We had another super busy day at Forest School and though our blog will be short it is full of sweetness! Mother Nature sure gave us a lot of rain this past weekend, so much that our property was over run by water! It was amazing to see what the water moved and brought into the property, water sure is powerful. This week at Forest School we planned on working on some existing and new projects, but instead we decided to venture out in to 3 stage which hosts hiking and biking trails.
This morning we worked on our green thumb and planted our first of 4 potato towers. Getting into pairs our students were eager to get their hands dirty to dig holes, plant potato seeds and hang out in the compost. Each tower has 4 potatoes and we are super excited to see there growth each week. We can’t wait for french fries!
We were also super lucky with the amazing weather today, and it makes everyone so excited for summer. This weeks hike took us to a brand new location for Forest School – 3 stage – located just outside of Gibraltar. Hiking deep into the woods gave our students the opportunity to remove any pent up energy, while finding new discoveries along the way. Everyone came across many familiar plants and noises, and while moving rocks to discover life underneath, we found our first salamander! Some of us hugged trees, became zen with yoga poses and played hide and seek. This was an amazing hike, and we hope that our students take their friends and families to explore this part of the Bruce Trail.
After we checked in on our 2 bird nests (with baby birds chirping away), there were lots of stickers earned and given out. Today we had our first Bingo bead, as well as 1 peer support, 4 litter less lunches, 1 story telling bead, 2 curiosity beads and 1 Al bead.
Next week – We will be buzzing around the topic of Bees.
This week the classes learned all about Ecosystems. After our core routines, we started off by coming up with a working definition of what Ecosystems are and how they connect all over the world. It was awesome to lean on the prior-knowledge of our students – we’ve got a clever bunch!
After our lessons, we threw on our scientist hat and headed for the field to make observations and record data. Our objective was to mark off a rectangular section of “ecosystem”, measure it and search for all living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things. The students jumped to the task with magnifying glasses in-hand and found some really cool things – robin eggs, insect eggs and nests, snails galore, mushrooms, and much more. After a “museum walk” to view everyone’s site, it was quite evident that there’s much more than meets the eye in a relatively small area.
After telling a legend, the afternoon had us exploring more ecosystems as we set out on a hike to the far edges of our property. More specifically, we were looking at the biodiversity between ecosystems, in the ecotones. It’s awesome what you can find when you slow down and take a look – the remains of a Northern Flicker, a Turkey nest, edible trout lilies, and that’s just to name a few.
You never know what you’re going to get at Forest School and different days saw many different things happen this week:
TuesdaY
Students were really engaged with ring toss yet again. They also got a chance to become the food chain in a serious rock, paper, scissors competition. This group was the first group to discover the remains of the Northern Flicker (and they chose to leave the beautiful feathers there for the other groups to see – yay LNT principles and nature lovers!). A big portion of them also started work on carving projects, and as always enjoyed some time in their sit spots.
Wednesday
A really cool thing happened on Wednesday – during our exploration one of the students noticed his magnifying glass warmed up his hand. And from there we naturally had to make a fire from it. So we tried and lo and behold, the char cloth caught quick. So we tried other materials – paper, birch bark, tree resin, wood – to see what would happen. We eventually were able to make a fire only using the sun!!!
During a game of camouflage, this group also accidentally (and quite literally) stumbled upon a turkey nest. The mama turkey flew off and we quickly left the area in hopes that she’ll return.
THURSDAY
Wow! What a hot day! So nice we even had to cool down in the spring, and had our first real day where we could take our shoes off this Spring. (And the lightning storms held off just for us!)
The students on Thursday jumped into the roles of Producers, Consumers and Decomposers for a better understanding of food chains. On a sadder note, we experienced this cycle first hand after discovering that our mallard nest was attacked by a hungry predator. We worked through these heavy feelings with the group and realized that this loss is an important part of the food chain. Soon after, we were treated when we discovered a healthy baby of another species – a snapping turtle!
Of course you may have noticed some stinky breath coming from your child after school this week… Tuesday we came across a Leek patch and of course the Wed and Thurs groups had to try!
Congrats to our bead recipients: 3 Leadership Beads, 2 Curiosity Bead, 3 Show and Tell, and 1 Craft bead (for homemade charcloth!)
Next week: Projects!!! We’re going to let our imaginations run wild.
This week at Forest School we looked at our Eco System, and tied in some fun games along the way! It also brought opportunities for new discoveries, and an activity we haven’t done since last September, frog hunting! After our morning routines, our day started with an intense football game to get our blood pumping. We also challenged our kids with food-chain games along with an Eco System freeze tag! We were so active enjoying the beautiful spring weather, and a little too clean – so we had to get a little dirty, or it just wouldn’t be Forest School.
Our main lesson of the day was to learn about our Consumers (Animals and Humans), Producers (Plants that grow from the ground), and Decomposers (Slugs, Snails and Worms). We tested our knowledge with a skill testing questions, a mix and match game, and though it came challenging for all at the end of the game, we all had a better understanding of each topic. With all the hard work we did, it paid off and we got a fun game out of it!
So while we were on our hike surrounded by tons of producers, looking for evidence of consumers (Racoon tracks, Beaver and Canadian Geese) and finding decomposers (Snails, Worms and centipedes) we spotted our FIRST Beaver of the season! We now have a better idea of who is chopping down all those trees! It was a beautiful day to relax and so we spent a large part of our afternoon working on our sit spots where we reflect, write in our journals and explore our 5 senses. Using the knowledge from our earlier lesson, we brainstormed examples of Consumers, Producers and Decomposers and used our imagination to write a story about their favourite animal along with a food chain associated with them.
With all of the beautiful sunshine and heat today, we were over joyed to see our first frog of the season as well, which lead into an impromptu frog hunt! Our kids didn’t lose any agility over the Winter to catch our little friends, and in total we caught 11 Frogs! All frogs went back home safe and sound. Along with this fun activity, we even had time at the end of the day to do some fishing. Unfortunately we didn’t catch anything this week, but we are looking forward to our next opportunity.
Our Morning Glory starting to sprout
This week was full of Wisdom stickers, Respect sticker and Love. Exciting news – we are getting close to some prizes! There was also 1 Al bead earned, 4 Litterless Lunch and 2 Show and Tell Beads.
Next Week – We are going to be looking into the fun and exciting world of Birds!
Today our kids were all prepared for rain clouds, and maybe even some thunder and lightning, but the Thunderbird (mythical bird who controls the weather) must have been sleeping because we got the complete opposite! Sun, light, wind and maybe a couple rain drops..Feww! So we headed off property and explored more of the Bruce Trail, along with a new hiking path that connects to Loree Forest.
But before we marched into a new landscape, we got a fun introduction into planting! The top picks were Kale, Spinach, Lavender, Peas and Morning Glory flowers. We also had fun exploring our compost area (for soil), and who knew so much life was happening in the dirt! We found so many decomposers (snails, worms, millipedes and spiders). We will update on how our first attempt on our plants are growing!
We have to give credit to all our students for hiking ALL day through the overcast, sun and the heat. Everyone kept such a positive attitude, and supported each other along the way. We couldn’t have been more proud! With our kids exploring a new area these are just a few of the topics that brought discussion.
Hundreds of Trout Lily leaves (too early for the flower)
Escaping sap on a tree (great for fires)
Wild leeks (taste and smell so good)
Wild mushrooms (did not eat)
Hiking sticks
Fungi and Moss
Different types of rocks
Mud puddles (yup we got dirty)
Deciphering trees among many more!
There were many earned beads and stickers today, as well with some students getting pretty close to getting a Bingo Bead! We also caught up on some missed beads from last week. 10 Respect stickers, 2 Peer Support Beads, 1 Bravery Bead, 4 Show and Tell Beads, 2 Litter Less Lunch Beads and 1 very special Al Bead – for kindness, love and support.
Next Week – We are going to look at the relationship between plants and animals! Ecosystems here we come!
Side note – We actually hit 10,000 steps or more today! Our little legs worked hard.
“Creativity is contagious, pass it on” – Albert Einstein
This week at Forest school, it was a student-led emergent day full of creativity. It was amazing to watch how the day unfolded through team-building activities that strived towards working together, communication and memory.
Our students worked both individually and together to construct a masterpiece of art from natural products as well as with man-made materials. Did I mention there was a lot of mud involved?
This was a great day for our kids to be as creative as they could!
Check it out!
The fog was amazing this morning and while we were sitting quietly across from the Beaver River, we spotted a Blue Heron hunting for his breakfast.
We hunted down our natural paint brushes, paint (wild grapes, blueberries, and crab apples) and objects to stick onto our artwork (leaves, cedar scales and grass).
One of our team-building activities was the create our favourite animals out of pipe cleaners. Some of our creations were a Wolf, Thunderbird, Salamander and Octopus.
Another activity that was completed was “The Maze”. Communication and memory was the name of the game!
Our students creating their art with natural paint brushes, mud, rocks, wood cookies and cold ash from the fire pit.
“The Village”. This was created by all students and everyone had their job. Some students worked on concrete (water and mud), digging holes, building homes and roping off future development.
Some of the artwork our students created today!
Today was an amazing muddy day full of adventure and creativity.
Great job Taven and Jack for starting their first fire without any help! What amazing stories we had around the fire as well, so make sure you ask your child what story they told. This meant we gave away our first Storytelling beads! Great job everyone!
Next Week – We are going to be looking into Environmental Science.
Some wise words from Dr. Seuss which led to a lengthy discussion this week, after a reading and a dramatic interpretation of “The Lorax”. It was the perfect story to build our day around: Trees, trees and more trees. And what better way to start than a look how trees work, followed by our favourite game: Sappy, Sappy?
After our smudge and morning circle, each student adopted a tree in their sit spots by identifying it using a field guide, drawing and naming it, getting to know its leaves and bark and finding out an interesting fact about it. Did you know that Willows originated in China? That Ash is a preferred wood for bats and hockey sticks? That Sumac can be used to make a drink similar to lemonade? Neither did all of us! Afterwards, as a group we identified (and gave medallions to) a whole bunch of different tree species just outside our schoolhouse doors – Pines, Ashes, Aspens, Beeches, Cherries and much more.
The afternoon had us go on an epic exploratory hike to a new section of forest. The students were able to put their knowledge to the test and identify many species along the way (“Looks like elephant legs, that’s a beech!”; “Round needles and looks like a Christmas tree – white spruce!”). We ended near our sugar shack where we took a few minutes to do some yoga (Tues.), be tree “huggers” (blindfolded and using other senses to identify a tree) and create “murder mysteries” by uncovering (and imagining) what happened to some felled trees and how old they were at the time (Tues.).
At the end of the day, we had a fire and boiled some Cedar Tea (packed full of vitamin C – click here for recipe) with a little maple syrup from last year’s harvest of our Maple stand. The students enjoyed this simple treat while students told stories to earn their storytelling bead (3 in total!).
We also gave out 4 Nature Lover beads over the two days! Congrats!
Next Week:
The eagerly anticipated FIRE week!
Did you know that 3 beads can be prepared at home?
Storytelling – students prepare a legend/story/poem to be read at a fire Teaching – your child will teach the other students something they are passionate about – for example we’ve had students teach about origami, composting, and birds – this can be something simple and anything at all! Craft – anything creative and homemade that uses natural/recycled materials. Just have your child bring it in and present it to us!
As the days are getting colder please remember to layer up!
Cheers,
Another fun-filled week of productive play and learning at Forest School, with a special contribution from Collingwood’s Healthy Kids Community Challenge who brought us their mobile Imagination Playground. We spent a solid portion of our day working collaboratively using the block-based system to build, smash and recreate various castles, towers, bird’s eye views of small villages, buildings, cars, waterfalls – you name it! Your children unleashed their creativity to manipulate the foam blocks and noodles to modify existing target games – like baseball, horseshoe and other tossing games. They collectively built a large creative structure for lunch (with a moat all around us too one day). They met our team building “bobsled initiative” by working together to move a ball across the field using the “pipes”. And they enjoyed the social aspect of hands-on productive playtime. Keep your eyes open in parks and green spaces near your neighbourhood as the HKCC has dates booked in June to visit local parks with their mobile playground to encourage fun, active play outside – and it’s FREE! For more information, check them out here.
More exciting news for Forest School: Thanks to Free Spirit Gardens, we now have our very own raised veggie bed! We drew on our previous knowledge about species competition, plant needs and wants, and appropriate spacing. We measured, marked and planted multiple tomato and pepper seedlings! It was fun getting our hands dirty to grow our own food!
In the afternoon, we spent our day learning about all things related to maps and orienteering – Cardinal Directions, parts of a compass, how to travel. Using various hard copies of maps, we identified key components of maps (title, legend, directions, scale), then updated our Snowy Owl and Red Tail map of the property. Shortly after (on Wednesday), we ventured to our sit spots to create a bird’s eye map of their own area (Thursday they made classroom maps due to weather). If your child is asking for a needle, cork, and magnet, they are likely referring to the craft we made today to demonstrate how magnetic North works. Did you know you can make your own?
To earn our new Travel Bead (white), students were required to successfully navigate an orienteering course created on the property – all students were able to independently travel between points using their newly honed compass skills! Quite impressive! This hard skill will be of extra importance as we approach our culminating activity for our final day at Forest School (last week of June).
In addition to the Travel Beads earned this week, two students earned their Peer Support Bead – a very special bead designed to represent the consistent awareness and curiosity of others, empathy, and general support of one another through meaningful friendship and play! A very significant bead at Forest School. Congratulations!
As weather continues to warm up, a friendly reminder to bring lots of water, a sun hat, sunscreen – and even a change of clothes, swimsuit and a towel! We will soon be selling Forest School T-Shirts for those who are interested! ($10.00). Lastly, please remember to bring in your parent/student feedback forms, if you haven’t already. We would really love to hear from you!
