Hi Everyone!
The start of our Ice rink
Next Week – Field Trip! We will be heading to the top of the Escarpment and visiting Scenic Caves Nordic Centre. Cross Country Skiing is on the menu as well!
Thanks for checking in this week
Krista and Neal
Our wonderful day!
Hi Everyone!
Our first toboggan of the day.
Today we welcomed back winter with open arms, excited to spend our whole day exploring the snow. It couldn’t have been a more perfect time because this week, our topic was “Snow”. We also welcomed our guest Tomoko visiting from Barrie, and moving to Japan for 2 years. She participated in our morning routines (check ins, fire starting, smudge circle and shelter building).
Jar #1- 6 cups of snow – hard packed to the top
Jar #2 – 3.5 cups of snow – loosely packed to the top
Jar #3 – 2.5 cups of snow – Very loosely packed to the top
Taking time in-between building, and decorating our Quinzee shelters, we took advantage of all the fresh powder, and I mean POWDER!…. 3 feet was the deepest we found. Everyone strapped on some snowshoes, grabbed a toboggan and headed to Fossil Mountain to enjoy the beauty of the untouched, fluffy snow. We worked up a sweat hiking, tobogganing, more hiking and even more tobogganing.
Great job to Lucy for starting your first fire today with ONE match!
Next Week – “1 fish 2 fish red fish blue fish” All about fish and maybe if were lucky and have some good bait we can catch a fish!
Thanks for checking in this week!
Neal and Krista
The rest of our day pictures
Hey Everyone, have you ever been lost?
This week we challenged our students to see how they would survive a night lost in the woods. The morning had us off to our old campsite to take some quiet space alone to reflect on what it would feel like to be lost – what would you be thinking? What would you do? What could you use around you to stay safe?
During our debrief around the fire, we uncovered that immediately your psychology and attitude are a huge aspect to dealing with a survival situation. We called this S.T.O.P. – Stop, Think, Observe and Plan.
We then dove into the 4 Core attributes to Survival which, on both days, students were able to brainstorm on their own through discussion. Shelter, Fire, Water, Food – and in that order. The most important thing is staying warm (which we had first-hand experience with this week – and thanks to you, the parents, for all the great layers you sent your kids with!)
We had a lot of fun putting the 4 Cores into practice and students realized that they already had a lot of the skills needed. We made fires, shelter and did some exploratory hiking (and even “Sand”boggoning on Wed). In teams, we played out a scenario involving a plane crash and prioritized 12 items we would need and why – there were no wrong answers, just a need to justify. Oh, and how could any Survival day be complete without a little Animal Survival game?
Congrats to our Peer Support Bead recipient, 2 Reflection Beads, 1 Craft Bead and an amazing Storytelling Bead!
Next Week:
We’ll be having some fun and getting creative making projects!
Until next time,
Matt and Kim
More photos for you:
Hey Everyone!
This week at Forest School we took on the Suzuki Superhero Challenge… the goal of which was to gain a deeper understanding of certain rights that everyone in the world should have. The day was broken down into different parts: the Right to Clean Water, the Right to Clean Air, the Right to Nutritious Food and the Right to a Healthy Environment. This led to many thoughtful conversations combined with experiential activities.
Students participated in a visualization activity to connect with their prior knowledge of Earth, leading into collaborative presentations used to reflect a healthy environment and brainstorm ways to protect it. They were then challenged to a water relay race (intentionally unfair) that shed light on water issues throughout the country and abroad. This experience led to a particularly thoughtful debrief and many wonderful insights from the students. Our air quality lesson had students juggling ping pong balls and balloons to represent various modes of sustainable transportation and pollution, while our (again unfair) apple relay brought awareness of the significance of local consumption and the energy required to bring food to our table.
Of course throughout the day we had our core routines, including free-play and time spent in our sit spots. Students created their very own Enviro-Superheroes and powers (“Mud Man”, “Wonder Water”, “Flamingo Girl”!). Finally the end of the day had us experience first hand how animals fit into the environment by playing “Survival” – a new favourite game that we’ll be playing again for sure in the future!
Congrats to our first Reflection Bead recipient this week for 15 journal entries, and 1 craft bead!
Next Week:
Travel day!!! We’re gonna have some fun learning about mapping, compasses and the GPS!
Parent’s Reminder:
The days are getting much colder and the weather can change quite quickly. Please ensure your child is dressed for anything and has back-up clothes! In the near future we will be building our fire kits. If you could please bring in small plastic containers with lids, that would be very helpful!
Thanks,
Matt and Kim
Hello again!
Today was a day was full of discovery, learning new skills, team building exercises and an abundance of wildlife to see. This included; birds, turtles, fish, crayfish, beavers, frogs, cows and Canadian Geese.
We were pleased to welcome our Collingwood Forest School for the paddling day as they were going to join us. Our adventure started just outside Epping where we headed out to a location called Flower Bridge. This is where we launched 4 canoes with an exciting 3.5km (or 1 hour paddle) that winded around a beautiful part of the Beaver River.
Before we got our “canoe on” the students took time to learn paddling strokes and river safety. It is great to see the ambition of one of our students Aaron who took the role of teacher, and showed their fellow students how to paddle while demonstrating how to hold their paddle. We know it is going to be a great day when a conversation like this happens:
Student #1 – “I can’t do this, it’s too hard!” (Frustrated about how to paddle)
Student #2 – “ Yes you can! All you have to do it believe you can and you can do it. Believe in yourself!”
Our Heathcote location is home to hundreds of Frogs and Toads, so it was fitting that our students took time to learn about their Number 1 resident. Our first activity was to discuss the life cycle of our favorite little guys! Our students were great at becoming frogs and some even became “super frogs” – You should ask your child what a super frog is! We even had a debate about Frogs verses Toads; the main question was could toads really give you warts? Answer is No, but they do give off a poison residue within their glands located right behind their eyes. Afterwards the students could not resist a good old frog catch and release.
Before our guests left to go back to Collingwood, we ventured back into the vegetable gardens to harvest; Celery, Lettuce and Zucchini. Did you know that they are 95% water? We also had a discussion about what other foods is 93% water; some examples are Eggplants, Cabbage, and Peppers. We let these vegetables sit in the color dyed water for a period of time and discuss their finding. The students came to the conclusion that the Zucchini soaked up the water the fastest, while the lettuce came in a close second. If you would like to do this at home all you need is:
Today was an awesome day for beads! We gave away some very deserving NEW beads 1-Leadership bead, 1-Peer support bead, and 1-Teaching bead! Along with some well-deserved stickers to add to our students collection – Love, and Respect.
Next Week: We are going to be looking at Bugs! Some might say EW, but I think our students are going to love getting their hands dirty again!
We will see you next week, thank-you for stopping by : )
Krista
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
Hey Everyone,
We spent our days this week with two classical elements: Fire and Water (and I suppose the Earth and Wind as well). After measuring our tomato plants for growth, it was time for the much anticipated attempt at the Fire Bead.
After a review of the basic needs of fire (heat, oxygen, and fuel), we were off to the back fields for students to show off their skills. Students partnered up, selected their site and were given three matches to create a small fire that would burn long enough to roast a marshmallow. They gathered tinder, kindling and bigger pieces of wood just like we practiced (and a water bucket… safety first!) They built teepees, keeping in mind the 3 d’s – dead, down and dry wood. Within half an hour, ALL students were enjoying their marshmallows on the fire. Some were even able to light it using one match! Needless to say, everyone earned their Fire Bead!
The afternoon saw a visit to Black Ash Creek to discover the creatures it held. The students jumped right in (quite literally!) with sieves and nets, and quickly filled our buckets with various little critters. At first, we found a lot of the usual – striders, minnows and crayfish (even one with eggs under her tail!), but soon we had the magnifying glasses out and were identifying a whole bunch of new ones. We found a ton of mayfly larvae, an interesting, somewhat scary looking creature. Then came the elusive dobsonfly larvae, a hard character to identify. Finally, an intense looking predacious diving beetle, or more commonly known as the “water tiger”. We even caught a baby snapping turtle on Thursday! In true Forest School and LNT fashion, all the creatures were returned to their homes soon after making our observations and classifications.
Next week is Rock Climbing! All the gear will be provided, but if you have your own feel free to bring it. We recommend wearing running shoes too. As mentioned, we (Kim and Matt) won’t be there as we are off in the woods on canoe trips, but the students are lucky enough to have some great leaders filling in! We look forward to hearing about it!
We’ll see you at the final ceremonies!
Matt and Kim
Hey Folks,
We had the great opportunity to explore off property this week with a trip down the Beaver river. Though we had two drastically different weather days, the result was the same: lots of laughs and some new hard skills. We were treated to an abundance of wildlife – birds galore, fish, so many frogs we lost count, and of course bugs – as the students navigated their way down the river and even against strong winds.
On Wednesday, we joined up with the Red Tail Hawks from our sister Forest School group for our paddle and then we were off to their property to explore and get a sense of all the wonderful things they are up to – and what an incredible place they have. After our initial tour, Shannon led a lesson on survival debris shelters and the students jumped at the opportunity to set up ridge lines, frame the roof, and “shingle ” it with natural materials. Some turned into forts, while others were perfect for survival (complete with a NE facing door).
Thursday was similar, but we stayed in Heathcote and explored the Free Spirit gardens, accomplished some team building exercises, and then returned to Bygone Days to build shelters of our own. It’s always amazing to see what the kids can come up with when left to their own devices.
A great big thanks to all the adult volunteers who came out for the paddle with us – we couldn’t have done it without you. And special recognition to the students that sat stern of their very own boats!
We’ll see you next week! Enjoy the warm, sunny weather.
Matt and Kim
Hey Folks,
What a couple of beautiful sunny days we had at Forest School. Our focus this week was learning about water, the water cycle and some creatures that call water home.
We started off the day “becoming” frogs with a visualization (turned into acting out) activity to set the tone. After an inevitable frog hunt, we got down to business. Our first activity was to build a zip lock bag water cycle. Perhaps your child came home asking for steaming water? Putting hot water in the bag and sealing it will mimic the water cycle they have drawn on the bag! If you’re more patient, put cold water in the bag and leave it in the sun and let this process happen naturally. We then hammered this learning home with a new macro-model (“The Water Cycle“) where students had to evaporate, then condensate, then precipitate, then do it all over again.
The students were awesome at brainstorming where we find water – the classic “lake”, “ocean”, “animals” and others, and then some really creative ones like the “store” and the “sewage treatment plant”. From here we took time to talk about available freshwater compared to salt water in the world with a 5L bucket example (in this case, 125 ml represents all the freshwater). This was a striking lesson for some students; somewhat of a “What?!” moment for them. The Snowy Owls (and some keen Red Tails) were given some homework around this revelation. They have a sheet to record their water usage for the next week. Please lend them a hand with some of the more difficult ones. On Thursday, this turned into a a great discussion about water distribution and human rights around the world and ended with us deciding as a group to make a Kiva loan to a school in Uganda implementing a water filtration system. (Don’t know Kiva? It’s a fantastic program – check it out here).
The afternoon was spent exploring the water on the property – searching out creatures, plants, or really anything we could find. We now also have 3 class pets: huge tadpoles that we’ll watch develop and then release in the next little while.
We gave out the most beads to date this week: 1 craft bead for a great hippo-on-a-stick, 4 shelter beads, 2 journaling beads and 2 knot beads (our first time given this out!). Great job everyone!
That’s all for now!
Matt and Kim
