March 22
We love to end our forest school sessions gathered around a crackling fire that the wildlings have started, fed, tended, played with, gotten nourishment from and learned from. We allow for each wildling to do what they would like, how they would like. They rummage through the supplies and run off with beautiful ideas taking route. Or the reverse, becoming inspired by nature and come in search of something specific. We love either way!
Today we had hammocks, slack lines, snow baskets, tarps… out to freely explore. And with the request of the children to bring back easter from last year, we entrusted each child with an egg to care for during the day. To do with what they would like, build it a home, make a pully system for it, egg drops, eat it, dye it… all with the thought that if the egg is still whole at the end of the day it will turn into chocolate! Most took this challenge very seriously and created spaces that were guarded with their lives.
Also by request we made breakfast on the campfire, we worked together and prepared a spread of eggs, bacon and pancakes, with wild spruce and juniper tea.
Your wildlings had the opportunity to wildcraft rock art (but it was so cold that you might have had to re-glue when the paint dried!)
We ended the day listening to an indigenous story of how fire came to be and giving and offering and thanks to nature for letting us come, enjoy and learn.
It was a perfect snow day to end our winter ❄️
Ps. You can see the story of your bull kelp on an Instagram video that comes out Wednesday ;).
Previous Weeks
Into the trees we went to explore and erect shops of toys and scat 😬. Then headed off to the muddiest place in Lethbridge… Which ended up being too muddy for us :). After getting stuck a few times over, we called it quits pretty fast and headed in to relax and paint. We then fed the chickadees and tried to find the noisy but well hidden woodpeckers.
We traveled to a magic forest and played with our forest friends. Made necklaces and drawings and finished the day making bird feeders out of pine cones for our wintering birds.
With the day going from cold to warm we got to witness the ground changing as the snow melted away, changing our play with it.
Crushing ice and seeing the underworld of puddles was a favourite of the day! Building forts, playing games and making bows filled our day very quickly!
We went tracking animal prints trying to find their dens, water source and food source, then plastering them to get a better look. We then settled in, painting the rivers icy edge, relaxing in hammocks, and using hammers/nails, and saws to make the perfect Y sticks to build a shelter.
A few of these wildlings made it their mission, and worked extremely hard to create a sturdy shelter!
What a great day to spend by the campfire! Mixing up bannock bread, starting fires, making up games and constructing pulleys with rope and baskets… A great day to learn how to keep our bodies warm when there’s a chill in the air!
Keep moving! That’s the name of the game when snow is coming down and snow is all around. We travelled along freshly snowed animal trails to these wildlings favourite site for a day of full body movement!
Lots happening today including playing camouflage, tarps and tools, and feeding chickadees! We ending the day making maple snow “cones” and talking about what trees you can make syrup from.
When these wildlings play together they are working hard to articulate, communicate, delegate, problem solve, and conflict resolute… which are incredibly important leadership skills!
What a beautiful day to head back into the woods. We spent the day playing games, reading stories, becoming nature detectives trying to figure out what caused a big tree at home base to fall over during the winter. We collected mullein for our wild hot chocolate and rocks for painting. We started nature journals that we will add to each week!
Ps. Sorry.. I didnt take many photos today!
