Imagine being a baby squirrel and accidentally falling out of your drey (tree squirrel nest). Now imagine being an eagle flying over the forest and with your keen eye, you see an unprotected meal right for the taking? Our students looked at this scenario from both perspectives today and while some thought playing the squirrel was stressful others realized playing the predator was also tricky, and not as easy as some might think.
As much as we love the rain, we were lucky enough to see some sun finally! Some students revisited our colour walk from last week and talked about the magic of change and the gifts Mother Nature provide us with. We found some pretty magical leaves and recreated them on our magical flags and wands. We also revisited our “nests” again to see if their nature offering were taken. We worked as a team this afternoon and collected an enormous amount of acorns, and we mean enormous – our educated guess was roughly around 600 total, who knew this nut was so popular!
Our older students ventured into the forest today and discovered a family of salamanders, forest wands, building bio-domes, and even had some time time to start working on their carving skills. What an incredibly busy day that flew by! Until next week friends.
This week our chickadees jumped right into action playing games, digging for treasures and discovering a hidden gem just outside our classroom – a chestnut tree! This brought so much interest from why does the seed pod have spikes?, What’s inside?, What animals eat this and how do we open it up? This gave our students the opportunity crack open their findings and take their seed home to plant their very own chestnut tree! We even gave our little chipmunks the chance to act out their animal and scurry to find all the hidden chestnuts and bring them back to their den before the Prey (Fox and Honey Badger) could catch them! Well done everyone.
Our afternoon was filled with so much imagination which was surrounded by finding the wild wolf that was let loose in Bygone Days along with fort building, tree identification, bracelets and necklaces, fire bundles, mud construction and a very popular Wooly Bear Hotel. Everyone was so thoughtful making sure these caterpillars were safe, had lots of food, bedding, shelter and even a tanning room.
Due to Thanksgiving falling on a Monday this year, everyone at Forest School wishes all our students and families and very happy and safe Thanksgiving! We will see you all in two weeks!
Worms and insects are out. Turtles and Frogs are sunbathing. Birds are singing and making nests. Spring is here and here’s the recap of our week, enjoy!
Tuesday
With emergent interests at the forefront, we were a little all over the place on Tuesday with an overarching theme of Spring – though it felt more like Summer! We began our day with some of our core routines and games, then jumped into plant ID. We set the stage – 8 mystery plants that need to be identified and limited time periods to peek at the master copy! Students did an excellent job of uncovering and naming various plants using just small pieces of them including clover, willow, dogwood and more.
Afterwards, we had to take advantage of the warm sun and headed out on an adventure, nets in hand just in case. We played around the big lake, dammed up our stream, climbed fossil mountain and found and caught an incredible amount of critters! Frogs, tadpoles, a blind fish, some green eggs and 2 Giant Water Bugs aka Lethocerus americanus. In addition, we found a kill site from what we guessed was last fall, and tried to unravel the mystery of what occurred.
In the afternoon, we got crafty and did some painting and made “seed” bombs. Seed bombs (clay, soil and seeds) are meant to be tossed anywhere and make flowers grow. Let us know how yours do! We finished up with a teambuilding initiative – choose the right path – and before we knew our day had flown by!
Wednesday
Similar to Tuesday, our Wednesday group was excited about searching for water creatures – and determined to find a Giant Water Bug. After a thrilling “Ring Toss” Tournament, we were on our way to the West side of the big pond in hopes of capturing some critters. We were able to snag some striders, a tadpole and frog pretty quickly, but as the rain began to roll in our hopes dwindled on catching a Giant Water Bug – until at nearly the last moment, a log was moved and we got one!
We decided to head back as the rain picked up, and along the way were treated to a nesting Morning Dove in a cedar. A big props to the student with the keen eyes! On our way to get dry however, the rain stopped (as was our day: rain, sun, rain, sun) so we stopped too to spend some quality time at our sit spots. It wasn’t long until students were drawn to a huge puddle – a bridge went up, frogs eggs were spotted and inevitably shoes came off to squish in the clay.
After lunch – and a quick thunderstorm that sent us inside for a bit – we dove into a teambuilding initiative (island hopping) and students did extremely well coming through with the fastest time to date!
After our story of the day (debrief) it was to say adieu for another week.
Thursday
The rain didn’t slow us down on Thursday as we lit ourselves a nice big fire to dry off and stay warm. In fact the wet weather actually inspired us to get building on our shelters in our it spots. And who can resist a giant puddle full of clay? And hundreds of striders – so much that our students shoveled out a section, built some walls and created a strider sanctuary. Some students even took on the initiative of building a tee-“pea”: a living garden structure designed to grow peas and provide shelter!
In the afternoon we ventured west with nets in hand. With the cold weather, we were sort of surprised to find a turtle out on shore, but happy nonetheless. And while we didn’t spot any giant water bugs, we did get up close and personal with a mama morning dove sitting on her nest in a cedar. As we ventured more, we uncovered tons of fossils, found that the bank swallows have returned to Fossil Mountain and followed some fresh deer tracks.
On days like this, we’re reminded that rain is a good thing as flowers are starting to bloom!
Friday
The morning clouds gave us a heads up – take advantage of the sun because we’d likely have rain later.
Our students set the stage today when they imagined a mini jungle life playing itself out in the grass – think “Honey I Shrunk the Kids”. Therefore after doing some core routines (smudge, animal forms, quiet time) we headed out to our Sit Spots to play, build and get up close a personal with bugs. Specifically we built a bug hotel! Complete with pine cone rooms, sumac rooms, bark rooms, and mud rooms. Holes were drilled in locks, mini hammocks were made and even a pool was put in for the striders. It turned into more of a 5-star bug resort, and students eagerly sought out bugs to add to it. Worms, Potato Bugs, Striders, Centipedes and even a Wooly Bear caterpillar (named Crawly) all checked in. With lunch looming, we headed back, just in time for the torrential downpour.
The sun made it’s return shortly after, and we continued with our bug theme shifting our focus to bees. After some students made some beeswax chap stick to take home, we chatted about threats to the bee population and the ramifications it could have. We explored pesticide use, habitat loss and other critical issues. And then we dove into the roles of bees in a macro-model we call “Bee-Safe” where bees must retrieve pollen without getting tagged by some of the “threats”.
After a final barefoot walk through the gigantic puddle, we called it a day. Happy May the 4th Star Wars fans!
Well did we ever get hit by Winter again this week! We dawned our creative caps and here’s our recap below:
TUesday
After our core routines (smudge, check-ins and sit spots) we took a deep dive into the world of shelters on Tuesday in hopes of mastering this bush craft. We learned about the fundamentals of three important natural shelters: Lean-to’s, Debris Shelters and Teepees. After snack, we made our way to Grape Valley, in Maple Forest. Students divided into to teams and erected two awesome shelters – one huge debris shelter and the other a “Derbris-to”, which is a newly named hybrid. We added a bridge across the river by upcycling a used pallet all in an effort to create our new little community in the woods. We had some fun on the natural grape swing before heading back for (a late!) lunch. After some Forest School Idol, we ended our day with some unstructured play and reflection time.
Wednesday
What a wicked blizzard we had a Bygone Days! We braved the gusting winds, but were forced to stay pretty close to the Schoolhouse throughout the day. After our core routines and sit spots, we jumped into designing crafts and making our visions come to life. Many students felt drawn to planting seeds and came up with creative ways to give them a jump-start in life. We made a bunch of self-waterers out of old pop bottles and string, and also elaborate irrigation systems of pipes and containers. We saw many different greenhouse blueprints come to life as we learned about the effects a greenhouse can have on a plant (and the planet). Don’t be surprised if your child came home and immediately put their concoction in a south-facing window to maximize the sun’s energy – our student’s way of bringing a little sunshine to a very cloudy day!
We saw lots of other projects come to life to as we were really only limited by our imaginations. Clay pots and gravy boats, carved hammers, painted tiles and wood and so much more.
We wrapped up the day with flying kites, making make-shift tarp shelters in the wind and a team-building challenge.
Thursday
After our core routines students dove into some fun using materials from the classroom and nature. We saw some incredible things:
Water devices created with recycled bottles and pool noodles
Golf clubs that attach to arms
Shakers that also snow
Carved spoons, guitars and so much more
Pompoms from scratch
Fidget beads and sword holders
Self-watering plants
and much more!
After lunch, we headed out to our “Original” Campsite for a bonfire, some quiet reflection time in the woods along with a story, and some creative play. Minus a sudden darkening of the skies and a 10 min snowstorm, we had glorious weather all day!
Friday
On Friday we ventured out to the little known Grape Valley after a lesson on shelter building. Students added their special forts to our growing campground community out there. We installed new shelters, a new bridge, began a rock wall and even discovered a huge old tree that turned into a “hotel”. It’s a stunning tree on a hillside, so a simple step up on the North side (to essentially a natural platform) gets you 15ft up on the South side – an instant favourite!
And then a nice, light snow began and we decided to slow things down. We gathered round the fire pit, read a story about quiet places, and took some solo time reflecting in the silence of the woods. Upon return, we uncovered there’s a lot of noise in silence.
After lunch, we headed out to sit spots where the “Sumac Store” was opened carrying a variety of products – most notably Sumac Popcorn for the Forest School Idol competition. And while the teachers were yanked off the stage, good times were had by all. We also had some students work hard against the snow to earn their Fire Keeper beads by lighting a fire using flint and steel. Congrats!
Next Week:
Monday – welcome back Chickadees after a week off! We are at the school.
Tues-Thurs – FIELD TRIP! We are going on various hikes and will be gone for most of the day. Please ensure you child brings a backpack!
Friday – Natural Art at Bygone Days!
Happy Solstice! After our core routines this week and a brainstorm on teamwork, our days differed immensely in what student-interests led us to. We book-ended all days with sage and sit spots in the morning, and a fire at the end, but otherwise they were so unique, let’s sum them up separately.
TUESDAY
We had some eager helpers on Tuesday and started off by weeding the garden and planting some tomato plants in anticipation of our Fall Harvest next school year. The majority of our day was spent “farming” and building gardens in our sit spots, developing clay factories (which turned into clay all over the place!), and harvesting wild edibles to eat in a salad. Some lucky adventurers even gathered some wild strawberries!
Students also built a brand new fire pit, complete with rock ring which we used for our end of the day fire. Despite the rain (or maybe because of?…), we still had a great time. After a game of Capture the Flag, we even had time to hang our homemade bat house SW facing high in Willow Tree… we’ll see if anything moves in!
(PS – since we were on a camp trip, we didn’t have time to put up photos for Tuesday’s canoeing last week, so if you scroll to the very bottom, you’ll find some there.)
Wednesday
Our Wednesday class dove into what they love best – catching aquatic creatures and manipulating the movement of water with waterfalls, rapids and dug out riverbeds. Everyone had a job in this project – digger, dammer, dumper and more. And what a lucky day we had with the discovery of many 4+ leaf clovers!!!
We headed out to our sit spots, and student-interest kept us there for most of the morning. Like Tuesday, we saw students dive into the clay market (quite literally!) and create a whole bunch of infrastructure and objectives. Others could be found trying their luck at fishing (no bites this time), collecting ample amounts of wild strawberries, transplanting wild edibles into their personal gardens, and carving cutlery from wood.
Another reoccurring theme throughout the day was ants and their colonies and nests. We had a lengthy and great debate about whether or not to capture some ants and create our own ants in a jar – and in the end, everyone agreed that we should leave these fellas be. Later in the day the students even created an epic ant home (or mansion) and the Painted Turtle group sit spot! And speaking of which, this area had quite the facelift with everyone pitching in to create a new reading circle with stumps and boards, and cleaning all the garbage along the way.
A big thanks to our volunteer parent, Jamila, who lent some helping hands of her own today!
Thursday
The pond, as usual, was a huge hit on Thursday and we were able to identify new species of critters that lurked under the leaves. After our check-ins (and by popular demand) we played some team games including our favourite, Survival, where students learned that it’s not just humans who work together and lend a helping hand. Afterwards (when the rain came briefly), we laid out and drew up plans for a future “Nature” playground that we want to develop at the site! Students came up with some really practical, feasible and awesome ideas! We hope to put some of them in place in the near future.
Before embarking on our afternoon, we held an impromptu funeral for “Max” the toad, a poor fella we came across today. This was topped off with a great rendition of Mary Had a Little Lamb on the the recorder, played by one of our students. Throughout the day we visited some new places, including the reading circle created by Wed’s group and the fire pit created by Tues’ group, where student’s created their very own imaginative stories to share with each other around the fire.
Alas, some sad news – we say goodbye to Krista this week as she won’t be here next week! A HUGE THANKS for all you do for the students and the program!
Congrats to our Beads Recipients: 2 Tracking beads, a handful of Sit Spot bead, 2 Colouring beads, 2 Curiosity bead, 2 Music beads, 3 Littlerless Lunch beads, and 4 storytelling beads!
Next Week: Hard to believe it’s the last day of the year! We’d like to invite all families to our final wrap-up at 3:15 pm at Bygone Days. It will take about 20 minutes.
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.
Can you believe it? 6 weeks left until we are done our first semester, how time flies! We couldn’t have asked for better weather today, and with the excitement of snow we decided to focus on Environmental Science.
Today brought a mix of physical exercise, visualization games, student creations and discussions. Throughout our day we discussed two types for pollution (natural and human), two types of energy (renewable and non-renewable), as well with how we as individuals can save the planet. We also started the David Suzuki Superhero challenge with one of the activities called the right to a healthy environment. If you would like more information about this challenge, check out their website at www.getbackoutside.ca
Check out how our day went below.
After our smudge ceremony we started the day with an “X and O” relay race. The teams were “The Dragons” on the left, and “The Hunters” on the right. After 5 races it was still a tie game…until later in the day when the dragons took the lead.
This morning Taven brought to school a box full of special things. This included a Peacock feather, an arrow head, a crystal, a shark tooth, a shotgun shell and a magnifying glass. The students loved it so much that next week we are going to have more show and tell!
After discussions about renewable energy sources, we took time to create our own windmills. They even worked in the wind!
The David Suzuki Superhero challenge was a great way to visualize and discuss the right to a healthy environment. Our students had to think of 5 things that can help protect our environment. We came up with great suggestions from don’t waste water, don’t litter, don’t cut down trees, ride a bike and eat all your food.
Free play is great for our students to burn off that energy, work on their social skills and have fun! We somehow ended up in rain barrels and took turns rolling each other around the garden. No one got sick.
Our afternoon was filled with fire skills, and creating our very first bio-dome! The kids had the choice of planting Kale or the flower Morning Glory. The great thing about this bio-dome? It waters itself and looks pretty cool!
Things you will need to build your own bio-dome:
2 recycled plastic bottles
1 string
Tape
Dirt
Water
Seeds
We took advantage of the sun and debriefed about our day, congrats to all our sticker earners (6 Wisdom, 6 Respect)!
Reminder: Due to the colder weather, please remember to bring extra clothes to layer up!
Next Week: Is all about Mapping and Travel. I wonder where that will take us…
What an interesting and incredible sight to arrive to on Tuesday at Forest School. Seems the storm left a bit of damage on our area with willows, aspens and more knocked over across the property. Luckily, they fell in good places and no one was hurt, or major damage done.
The students had a blast with the debris though! We jumped in to help clean up the mess and made a massive pile of downed branches and leaves, which later turn into a fort, and then, later still, turned into a full on shelter–make the best of a bad situation! (A really good moment for us as teachers was when the students were handing us branches and telling us the type of tree it was without any prompting–some things did stick from our tree lesson last week!)
We eventually began our day as planned with fire! Our first task was a lesson on the needs of fire (oxygen, heat and fuel) and different kinds of fuel (tinder, kindling and bigger wood). After learning the basics it was time to put it into practice at our fire pit. Of course when we arrived, a tree had fallen over it!
After the clean-up, we talked about different styles of fires, fire safety and LNT principles. We then went over the steps to build a tee-pee fire. With the help of everyone we got it going fairly quickly and had some storytellers tell some stories to earn their beads. This culminated in a “test” at the end of the day where Snowy Owls were paired up with Painted Turtles and given the task to prepare and create a fire. Students could also visit the “store” and if they answered a fire related question, were given special materials such as birch bark, wood shavings and more. Everyone was able to do it (even with some hard winds on Tuesday!) and earned their Fire Beads. Congrats! They did so well in fact we had time leftover for a huge game of Capture the “Fire” (Flag).
We also found time this week to head out to Curries Farm Market and pick out a pumpkin for each group. We carved out the pumpkins together and saved some seeds to fry up and put in our seed library for the spring.
Congrats to all our bead earners (22 Fire Beads, 4 Storytelling), and a very special congrats to our first Leadership Bead earned!
Next Week:
FIELD TRIP! Dress warm and in layers because we are going into the caves and learning all about Natural Landscapes at Metclafe Rock. Gloves would be a good idea, too!
We are also planning to have a bit of a Halloween Day the week of Halloween (Nov 1 and 2). We invite the students to don their costumes one more time if they’d like!
We had another fun week at Forest School, with two unique days unfolding. We’ll start with the similarities.
Our focus this week was on seeds and plants, so we spent a bit of time in the classroom. In a nutshell, the students learned and recorded the life cycle of a plant (sunflower) in their journals, reviewed what plants need to survive and then dissected a soaked bean to reveal the baby plant inside. Afterwards, the students enjoyed a newly invented macro-model called “Plant Me!”, where they were able to apply their learning in an engaging outdoor activity. In the afternoon, we planted and labelled our very own seeds – 4 each in total – in egg cartons. Once these seeds sprout, they can be moved into bigger pots without removing them from the egg cartons (if you need a bigger pot, let us know! We have a bunch to share).
WEDNESDAY
We had the opportunity to visit the Collingwood Library to take part in their educational “Seed” Library. We took some seeds now, with the intention of returning more seeds in the fall when we harvest them. This project is a great initiative set up by the folks at Transition Collingwood and the Public Library, and not only reinforces plant life-cycle principles, but also a sense of community, sharing and giving back. What a great way to empower local seed savers and develop our seed literacy!
THURSDAY
The saga of Blueberry the bunny continued this week when, on arrival, we were greeted by the fox and her pups playing around the schoolhouse. The students jumped into their LNT learning last week (respect wildlife) and observed from afar. Such a pertinent experience for our students and a great testament to the power of learning in an outdoor environment.
Later on in the morning, Shannon, another teacher with the Forest School, came by and the students were more than excited to show her all of their favourite places. So map in hand, we went on a big hike to explore the property.
Both groups ended the day with a bonfire. Lots of stories were told, as well as creative songs with music (ukulele, shakers, nature drums) and dance, and improvised dramatic stories. We even had a treat to go along with the entertainment – some popcorn popped over the fire.
We gave out some more beads this week. 1 craft bead for a “cat’s eye”, 3 storytelling beads and 1 journalling bead. Congrats!
Next week we are on an all-day outing to go caving! It’ll be cold and dirty in there so please dress your child appropriately – including gloves!
