Spring is really springing around my neck of the woods! It is so encouraging to hear so much birdsong, and to have the sun shining through. Each day I am walking and writing, walking and writing - my 2-pronged approach to this in-between time. 

Below are some ideas around expressing gratitude (a wonderful well-being and positivity-encouraging thing to do at any time!) and journalling.

In our forest school groups, this takes many forms, but we try to do this regularly. It demonstrates a reciprocal relationship with the land and with each other. Here are some examples:

• sharing things for which we are grateful in our opening circle time
• singing songs about being thankful (some gratitude songs we sing include: "Thank you to the forest" and "We've got so much so much so much to be thankful for" and "When I Rise")
• expressing gratitude during our closing circle time for something that happened, or that they saw/experienced during our time together
• offering a tobacco tie to Jan, our Anishnaabe Knowledge Keeper and friend, when she comes to tell us stories
• offering seeds and plants to the earth
• offering seeds to chickadees and squirrels and meadow voles in the winter months
• asking for permission (from the plant), then thanking a plant when we harvest it (using the "honourable harvest" as a guide)
• looking very closely at the things in our natural world - journalling about them, asking questions, showing wonder and curiosity and awe

How do you express gratitude at home? Try one or more of these ideas this week:

• Look out the window, or go outside. Use all 5 senses to take in what's around you. You could even do a sit spot again!
• Write or draw about what you see/hear/smell/taste/feel. Feel free to email your responses! Or record these every day in a nature journal.
• During a meal, take turns expressing at least one thing for which you are grateful today. You could keep a family journal near the table for recording these things.
• At bedtime, list 3 things for which you are grateful. It's a great way to end the day. :)

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It's not surprising that an attitude of gratitude is mind-changing, and life-changing too. What we focus on matters! I notice, with my own children, that it's very easy to come up with a laundry list of the bad feelings or moments - these are potent too! For myself, ending the day on a "good note" helps with sleep and with my attitude the next morning. 

 Journals can take many forms. In our programs, we have made some from recycled paper, and we have bought some too. Personally, I prefer blank pages - unlined. More possibilities! Here are some possible prompts, but follow your nose! And eyes and ears and heart. 

• Once you have your journal - handmade or bought - take it outside or near a window.
• Look closely. Draw what you see. Write what you see. Go with what your intuition wants you to do. Perhaps you just want to look and look and look, and not record anything today. 
• Find a leaf, left over from fall. Draw it, looking at the tiny details of the veins. What do you notice about it?
• If you have any spring flowers, sit by them. Draw one. Imagine being that flower. Write about it. What do you see as a flower? What do you notice today?

Some of Josh Shea's ideas of what to look for this week include:

• bugs! (As I typed this - outdoors in my backyard - one just flew by and hit me on the nose) What bugs have you noticed so far?
• In my walks, I hear woodpeckers drumming on trees, robins chirping, chickadees calling out their mating songs, cardinals singing back and forth. What birds are you hearing on your street or in your backyard?
• Look up! Watch for flocks of geese, swans, and ducks flying overhead. How many can you count in one week?
• If you're lucky enough to be near some swamps, ponds, or wetlands, listen for the sound of the red-winged blackbird (conk'a'ree!), and with more daylight the delight of other bird songs. 
• What else are you noticing this week?

In closing, I encourage you to use the outside world as medicine as much as possible as a family. Follow the interests of your children - it's amazing to hear the questions that rise when you allow them to lead their learning.

​We are aware that Huron Natural Area is overrun with people right now, making it an unsafe place to be, so please try to find other areas to walk/explore. Thank you! 

"It's not enough to wish, dream, hope. Even children know this.
We must sail into the sea of uncertainty.
We must meet fear face-to-face.
We must take our dreams as maps for a greater journey.
Dreams, to come true, need a good story.
​So go live one."
~ Vironika Tugaleva

​Last week, I put out the call for maps of Huron Natural Area, with children just using the power of memory, and I'm happy to share these submissions with you. I love how different each one is - different parts of the park drawn, and various stories (I'm sure) that inform the maps. 

Here is what Poesy said about her map, below:
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"This little snake was the baby one I showed my Mom at the end of Forest School one day.  I found it under the log.  The pink house is the bat house in the meadow.  There is a mallard duck swimming in the pond.  My favourite trees are these ones at the bottom of my map.  They are at the beginning of the path.  I drew the place we had the fire on the last day.  In the top corner I drew the fox den, along the path to coyote corners.  I miss forest school so much!"

Another family took up the challenge. Three children made three very different maps. Here is Samuel's map, which shows many areas of the park - kind of like a bird's eye view. 

And here is Eliza's map. I love that both Eliza and Poesy have the bat house on their maps. It is definitely a landmark in the park now!

And here is Ezekiel's map. He did a very detailed drawing of places that included the entrance, play area, and parking lot.

Below is a map that we worked on with several of our forest school groups over the years, adding bits and pieces here and there. Some animal sightings, some special places (note the use of "magic" for many of the areas), and frequented areas. Over the years, we have named the spots too, sometimes according to the animals that we saw there, or evidence of animals. Map-making definitely is a way of storytelling for us - to tell what we've seen and heard and experienced together. Naming these spots, trees, landmarks says, "this land is important to us."

Here are two other ways that we've made maps over the years:

These are "maps" that we make in one session together.

1. Each person gets a stick with a long piece of cotton wrapped around. We have also used yarn or masking tape. 
2. We go on a journey! 
3. We collect things that interest us. [we talk about our picking guidelines - no live creatures, no scat, things that have fallen on the ground, and using the "honorable harvest" to discern whether to pick/harvest]
4. As we go, we attach them to our journey sticks.
5. When we reach our destination, we talk about what we chose and where. As we do that we "map" out our journey, picturing places in our heads as we hear each other describe the treasures collected. 

This name might seem deceptively similar to the name "Journey Sticks", but believe me, these are TOTALLY different. We made these after a year of being together.

1. Be together for a long time. Maybe even a school year. Take photos of adventures together. 
2. At the end of that long time, gather around the photos. Remember together.
3. Pass out sticks and sharpies. Draw or write about your favourite memories.
4. Share your ideas with the group. 

This map is a little more abstract, but it is a way of mapping out our time together - recording memories in drawings, words, and colours. Looking back, highlighting. Remembering where and when and what and which season and which feelings. It's a powerful way of reflecting together... saying "oh ya!! I remember too!"

How do you map your experiences with the land? With each other? With yourself?

Friends: I'd love to have your help to figure out what bird was murdered in our backyard. I am pretty sure I know who did it... we have a neighbourhood cat who is often on the prowl... I just need to know which of my feathered friends it was. 

​Here is a photo of what remained:

You could just guess, OR the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service has a Forensics Laboratory and Feather Atlas where you can search feathers by colour, pattern, size, position, and type of bird. So if you have a feather collection like I do, it can be very helpful as you try to discern which bird body it belonged to. 

Here is some information about the feathers pictured above:

Colour: If you can't detect shade from this photo, I'll tell you what colours my eyes see: there are varying degrees of grey, some black, and some white, and then at the far left end, some shades of brown.

Size: The feather at the far right is 13cm long. The all grey feather in the middle, just to the left of the one that has white on its tip and left side, is 9cm long. The feather at the far left, with some black, brown, and black spot on brown, is 6.5cm long. 

Habitat: I live in the city, on the border of Waterloo-Kitchener, and have a backyard bird feeder. There is no water around, so this is no water fowl.

​What do you think?

Hello to our dear forest school families! We wanted to send you some ideas of outdoor-related things to do while you're having a bit of a different routine (maybe) than usual. For some of you, maybe your homeschooling continues as usual - although with less interactions with other homeschoolers. For the schoolers, it's perhaps a bit of a summer-holiday-but-not-quite feeling. And for you parents! Blessings and all good things to you right now. :)

Over the next few weeks, I wanted to give you some ideas of routines that we do in our forest school sessions. Perhaps after reading these posts, you'll say: hey! I can do forest school easily from home! Exactly. You can! I encourage you to make these routines part of your family's practices - for you as adults too. They are good for any age's soul. 

I'll also include some ideas for what to spot outside this time of year, and some crafty/maker ideas. Feel free to play along and send photos of your creations to kitchenerforestschool@gmail.com. 

Maybe you've heard your child recount a sit spot experience at forest school. Or maybe when you ask about what they've done in forest school, the answer is "nothing." I assure you, the nothingness that is cultivated during a sit spot experience can be quite magical. Often, when we review our time together as a group, several children will point to the sit spot as their favourite time. 

This often takes adults by surprise. The sit spot is quiet, introspective, calm, un-moving. Not always how we picture young children. 

Here is the recipe for our sit spot routine: find a place in nature where you can sit for several minutes and open your senses. We give the guidance that this is not a climbing or a building time, or time to make silly faces at your friends time, but an opening your ears and eyes and noses and feelings and thoughts time. Some children choose to use a nature journal to record things; others just take it all in.

Sometimes we will have a story that leads in to a sit spot time. The Quiet Place by Douglas Wood is one great example. But most often, we will either sing a song to start it, or put down our "veil of silence", lifting our hands up to the sky, then lowering a pretend veil or curtain as we count backwards from 10 to 0. When we get to zero, everyone is quiet and finding their spot to sit. 

​Then we wait. Like a turtle, or moss growing on bark, or like us, quiet and still. 

After a few minutes (or longer, depending on many factors), we gather. We use an owl hoot most often to call the group back. Sometimes we use a "singing bowl" and we hit it three times like a chime to call people back to the circle. We then lift the veil of silence back up, and then sometimes share what we saw/smelled/heard/felt/thought about during that time. 

The sit spot encourages us to really get to know a piece of land. To notice the little things around us: the movement of wind, the call of a bird, the colour of the light through the trees, the buds or leaves or bare branches, the feelings that are inside of us today. It allows us to sit with ourselves and with the land, cultivating closeness to both. 

As part of a sit spot, you can introduce a sound map. This is a way of recording the sounds you hear around you. Take a clipboard, piece of paper, and pencil. Make an X on the page that represents you. Then sit quietly, waiting for sounds. When you hear one, record it on your map in relation to you, using a picture or word or letter as representation. Listen for several minutes, and see how many sounds you can hear, and from which directions they are coming from.

Kids! Make a map of Huron Natural Area. What do you remember about the land? Some things to consider for your map:

• what special memories do you have of forest school? 
• what is your favourite spot to visit?
• can you remember where there is water? where there is a favourite tree? Where there are meadows and creeks?
• have you spotted any creatures at HNA? If so, put them on your map where you saw them. 
• do you remember any edible plants from HNA? If so, put the location of that plant on the map too. 

Can you send me your map by email to kitchenerforestschool@gmail.com? I'd love to see them! With your permission, I'll post your maps on another blog post, and if you'd like your name to be included I will do that too. 

Brought to you by our friend Josh Shea at the City of Kitchener, here are some exciting things to start looking for this week outside. See how many you can find, and let us know!

• Get outside early-ish in the morning and listen for birdsong. Which birds can you identify by their song? Cornell Lab's All About Birds is a great place to start for bird song ID. You could add these birds to your sound map. 
• Robins have returned - have you seen one yet? Count the number that you see each day and keep track of it in your nature journal. 
• Go for a walk or look around your neighbourhood. Can you see a nest in a tree that has been used by a creature? What kind of creature do you think used it? If you would make a nest, what would you use?

So why do we look at dead animals at forest school?

• To learn about animals that we don’t otherwise see up close. 
• More importantly, we talk about dead animals within the context of the cycle of life.

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We acknowledge and make space for children to talk about the causes of death, and to acknowledge our potential impact on the environment around us. It may seem weird to look at dead animals and talk about them, but these are important life lessons and conversations for all of us. 

by Giselle Carter

The children help to reinvent the spaces. They have chosen a favourite climbing tree. They have favourite places where they like to build. They have expanded the space as they see a great fallen tree to balance on. They have named the Magic Tree and the Sitting Tree and the Rainbow Bridge Tree.  They are connected to the place and have a love for it. ​

"Come forth into the light of things. Let Nature be your teacher." ~ William Wordsworth
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I wrote recently about emergent curriculum, and how we follow the interests that emerge from the group. We also follow the prompts that arrive to us, unsummoned, from the natural world that we observe weekly. Exploration, questioning, and learning emerge from observing seasonal changes and having daily discoveries.

Sometimes our half-day adventures at forest school mean encountering one Teacher after another. One day last week, we started by observing the tree swallows as they swooped and dove around the meadow, tweeting sweet sounds, hunting for food. Sarah talked about "aerial foragers" and we discussed aerodynamics. How do things fly? Bird, planes, bees, butterflies, seeds?

​We encountered a mystery at the pond: 5 dead painted turtles, freshly killed, only their heads eaten. What happened there? Did they get caught by a predator? Maybe they came out of the pond and couldn't find their way back! When did this happen - when they were sleepy and coming out of hibernation? Why were just their heads nibbled? Who would just want to nibble turtle heads?

​ Back at the wood duck pond, a new area for many, we listened to wood frogs and spring peepers calling. We found and dissected an owl pellet, found a big deer toilet, and lots of woodpecker cavities. Who will nest there this spring? Why do the deer like to dump in that particular spot? Is there a screech owl nesting nearby? What did that owl eat?

​Many group members grew their interest in primitive technologies by gathering materials and making their own brooms, which they used to sweep the forest.

​We saw our first garter snake and first painted turtles (live) of this spring season.

​How much can you fit into one morning in the forest? How many things can you wonder about? There so much to discover with Nature as our Teacher!
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"You will find something more in woods than in books. Trees and stones will teach you."
~ St. Bernard of Clairvaux

by Rebecca Seiling

​This simple event reminded me of the joy of childhood - the ability to seize the moment, to have the time to notice your surroundings and engage with them.  These children have the freedom to get dirty. It reminded me to live in the moment, and of the simple joys and pleasures there are all around us.

​What a great start to our spring Foxes program! We have a group of explorers who seize opportunities with joy. They know how to play in and with nature.  They have the freedom to influence our plans and activities. I'm looking forward to all the other adventures we will have together!

​written by Giselle Carter