Wednesday Forest School – Cole Harbour

At Wild Child we do our best to cater to the needs of our community. Due to a last minute change in our programs this winter, our Wednesday program has been running at three hours a week, whereas the Thursday program is scheduled for four. With a lot of our students being new this season, and the unpredictability of the weather, we decided to begin the program at three hours. After three weeks in the forest, these wild children proved they have what it takes to adventure another hour with us outside. After discussing the addition with the families, the students were thrilled to spend another hour at forest school.

And let me tell you, these students sure made use of their FOUR hour program this week!

This week the students were given a lesson on foraging , specifically with a few plants we can make tea from year-round.

Many of the students also had a chance to try out their whittling skills.

Each student is given a one-on-one lesson about using the tools before they have their turn. We begin each student with a vegetable peeler to allow for practice of similar motions and skills needed for knife handling, with less risk. Once each student shows they are ready and understand the responsibility to handle a knife, we provide them with the opportunity to show us.

Yes we give knives to children. In a safe and controlled environment, students are guided and encouraged by their leaders and peers to succeed; always!

And as always, the students were given lots of time for free play and learner-led exploration.

This time was spent:

setting traps,

climbing trees,

playing independently, and with friends;

and uncovering all the stories of the forest.

Thursday Forest School – Bedford

Week two in Blue Mountain Birch Cove Wilderness Area and our small class is slowly growing; today we were happy to welcome back two students to our program.

This week was once again unanimously voted on being spent at Charles Lake.

The lake was quite frozen this week and the students enjoyed throwing sticks and rock across it. The student experimented with different throwing materials; there were so many differences noted between distances travelled and sounds made as the object travelled.

This game continued until one student (quite comically) through a stick onto the ice with his glove still attached. Quickly, the students (and leaders) worked together to retrieve the glove. This then resulted in getting a rope stuck in the middle of the ice attached to a stick in hopes to aid in the retrieval. The students took turns throwing objects at the rope stick until it eventually made its way close enough to the watersedge for a leader to get. Once we had the rope back, the students worked together to lasso, hook and slowly pull back the branch, successfully retrieving the glove back !

All that excitement and teamwork worked up an appetite, and we decided it was a good point in our day to break for lunch.

After lunch, a few students spent their time feeding and watching a squirrel.

We finished off our day in the forest with a fresh cup of forest tea: identified, harvested and prepared by one of our students.

Do you know the name of this deliciously minty plant?