories that will hang there and be weathered for long time to come.
Swimming!
It just wouldn’t be the week of Summer Solstice without our annual dip in the pond! Students braved the cool (and seaweedy!) waters to mark the occasion and had blast swimming, paddleboarding and jumping of the giant lily pad!
A moment of Gratitude
Finally, we just wanted to say a big old Thanks to you, our FNS community. We can’t do what we do without your support. Thanks for trusting us with your most valuable beings. We’ve seen a lot of growth over the past year – both in the students and ourselves too!
We are excited about the growth of our programming too. This year saw an expansion of programming, Snowy Owl Overnight trip, our new Meaford program, and much more! We look forward to new endeavours and adventures come the Fall (including our Wasaga Beach expansion at Blueberry Trails and our new Saplings program!)
We hope to see you over the Summer, but if not have a great one and spend as much time as you can outside, quieting your mind and listening for the birds.
Hey Folks! We’ve been busy playing outside. Here’s a recap of the last few weeks!
Paddling
We love exploring our extended backyard and our older students ventured off on a field trip to the Beaver River. We had some amazing weather systems – both warm and wet! – that challenged us along the way. We learned about water/river safety, paddling skills and most importantly had fun connecting with our classmates on the water. Our oldest students had the chance to do some kayaking as well!
Climbing
Speaking of our amazing “backyard”, we also headed out to Metcalfe Rock for our annual Rock Climbing trip with our older groups. Students pushed their limits and reached for the skies as they ascended this ancient rock!
Birds
Bygone days continues to be alive with Birds and we’ve been treated to watching many different species of birds build their nests, defend their territories and raise little babies. As we tune in more to Bird Language, our world is opening up!
Homemade Glue
It’s easier (and stickier) than you think! Some folks had the opportunity to make homemade pine pitch glue (pine resin, beeswax and ground up coals) over the fire. We used it to make some pretty rad arrows and spears!
“Spirit Bear” (aka Bear Bear, AKA Cuddles)
We’ve got a new addition to our crew that you may have heard of. Earlier this Spring we were given a special Bear to take on our journeys and to catch and listen to all our stories. This was passed on by a friend (thanks Lori!) after she received it from a Cree Elder for work she has done with Indigenous youth. Spirit Bear has had a huge impact for some of our students and has paddled the Beaver River, climbed at Metcalfe and followed us just about everywhere. Our students have even outfitted him in complete rain suits on the wetter days!
Reptiles, Amphibians and More!
There’s maybe nothing in the world that gets the kids more excited than heading out net in hand to capture some critters. We’ve seen it all this year, from damselfly nymphs and water scorpions, to frogs, toads and turtles. We’ve even observed/caught a few new-to-us species on our property – spring peepers, gray tree frogs and snapping turtles!
Wild Edibles
As the Spring rolls on, we encounter more and more delicious wonders of the Forest. Stay tuned parents – we’ve got a workshop coming up for you that will help you chow down alongside your nature kids!
And of course, there’s so much more, but too much to sum up in a simple little blog.
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!
