The first day of Forest School began on the last day of September. In preparation for the start of our special Wednesdays, I had begun calling it "Outdoor Wednesday's," but I realized that we should really call it what it's being modeled after, "Forest School."

After choice time and circle we headed to Cliveden for the morning with boots, rain jackets, trash bags and snacks at the ready for whatever mother nature intended to give us. The children got right to work exploring every nook and cranny of a section of Cliveden, discovering a supposed groundhog hole within the trunk of a tree --- Sylvie claimed it nibbled her toe :) --- and collecting bright fuchsia berries to make paintings and pretend blood as well as sticks for bow and arrows (within the context of archery and hunting methods of course.) Nyasiah and Jason worked together to collect apples from the tree, and Zion cut them up for everyone to eat.

The sun ended up peeking out through the clouds and the rain jackets were piled on the picnic table. As you can see in the pictures, some of us spent some time laying and drawing on the tarp. At 11:30 no one was ready to leave, and we all realized we could have spent the entire day at Cliveden. Lunch beckoned and we cleaned everything up, learning about the concept of leaving no trace within any outdoor sight we visit. With many treasures in our hands including a snake skin, prized sticks, colorful leaves, rocks and even a potato bug, we made our way back to school, excited for the next Forest School Wednesday.

Who really lives here?

Olivia and Zion experiment with leaf prints using the berry juice they mashed up.

Skye and Kellen have a closer look at some creatures and dirt.

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Dontrelle safely delivers a potato bug from Cliveden to our yard. Yes, he carried it the whole way back on the rind of an orange.