Category Archives: Winter Fun

We strive to survive

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Hi Friends!

We had another fun-filled Wednesday at Forest School! Our students spent a large portion of their day braving the cold, and gaining the skills to survive  the outdoors. With the colder weather arriving, we focused on shelter building and  becoming more confident with our fire skills. There was so much creative thinking, problem solving and collaboration today. We are so proud of all of our students for all their hard work!

Check out how incredible our students are!

Thanks Aaron for bringing in your personal sled today! So much fun was had running around the garden taking turns enjoying the ride and pulling each other around, it was definitely a hit!

Before our smudging ceremony our students had fun constructing their very own teeter totter. It took Jack, Aaron and Taven to lift me off the ground. What super strong young men we have at Forest School.

While we were out hiking and collecting our tinder and kindling, Alice came across some wonderful wild mint. All our kids got to try a piece, some of us even tested our breath to see if it smelled better.

“A Frame”, “Tee-pee”, “Tarps” and “Lean To” were some of the shelters we talked about today. Izzy and Emily worked together and built a “Tee-pee” shelter, while the other kids built “A frame” and “Lean To” shelters. Great teamwork today guys and gals!

We thought this week instead building fires with dry tinder (mostly due to the wet tinder in our area), we would change it up and create our first TNT fire starters. The students were given a toilet paper roll and the choice of birch bark, cotton balls, dried maple sap, newspaper or dryer lint. Packed all together this makes a great fire starter, and something that can be packed in a survival kit!

There was so much success with our fire skills this week, we are proud to say that all 7 of our students were able to start their own fires, and keep them going strong enough to roast marshmallows. High Fives all around!

A lot of beads and stickers were awarded today, wisdom and respect stickers were given out, while EVERYONE earned their shelter and fire beads. Congratulations to all our students.

Next Week:

Projects and Tools! Planning, construction and teamwork are just some of the skills to look forward to next week. Stay tuned.

Reminder:

You child can bring in one tool that could assist them within their projects.

Thanks for checking in this week!

Krista

Bonus Pictures of our awesome day.

 

 

Catch me if you can

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Hey Everyone,

First off, a big WELCOME to our new students!

It seems like winter just won’t leave us alone – which we took full advantage of this week.  The fresh layer of snow was perfect for seeking out and learning about animal tracks.

We began the day by checking “baited areas” to see if any creatures had visited and lucky for us, we had a hungry neighbourhood vole. Before learning the ins and out of tracking though, we tracked each other in a game we like to call Track and Seek.  The students dove right in, tried to throw the other group off their trail while searching out shelter to hide in.  Along the way, we were pleasantly surprised to find goose, rabbit and many more tracks.

Afterwards, we took the classroom to learn about the different parts and types of animal tracks.  We even had a helping “paw” from Aden who was happy to show off his claws, toes, heel and dew claws.  After a legend about animals, the students designed their own “monsters” and “monster tracks”.  The ideas and explanations were incredibly creative! Then the students were given field guides and we were off to the 11th Line Trails.  Our goal: to find the tracks of a white-tailed deer and red fox.

And did we ever reach our goal!  The students were able to successfully identify dog, fox, deer, squirrel and rabbit tracks.  Not only that, using the guide they were able to determine the speed at which the animals were traveling, which led to an epic tale (both days independently!) of the “rabbit” getting away from the “fox” (with a happy ending as we found no evidence to the contrary!)

Both groups independently got into “parkour” on the trails.  Jumping from safe spot to safe spot when the trails were flooded.  “I feel so ALIVE!” is the quote of the week from one student.  Seems the weather can never bring us down at Forest School, and a big kudos to all the positive attitudes of the students.

As for beads, congratulations to our recipients this week! We gave away 2 group beads for  excellent games invented and then led by students, one called Soccer Ball Track and Seek and the other called Sick Bug.

We are looking forward to next week, and hopefully some nice sunny days.

Matt and Kim

List of creatures’ tracks that we ID’ed:
Goose
Rabbit
Grey Squirrel
White-Tailed Deer
Aden
Domestic Dogs
Red Fox
Seagulls
Vole
Raccoon

 

Building Community, One (snowshoe) step at a time

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Hey Folks!

Our Snowy Owls and Red Tailed Hawks weren’t dissuaded by the cold temperatures this morning. They (quite literally) jumped right into the snowy day. Upon arrival, we strapped on our snowshoes and off we went.

After a quick hike, we paused for a smudging ceremony. We burned sage in an abalone shell and bathed ourselves in the smoke. This ceremony is used to “get rid of the bad and take in the good,” as one student summarized. Along with a cleansing, this was also a moment to acknowledge and honour the traditional territory of the Peton people – an interest we will continue to explore over the course of the program

Creating our group contracts

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Given the frigid morning temps,  we decided to spend a little time warming up and getting to know each other better. The students came up with their nature names (with “Bernese Mountain Dog” being a popular choice thanks to our furriest FS member, Aden), we created group contracts, and began learning more about the history of the snowshoe. For lunch we were off to the Collingwood Public Library, where students read books and made up puppet shows. An awesome moment was watching some of our older Snowy Owls reading nature books to the younger Red Tails.

Our Snowy Owls sharing a story with the Red Tailed Hawks

 

As the day went on, the sun came out and the temperature rose. The groups split up and we spent our afternoon exploring our new surroundings by snowshoe. How lucky we were to have pristine, untouched snow to work our way though.

The Snowy Owls settled into the woods, where they built a stellar fire using all natural materials. Tinder (“Let’s use Birch Bark!”), Kindling (“Grab Sticks!”), Fuel (“We need big stuff too!”) – it’s amazing to see how much the children were able to share their prior knowledge with their peers. They cleared away the snow, created their Teepee (and later log) and got the fire going fairly quickly. The students learned about the three “D’s” when collecting wood: Dead, Down and Dry.

Enjoying our first fire together

The Red Tailed Hawks were off on their own snowshoe adventure. Along the way, they were able to follow animal tracks (including a rabbit, skunk, and or course, Aden). They were able to track the Snowy Owls and find out where they were by following their prints. They soon joined the Snowy Owls and we shared stories and legends around the fire.

The end of the day brought with it some lessons in camouflage and time for reflecting on the day with a little bit of journaling – drawing, writing, or both. The students were asked to express their favourite part of the day.

We very much enjoyed the day today and look forward to doing it all over again next week!

Kim and Matt

P.S. At forest school we are always looking for new ideas. If you or your child, has an idea of something to explore, please let us know!