April 24
After years of Forest School, I’m happy to announce that we’ve got a pretty tough group of kids!! 💪💪 These kids can handle quite a bit of weather before any complaints start rolling in.
There was so much happening this day, it was hard to keep track of it all! We had kids creating the perfect hideouts, and a tarp that absolutely refused to cooperate, but that didn’t stop the kids’ determination to keep trying all day long! The hammocks were once again a huge hit, the beginnings of a new shelter started taking shape, and a random tire discovery quickly turned into a swing project, of course 😂
To top it all off, there was plenty of dragon drawing, exploring, building, and creative play happening everywhere you looked.
May 8
Sorry we didn’t take many pictures this day!
The kids quickly settled in and made the most of the day! After setting up camp, they jumped into all kinds of hands-on adventures, building bows, making goldenrod gall necklaces, smashing rocks open to see what was inside, and drawing pictures in the sand.
Of course, much of the day was also spent exploring the water’s edge, where the kids naturally drifted between creativity, curiosity, and adventure while fully enjoying the outdoors.
Previous Weeks
With the challenge set, start your own fire to earn s’mores, many of these wildlings weren’t about to call the bluff! They scattered fast, hunting for dry materials to build their bird nests in a soggy world… and wow, they delivered! 💪💪
Every single one who took it on had flames going in no time with their ferro rods! 🔥
Once banana boats hit the fire, these wildlings stretched right out…
Some kept building and perfecting their fires…
Some worked on shelter expansions…
Some thawed out in hammocks after yesterday’s snow…
Some spent the majority of the day carefully setting a foot trap for unsuspecting folk, mainly me 🤣…
And another took the quiet brain break nature offers, sketching dragons 🐉
My favorite part of the day, the constant conversations and storytelling echoing through the trees. It was everywhere, all day long ❤️ (oh, and of course seeing the feat of strength used to bring new benches to our pit area!)
Soaking up the sun, these wildlings spent their day at the “caves” and jumped right into the adventure! They helped set up hammocks, climbed the best climbing tree in the coulees (our opinion 😉 ), and went up and down, up and down the hill, testing all their muscles! One wildling even took it upon themselves to move huge boulders all day, impressive strength and determination! We also set up a candle-making station under the tree, where they practiced less-used knife skills and put their problem-solving skills to the test, fixing leaks in their creations!
It was all hands on deck at the top of the hill and at the candle-making station, so we didn’t capture as many photos of their awesomeness today!
We took off to the “mini forest,” which was much loved among the group, and they almost all declared, “we are coming here every week!”
We started the day with the birds joining our circle time, landing on all of us, and decided to stay the rest of the day, to many kids’ delight!
From there, the wildlings took on the challenge of caring for a whole fleet of eggs. For some, a few didn’t quite make it, but many were named, protected, dyed, and carried with great care!
We ended the day with the sparkler-through-the-egg experiment, but had to repeat it around five times, of course, just to ensure it wasn’t a fluke ;).
I’d say it was definitely a day to remember!
We were chasing the day today! It’s so rare lately that there isn’t a fire ban down here! So, in an attempt to cram it all in, we collected fire-starting “bird nests” and started our own fires with ferro rods. We collected sticks for everyone’s own charcoal tins (has a low ignition point, and the ember lasts a long time, great for a camping kit). We baked tornado potatoes, baked apples, marshmallows, apple and cinnamon tea, and made bird feeder bombs. All the while, these wildlings were getting acquainted, or reacquainted, with their fort areas and friends!
