We had another wonderful week at Forest School and quite the range in activities too!
Great Snowy Owl demonstration!
On Wednesday, students worked hard to clear off the ice rink and we enjoyed skating away the morning! We even had a lesson from a Snowy Owl, including some basic skating drills and tips on a variety of ways to stop. It was an awesome start to our day and had smiles all around! The afternoon had us in our sit spots and by Lakeside Campsite for the majority of the time. Students enjoyed working together to create and build new structures (including bridges, coat racks, ninja stands and more). It’s amazing to see what unfolds when we just make time to play and explore! It was neat to see the little communities become established and imaginations take over.
Just getting some quality time in with nature!
Though the blue bird week wreaked havoc on the rink, the warm temperatures made for a sweet treat from Mother Nature… that’s right the maple trees are FLOWING! On Thursday we spent some quality morning time learning about how to tap maples (and drilling!) and of course enjoyed some of the immediate perks that comes with helping out around the sugar shack. Students loved the opportunity to taste some sap coming directly from the trees! What a cool and tasty experience! By Friday, the temps had dropped and the sap was frozen, but nevertheless we had a tasty, icy treat!
We also spent Thursday and Friday playing mini sticks on the rink, enjoying our sits spots, building snow castles and snowmen, and playing some of our favourite group games (camouflage, ga-ga ball and fox vs rabbit!).
We built in sometime this week to brainstorm some really great options for our Student-Led day next week and are eager to see how it unfolds! Students worked well together, collaborating and idea-sharing to make some big and exciting plans.
Kim sends a big heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone for the love and support as she goes on maternity leave next week. She promises to visit when the little one arrives, especially if it’s as sunny as it was this week! And with that exciting announcement, we welcome our new teachers Krista, Aislinn, and Natasha! To learn more about them, check out their bios!
Well Winter is back! And hopefully here to stay. This week at Forest School we were on a field trip for Wed and Thurs and spent the day exploring at Bygone Day’s on Friday.
Wednesday and Thursday
Off to Scenic Caves this week for some fun cross-country skiing and exploring the area. We started off both days with learning basic skills: how to move, slow down, climb hills, and most importantly how to get up after falling (Turtle-French Fries-Knees to Skis-And UP!). After some practice laps, students we were off exploring. Our Wednesday group made it all the way to the lookout point (though it was foggy!) and the Thursdays group braved the fierce snow and tackled the meandering hills – including part of a black diamond for experts only! It was a lot of work climbing some steep hills, but ask your child if it was worth it in the end!
We’re really proud of all the hard work our students put in. For some it was their first time ever on skis and everyone committed themselves to learn. After a lot of successes, tumbles and speeding through the trees, it was time for a well earned lunch.
Have you ever been to Scenic Caves? Then you know it boasts one of the best parks in the area – just ask your kids! Students loved using all of the fun equipment, especially with all of the snow! Afterwards, student made their way down the snow covered trail and onto the largest suspension bridge in Ontario – what a wonderful way to see our beautiful home! Students enjoyed the panoramic view of roughly 10000 sq. km. overlooking Georgian Bay and they were keen to point out their homes and make connection to places from such a high vantage point.
On Thursday, some students braved a challenge route and took the snow-filled Creekside Trail underneath the ravine and up the other side! We enjoyed a lot of play, collaboration and teambuilding on the slope of the escarpment too. We loved sliding down into the snowy valley and worked well together (and creatively!) trying to climb our way out. After all of their hard work, you probably noticed some pretty tired kids this week!
A big thanks to the folks Scenic Caves – they provided us with equipment, their beautiful property and infrastructure, and a wood fired cabin all to our ourselves.
FRIDAY
On Friday we saw even MORE snow and had an adventure filled day at Bygone Days. Students ventured out to Mysterious Forest to explore the wonderful natural shelters of our coniferous trees – which provided a great space to play some of our favourite games like sardines and camouflage! Students continue to be engaged in our subnivean tunnel activities, fascinated by discovering more ice below the deep snow and loved to build and spend time around the fire! We visited our sit spots (and created some new ones) and recognized some of the amazing changes that have happened over the winter. It was an awesome day and especially sunny by the afternoon!
NEXT WEEK:
Weather permitting: ICE FISHING! If you have your own gear, or nifty trinkets that might be helpful or fun during ice fishing, don’t hesitate to bring them in!
This week we welcomed back the cooler temps (well at least until it warmed up again on Friday) and we took advantage of the little bit of “Winter” we had to explore.
Wednesday and Thursday
We focused this week on getting to know our property a little better and spent time exploring and returning to places we haven’t been to in awhile. While hiking out and about, we discovered a bunch of cool things:
-That despite the warmer temps, our snow caves continue to persist!
-The Riverbed Campsite is aptly named, and covered in icy water.
-That Fossil Mountain really was made for Tubing!
-That we have the best, gigantic “loose parts” (black pipes) that lead to all sorts of fun, including subnivean tag and 24 m long subterranean tunnel exploration.
-Broomball is intense!
We also took time to refocus on of our core routines: Sit Spots. If you are new to sit spots, we ask our students to choose to visit one special place in nature repeatedly (almost each week) and to get to know it as well as they can. Students are asked to spend varying amounts of time sitting quietly in their spots. In this special spot, we learn to sit still, be by ourselves, and enjoy the feeling of familiarity and knowledge of place that develops over time. Ultimately, a student’s sit spot will become like a safe home from which their curiosity can spark an interest in nature’s mysteries. This time focuses on student-centered learning, place-based learning, personal growth, scientific-inquiry, solitary time and reflection. We also spend time building, creating and playing together in our sit spots. This week saw the creation of communities of neighbours in our “Sumac Forest” and “Fortress” areas. It’s inspiring watching the fun unfold and imaginations run wild.
Friday
We had a special field trip on Friday to Highlands Nordic Outdoor Centre for a day of cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. After a thorough skills-based lesson, we were off to explore – and what a beautiful day we had for it. We spent the morning skiing and quickly learned that climbing up hills are hard, but totally worthwhile for the long, fast descents!
After lunch, we headed on a snowshoe hike down into the forest, with awesome views of Wasaga Beach and more. We played a few games and explored animal trails along the way. A big thanks to everyone at Highlands Nordic who helped us out!
Next Week:
Wednesday and Thursday groups will be on a Field Trip to Scenic Cave for cross country skiing. Please bring your own equipment if you have it. Friday we will remain at the school
We gave out a lot of beads this week! Congrats to the recipients!
We’d like to extend a HUGE welcome to our new students and families and a welcome back to our returning students! We had a good start to our first week at Forest School and luckily, though it called for rain, we seemed to miss the worst of it!
This week we focused on getting to know each other, community-building and becoming acquainted with a small portion of the property. We began the day as usual with a smudge, morning circle and other core routines. We also engaged in some get-to-know you activities, such as designing our own personal flag to highlight our favourite activities and passions. We will hang this in our classroom for the semester.
Students eagerly picked out theirsit spots and began creating and imagining all the things they intend to build/do/create there. Some were content to just be and absorb the changes that Mother Natures will bring. We spent some quiet time reflecting in our spots and came to a consensus: there is a lot of noise in silence. Blue Jays, crickets and wind in the leaves just to name a few! We found ourselves immersed in our surrounding. We all came away loving our own sit spot experience… and eager to return next week!
The students jumped at the chance for some exploratory time, where imaginations, teamwork and good old fashioned outdoor fun came alive. The afternoon brought our first bonfire of the year, where we added the ashes from the final community fire of last year and made some thoughtful goals for this year of new challenges, budding friendships, and pushing comfort zones. In anticipation for next week, where some might want to try earning their fire bead, we spent some time learning the basics of fire-building (even in the rain!) and how to use fire respectfully. It was a great start to building our new community.
Speaking of beads, we’ve got a whole bunch of new ones this year, as well as some classics – click here for the list! Don’t know what beads are yet? Check out our core routines page. There are even some that can be done at home. Along with this, we made our medallions to store our beads on. On one side, children wrote their names, and the other they drew or wrote their spirit/favourite animal or plant. This also gave students the chance to use tools for the first time this year by hand drilling their own holes!
Next Week:
Survival Skills – fires, shelters and more!
We also still have a few spaces available! If you know anyone that may be interested please share with them. Thanks!
That’s all for now, we look forward to the semester and exploring alongside everyone!
Wow! What a beautiful last week of Forest School! We had a wonderful time reflecting on what we’ve learned and experienced throughout the year and we sure had fun reminiscing about a lot of funny, meaningful memories that stood out! It’s so worthwhile to pause and reflect on these experiences together – so much has happened in just a few months!
After our morning circle and a story, students had the opportunity to say goodbye to their sit-spots. Some offered a piece of white sage to say thank you for all of the learning and reflecting that they’ve engaged in at their chosen spot. Some drew in their journals or created new medallions for their Sit Spots. Some chose to simply sit and reflect quietly. Sit Spots are just one way that students connect with the land in a meaningful way at Forest School. It’s been really special on our end to be able to witness this relationship develop with nature. Students seem to get a lot from just sitting and being still in Nature. We wonder if it’s something they will continue to do on their own this summer because so many of our students really looked forward to starting their days off in their Sit-Spots. Let us know!
We had a fun new challenge for Forest School this week where students had to work together to complete the first ever Forest School Escape Room! They collaborated to gather clues, solve problems, and build on prior knowledge to find the secret antidote (and marshmallows!) required to save the world! Everyone was able to successfully complete the challenge in less than an hour – one group made it with just 43 seconds left! Afterwards, we enjoyed a campfire and basked in our wonderful learning community… celebrating appreciations, new friendships, and hopeful summer play dates!
In the afternoon, we had an array of more student-led activities to celebrate our final day. Some included exploring the heritage site and venturing into the old buildings, playing a final game of Survival and Capture the Flag, and the classic Bubble Tag. It was an engaging way to wrap up our school-year!
A special thank you to the families who could join us for our closing ceremony! We will have the videos uploaded soon and send you a link! Remember if you haven’t picked up your NEW FOREST SCHOOL T-Shirt, you can do so Monday between 8:30-9:15am at Bygone Days during the Kids Camp Registration.
Parents and Families, we want to thank you for making this program possible! Thank you for believing in our approach to education and understanding the value of risky play and connecting with nature. We trust you will have a healthy, happy summer packed with adventures, family time and play! Hope to see you on the trails or by the water!
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.
We had an amazing dose of vitamin D while enjoying the summer weather today, and all the heat and humidity didn’t slow our kids down one bit! This week we touched on the topic of bee’s, while still enjoying our regular routines. We started our day with a student led game “Bee-ing Human” similar to tag, but this got us working up such sweat that we had to cool down with blowing bubbles! And who doesn’t love bubbles! While sitting in on our check in’s, the question “If you had a superpower that could help change the world, what would it be?” This got our kids thinking all about bad guys, controlling the weather and the ability to help end world hunger with ‘Mother Nature’ capabilities.
While our Painted Turtles were working on their sit spots, some of them decided to get their hands dirty and make mud pies and cakes. They even took the time to decorate them with dandelion’s, but for some reason, no one seemed too interested in tasting it.
Our morning discussions brought us to our first lesson about bee’s. We buzzed over to our journals and started writing and drawing all the information we knew, and our students know a lot! We even looked at the ‘Honey Bee’ anatomy. Last Spring, we were lucky enough to find an abandoned bee’s nest, and had the chance to dry it out and were able to feel the outside (which feels like really thin paper) and the honey comb inside. Getting up close to the nest really put things into perspective for our students. After our lesson it naturally led into our bee themed game! Called “Get to the Honey” this game included 2 Bee guards, 2 Bee forgers, 1 Queen Bee, and 2 Bears! The goal was for the bears to find the hive and get all that honey, but wait! You don’t want to get caught by the guards (their stingers really hurt). While the guards are protecting their home, the forgers are buzzing around trying to find nectar and pollen. Phew! Our students quickly discovered there is never any down time for a bee whether it’s, foraging, protecting, feeding the larva, or building upon the hive. The truly discovered the meaning behind the phrase “you’re a busy bee”.
With a high of 32 degrees our afternoon was fairly relaxed. Between frog hunting (6 in total and a bullfrog which got away!), making lip chap (which was super easy and only consisted of bee’s wax, coconut oil and peppermint oil) we enjoyed finishing off our day with a well deserved river dunk.
Thank you to Emily and Taven for your Show and Share, as well to all of our students who showed respect and love for one another! Our day was full of recognition! 4 littler less lunch beads, 1 bravery bead, 1 storytelling bead, 2 fire beads and 1 bingo bead! We are even getting super close to winning some prizes for our stickers! Keep being awesome Painted Turtles and Snowy Owls!
Some of our favourite days here at Forest School are our “Project Days”. In the past, we’ve built gardens, free libraries, kites, hammocks and much more. We often come into these days with a few ideas about projects we can work on – and as usual are blown away with where the students take it and the ideas they bring to the table. The Snowy Owl students were eager to get a lot of work done on their sit spots, and the painted turtles created secret forts of their own. A lot was accomplished over the past three days – some really cool individual projects, and other bigger group projects, too. Here are the highlights broken down by day:
Tuesday
Tuesday we had on and off again rain, which meant we had some time for indoor projects to do. Some students built massive lego towers, some painted our Kubb set, and others carved spoons. We even made a brand new bow-drill for the class. Some students collected a variety of wild edibles, took everyone’s order off the menu and served us a special treat. When we were able to take advantage of the dryer moments outside, we worked together as group and created a brand new rope swing at our campsite!
Our new bow drill
Wednesday
We had a beautiful sunny day Wednesday and took full advantage of it. While the Painted Turtles were off creating their “secret” place, Snowy Owls were trying to catch minnows in a trap and manipulate a flowing stream with dams and pipes – all before morning snack. After a bunch of time in setting up our sit spots, some fishing and finding a real painted turtle, students got dirty with clay and created a pottery factory. The afternoon was spent checking our trap, painting with natural materials, and trying out the bow-drill from Tuesday’s group. We also added a balance beam to our new obstacle course which included a lot of rope-swinging.
Thursday
The rain held off!!! Our big project today was building a couple potato planters – using straw, chicken wire and soil, students dove in and got dirty. There were also some new additions made to the rope swing and we spent some time in our sit spots. Some students even made a fire without a match! The afternoon was spent carving – mostly spoons, but some spears, arrows and bows as well.
Congratulations to all the bead recipients (and quite a lot!): 8 sit spot beads, 1 curiosity bead, 4 craft beads, 1 firekeeper bead, 1 Al’s bead, 1 peer-support bead, 2 show and tell beads and 4 storytelling beads!
Next Week: We are headed off-site for a hike! Kim and Matt will be away, but we will have amazing teachers (including Krista!) filling in for them.
Registration to the public opens up May 5th, please be sure to send us your intentions (fsforestschool@gmail.com) to ensure your spot asap!
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!
We had a fun week at Forest School exploring the wonderful and intricate world of Animals. And we were SURROUNDED by them this week. A hare one morning, a groundhog, lots of squirrels, our resident chipmunk and even a bat that literally hung out on the school house all day. Oh and of course we were inundated with birds! We saw dozens of different types and listened attentively to all their songs – it’s getting us really excited for next week’s Bird focus. In prep for this we set up some big feeders to draw them in and made our own smaller Easter Egg bird feeders to put in our sit spots.
After some exploratory play and our morning routines, we took some extended time at our sit spots. These spots are really coming together – check out the pictures below for a sample of the cool shelters and creations our kids are making. The students are really becoming stewards of their areas and adding their own flare.
Back to the subject of the day: Animals. In the past, we’ve worked a lot with animals – tracking, identification, adaptations, fish, birds, insects and more – and we wanted to build on this knowledge. So we tested our knowledge on animals tracks and found out that we could use a little refresher! We took a first hand look at Aden’s paws and followed some tracks laid down by some local fauna. Afterwards, we really wanted to emphasize an understanding of the needs of animals and what better way than with a game of Survival? Students were herbivores, omnivores and carnivores and became part of the food chain. The only goal? To survive!!
Later on we built on this with a couple lessons on carrying capacity and limiting factors. As part of our lesson, chairs slowly started disappearing so students had to share, until ultimately there was not enough space (and thus we figured out our “Classroom Carrying Capacity”). Then we went outside and became deer fighting for resources. We graphed the results over a “15 year” period (yay math!) and drew out conclusions from our findings. We took this one step further by making predictions and looking at real world applications (ie 7 year hare/lynx cycle).
On Thursday we had an impromptu Easter Egg hunt when we came across an abandoned Mallard nest with an egg. Although this is unfortunate, we learned a good lesson in avoiding wildlife (some of our LNT principles). Since we know it has been abandoned for a while, we are going to see if it we can hatch it under a light.
All in all, a real fun day. Congrats to our bead recipients: 2 fire beads, 2 litterless-lunch beads and 5 fire keeper beads.
Next week:
BIRDS!! This is always a fun day and the property has an incredible amount of our avian friends right now. If you’ve got binoculars, please bring them!
