Day 3

What is it?

What do you do when you forgot the cups?

Sylvie the strong

Jason - "What are you eating?"  Sylvie - "Grass"

Yearden joined us for the day.

Photo taken by Yearden of his family

"It's monkey bars for the fairy school playground."

"I found a shield!"

Dorian noticed the exquisite texture on this chestnut.

We only saw one bear.

More pictures from day 2 of Forest School last week

                                            Skye and Izzy carry the first aid kit as a team.

                                     Sylvie and Kellan hold hands as we approach the street.

                                                Joan helps Izzy tie his bow a bit stronger.

                                                                 We found a moth!

“I never thought it could be so magical out here.” – Nyasiah

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Our second day of Forest School offered many new and unforeseen opportunities for exploration, learning, fun, and wonder. With an expansion into “the jungle” came a greater sense of freedom and possibility. New discoveries included a hidden place informally dubbed “the city,” a snake, larger downed branches worthy of fort building, a paper wasp nest, a stick turned into a baseball bat, the perfect site for a fairy house, and so many others. The kids also took on greater responsibility: carrying our supplies, preparing snacks, and packing up our “home base” after our picnic lunch. For literally hours, they moved in, around, and through the forest curiously and with thoughtfulness, sometimes running, sometimes tiptoeing, and sometimes taking a break to lie on their backs and watch the clouds drift past behind the tops of the trees. At 1:00pm we just had to go, but the nostalgia started to set in almost immediately, the collective sentiment, “When can we return?”

How big is this tree?

Skye about to venture into the unknown with all the requisite gear (spoon included.)

"Careful. There's thorns back there." - Sylvie

"It's a mystery! How will we find our way through to the other side?" - Gil

"It was like a jungle in that place." - Sylvie

The bushwhacking begins.

"I can pour the water?" - Aliyah

Izzy tying knots.

Was that spoon in Skye's mouth the whole morning?

The bows are becoming sturdier.

What is it?

"It might have been from a scientist!" - James

Building a fairy house.

Concluding with a sharing circle.

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.