Category Archives: Thornbury

If we leave no trace, no one will know we were here!

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Hello all!

Thank you for checking in this week, for another amazing forest school day!  We first started by welcoming 2 NEW students with open arms  and curiosity about our grounds and play areas.

We started our day, just like every day with a smudging ceremony followed by free play and check ins about our week. We then jumped into a fun game called “The Lorax” created by local students from Collingwood’s Forest School. After we were done with our game, we got comfortable in our greenhouse and read the amazing story “The Giving Tree”. Our students then had a discussion about how the story made them feel and what they thought the meaning of the book was.

After our snack we dove right into our Leave No Trace principles. Our students learned all about the 7 Principles and have become very interactive about discussions and activities that tied it all together.  They learned what it takes to plan a trip and how much you need to take with you.  Also, how to respect our wildlife with given examples of how they would achieve certain goals.  As well as campfire rules and how to be respectful to other people who are trying to enjoy nature as well.

  1. Plan ahead
  2. Stick to the Trails
  3. Dispose your waste (Trash and Poop)
  4. Leave what you find
  5. Minimize campfire impacts
  6. Respect Wildlife
  7. Be considerate of others

After lunch our students continued on our 7 principles, and then proceeded to catch frogs (now learning about LNT the frogs were set free back into their homes), slugs, and built forts. There was an abundance of communication, teamwork, leaders, questions, concentration, self-confidence, and motivation. We also learned 3 legends.

  1. Coyote takes water from the Frogs
  2. How the deer got his horns
  3. Coyote and Skunk

Our awesome day came to end with students receiving our FIRST of many beads. This was a huge deal for our students that worked so hard for them! We gave away the “N” bead for Leave NO Trace, along with stickers for our students that ranged from Respect, Bravery, Wisdom, Love and Humility.

Thank you for checking in this week. Next week we are going to dive into the 7 Grandfather Teachings, Native art, and we get to pick our power animals!

Thanks for stopping in!

Krista

On your mark, get set, go!

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Hello all!
What an amazing first day for Thornbury Forest School! A huge welcome to all our new students at this beautiful location! Within this blog I will be writing each week about our group and self discovery, our field trips, adventures, and daily activities. I am very excited mentor our students at the Heathcote branch, and to assist our students in self discovery within nature! Check out our pictures below!
This week was our Introduction into forest school within our property, surroundings, and fun games with all students. We started off by playing games on our natural jungle gym with a Tarzan swing, climbing holds that follow up a fallen Willow tree. We then started the day off by painting our nature medallions, and participated in a sumdgeing ceremony (white sage) that our students we will participate in each week. This ceremony starts the students off with a positive outlook of the day while the sage washes away our negative energy.
Our students then learned about our Bead Ceremony and our sticker chart (the 7 Grandfather Teachings). We hand out stickers each week to promote healthy and positive behaviour, and something for our students to work towards. Our Bead Ceremony is a guide where students can work towards a skill, while working with others or by themselves.
Before lunch we went for a hike in Heathcote Park. This is were our students curiosity took off when we found tons of snails, apple trees, milkweed, shells from the Beaver River, a HUGE praying mantis, a tire swing, and lots of places to build shelters! We will definitely be back!
After lunch our students got hire swimsuits and life jackets on and we went down to the Beaver river, were we aimed to catch and discover water life. We made sure we took our journals with us and recorded what we found and saw. Minos, shells, leaches, crawfish, and played for hours with clay. Our students worked together, had discussions, created games, became leaders, and respected each other around the water.At the end of our day, and our snack the students went on a frog hunt, while others started decorating our wooden teepee with fallen willow bark.
We had a great first day and are excited to continue to grow as a community with each other! Next week we will be diving into our Leave No Trace principles.
Thanks for stopping in!

Krista