Fiber fun with Forest School

When the late January chills dip into the single digits, the Forest Schoolers spend a little less time in the forests and fields and spend a little more time indoors exploring other crafts and projects. We are in the midst of a fiber unit right now, and we have experimented with lots of fiber crafts over the past few weeks.  On the first day of our unit, we felt the fiber, examined it under magnifying lenses, and picked through Alpaca fiber which was donated by Melissa and Chris Pierce at North Branch Alpaca Farm. What a mess we made! 

 

 

 

 A guest speaker showed us how to use a drum carder.  We used the clean, long pieces of fiber to card into rovings.  

These rovings can be used for many things, including pretend beards,

 

 and they can be spun into yarn.

 

On another day, we made beautiful needle-felted works of art from colorful, dyed rovings!

 

 

Most recently, we used yarn to weave little bags.  We started with these items:

 

 

  and we practiced weaving with our families 

We ate our lunches by the fire and read one of many fiber-themed books, A New Coat for Anna, by Harriet Ziefert. 

 

Afterwards, we explored a frozen swamp and found some incredible ice formations! 

 

 

The day ended by listening to the gentle swishing of ice along the river bank.  It was a surprsing, unexpected sound and a lovely way to end an enriching day. 

 

 

 

 

 

Forest School, in the winter

Forest School looks and feels much different in the middle of January than it did in early September.  For one, snow coating the landscape provides opportunities for tranquil sights.  And with the chilly temperatures, frozen water balloons with food coloring make beautiful frozen globes throughout the day.

 These globes were mysterious, magical-looking and provided fodder for lots of imaginary play.  In this game of "Coyotes and Voles," the colored spheres became imaginary vole food!  The children in the middle of the circle were in their vole den and the people on the outside sphere were the coyotes, waiting to "eat" them, by tagging them, of course, as they were trying to scrounge for food.  It's amazing how something as simple as frozen colored water can spur creativity and naturalist knowledge in kindergarteners and first graders.

After an extensive game session, we visited the Christmas tree maze that was being set up for the Ice on Fire festival this weekend.  We were lucky enough to see a Red Tailed Hawk circling above, too!

This is Christmas tree maze from afar.  Community members drop their Christmas trees at the North Branch Nature Center and talented Americorps volunteers set up the aromatic maze for children and adults, alike, to enjoy leading up to the Ice on Fire festival.  

We tucked into the barn for a snack and our morning circle before heading out to our base camp.  On our way, we searched for Nature's Paintbrushes and used them to create patterns and write in the snow.   Hello, literacy!  

On our way to base camp...

Sliding down the hill at our base camp.  Despite the cold temperatures, the children walked, played, slid, imagined and stayed warm and engaged during our 5 hour outing.  Let's see what next week's temperatures bring!

Whittling with Kids

The Forest School students have had a super fun time honing their whittling skills this fall using potato peelers.  As soon as the single-pivot potato peelers were introduced, these kindergarten and first graders enthusiastically took to experimenting with whittling:

 

They made crafts, like this God's eye in a homemade frame:

 

 

With so many beautiful goods created over the course of a few weeks, everyone wanted to create a store to sell their wares!  A name was voted on, which was the "Fire Whittlers" and friends and family were invited to shop during the last Forest School session before the holiday break.  Here are the students making price tags for their goods:

 

When the parents arrived, they were instructed how to "Fox-walk" up to our basecamp:

 

 

Here are our guests arriving through the forest: 

 

One vendor selling a fishing pole:

 

We finished off the afternoon with a Thanksgiving circle, where parents, grandparents, students, North Branch staff and friends shared one thing that they were thankful for.  It was a beautiful afternoon with lots of wonderful learning that took place!

All Day Outside

Exploring a winter creek

It's another beautiful Monday in Vermont and 30 first grade students are getting ready for a day in Hubbard Park. Each backpack carries a lunch, a water bottle, and a hand crafted mini sled. Every hand, head, foot, and mind is properly prepared for the day ahead. And, yes,...it's February. The outside temperature has climbed to 28 degrees and students are carrying thermometers and a plethora of questions that were generated during morning meeting.

Thermometers in action

How cold is it outside? What is the temperature of the river? Can penguins survive in Hubbard Park? Penguins as we know, do not live in Vermont. But to these first graders at Union Elementary, it is a hot topic because they have been studying penguins through a new math curriculum. Along with penguin math, the students have also been discussing properties of matter and force and motion. What better learning scenario than a day outside in winter? They will encounter a river, a pond, and a mysterious creek moving under ice. A half inch of fresh snow and a layer of hard packed snow turned ice, adds another medium to study. Icicles, frozen puddles, and melting snow under a February sun. We have found the ultimate science laboratory outdoors in the capitol city!

Taking the temperature of the North Branch River

Custom made sled for Piggy

 The concepts of  force and motion is easy enough to experience first hand by sliding bodies down an incline. But, why not construct your own mini-sled with cardboard, plastic, paper, popsicle sticks, and duct tape? Now that's a motivational button for learning! Build your own sled for your favorite small animal or cartoon character. After a few test runs on a carefully groomed surface, children were reconstructing their sleds with more duct tape and objects found close by.
"Hey Amy! I'm gonna tape my water bottle to this sled! Then watch out for how fast it's gonna be!"
Now that's force and motion, first grade style.

Mini sled with jet propellers and a plow

   The day sailed on in a mixture of sun, laughter, snow, idea sharing, questions, tons of observations, and new conclusions. Slow learning is good learning, for it allows for assimilation. This ECO day was planned so that children could move in between "science stations" which offered different degrees of stimuli and multiple ways to be a participant. It may not look slow with all these excited bodies scurrying about, but really,.. it is. All these outdoor provisions that helped to create a day of learning ultimately guided every child to follow their own interests and needs through inquiry based learning. In the end, children experience independence, self organization, participation, and empowerment.

That's 10 am to 2:45pm. No need to go back into the school building today.
We closed our day by having a  sharing circle on the snow covered lawn of Kellogg Hubbard Library.
" What were you most thankful for today?" the teachers asked. Here is what the children shared:

"I am thankful for,....my mini sled because it went fast, the birds singing, being outside, the frozen water that I broke, the fire because it got me warm, my mom, my dad, my teacher, penguins, my friends, nature, the earth and,...I'm just thankful for the whole day!"

All day. Outside. Something to be truly thankful for.

The community is our classroom

Frank the River Otter and 12 Kindergartners

Frank in  the classroom 

Who's your favorite river otter? FRANK!
Why do all these Vermont kindergartners love this member of the weasel family so much? Is it his extreme cute face and soft thick brown fur? How about those webbed toes and beady black eyes. And yes, he does have ears! "But,... they're so small! Can Frank hear okay?" the children wonder.
The ooo's and aww's fill the classroom when Frank makes an appearance. No student ever wants to see him go. They have even written him Valentines and "we miss you" notes.
So lets go back to the question, why do small children almost immediately experience empathy with Lontra canadensis? Children love animals, especially ones that have similar characteristics to their own. Children are natural caretakers of living things when adults model this behavior. I also believe it has to do strongly with children's innate connection to play and the river otters as well.

It is a brisk winter morning and a 12 kindergartners are eager for their ECO (Educating Children Outdoors) day. The school children burst out the back door and scamper up a snow covered hill. It doesn't take long for one adventurous being to figure out if you lay down on you belly, head pointed down hill, give a little push with your arms, you'll be sliding with increasing speed to a certain destination.
 As a teacher and a naturalist, I capitalize on the moment for extended learning during play.

12 young river otters

"Hey! You all remind me of my favorite Vermont weasel!"
'"What's a weasel?" a child shouts as they slide away from me. I reach in my back pack and ready at hand is a mammal guide and a photo of a river otter. Children gather round in between sliding to glance at pictures and make comments. Here we are creating a culture of questioning and learning through exploratory play.
It doesn't take long for the children to create a river at the bottom of their slide, scraps of cloth turn into fish. A den is being dug in the hillside with fast hands turned paws. With a little help from the "adult otters", we learn that by clasping your feet together behind you, your legs turn into a powerful otter tail perfect for steering and propelling forward. I mention to my friends that a coyote may be interested in their small fish cache.

"A coyote? Where?" the children become increasingly concerned, their eyes darting across the landscape. Some stand up on two webbed feet and sniff the air. These kindergartners immediately come up with a system to watch over cached fish and a warning system for an incoming coyote. Hmmmm,... all of sudden these children are the wisest humans I know. They work together as a family to protect what they have. These children are totally engaged. Mind, body, and heart.

The scenario of river otter play continues and I make the very adult comment that we should move on to the  next part of our morning. A small river otter turns to me and barks, " No way! We're gonna slide all day! Plus, we're such good hunters, we already got all of our fish for snack!"
Slide on river otters! Slide on!

A 6 year old masters the river otter slide

Inspired research and writing