Outdoor Program - Sept 4&5

This year, Corbin will be joining the Outdoor Program. Corbin is our oldest student in the school this year and expressed interest in supporting younger students with his outdoor expertise on Thursdays in a volunteer role, and Fridays as a student.

Thursday

We started our first rainy day off inside for circle and explaining the process of our outdoor program morning exercises (clearing off energy, calling in the 7 directions, and settling in for silent time with our animal cards). Students shared the message their animal gave them during our meditation time too.

Students were introduced to our new outdoor learning materials and got to dive in to play.

During snack I shared a Robert Munch story called "We Share Everything" that got lots of laughs. This connected with one of the student messages from their animal card this morning.

After snack, we went outside to build our shelter for the day. Students worked together and identified the tools we needed, and we created a lean-to style shelter. We adjusted it so it was cozy and then everyone played for free time outside in the yard.

After lunch, we ventured out on a foraging hike. We identified trees, tried our hands at climbing (they got sticky in the Spruce trees), and played at the big park on the climbers AND with our new walky talkies. On our return, we came back to closing circle and shared what we found along the way on our sharing board and our favourite parts of the day. We ended with outside play time after packing up all our gear for the day.

Friday

We began our first sunny morning outside in our log circle after some free time playing this morning. After we shook, tapped and magic handed all of the energy we didn't want in our bodies, we sang our 7 directions song to fill us with wonder. Our animals cards were on point as they always are, and everyone received animal messages during meditation time and shared them.

Our morning book-look (we didn't read it, simply looked through) was about different kinds of animal poop, to prepare us for our foraging hike. The idea that poop we find can tell us what animals are around was a big (and giggly) hit! I read the story called "Twig" that touched on camouflage as an animal adaptation, individuality, inclusion, and speaking up for ourselves.

Before our hike, we discussed the need for shelter. Taking note that it was very windy, we identified where the wind was coming from, and secured our shelter between the Maples as a modified A-frame over a rope that we used to tie between the trees AND secure the corners of our tarp. While we were drawing the letter A in the dirt, we noticed a LOT of little Ants.

We explored some valuable lessons this morning regarding the rights of all creatures during our Ant discovery. We discussed how all living things deserve to live their life with as little of our impact as possible. I shared how, as a rule, we do not take the life of anything here without a plan, a purpose, and permission. We protect the smallest and especially the overlooked creatures. The lesson became a practice throughout the school day, which filled my heart with hope for the future.

On our hike, we met male and female Mallards at the second bridge, a Hive of Paper Wasps that Corbin found with our classroom monocular, many Plant friends in the community garden (Zinnia's, Coneflower, Sage, Lavender, Tomato, Corn, Strawberry, and Sunflowers), Red Clover and Wood Sorrel (these are wild edibles that we tasted today from safe unsprayed places), and a very special new friend.

Our friend walked right across our path on the walking trail. We all noticed and we all got down close to say hello, using quiet voices and sending love. We identified our new friend as the Short Tailed Swallowtail Caterpillar. We watched him for a little, then Corbin put his finger in front of him and he climbed on. While he climbed all over Corbin's hand, he eventually snuggled in on the sleeve of his black sweater. He was behaving like he was going into chrysalis phase, so we moved him to safety in the direction he was heading and began to encourage him onto the grass. He didn't like this, so he stood up and raised his feathers from a tucked away space near his head!! He was trying to look like a Snake because he was feeling threatened. We made space for our friend to climb onto the ground on his own. We chose to call him Snakey.

After a play on the swings and in the park with a little girl we met, we returned to the school for lunch inside. After lunch we had free play afternoon in the backyard. Many sand castles were created. We cleaned out the water table and filled it back up, then climbed and ran and played tag.

At the very end of the day we came back to circle, placed our foraged items on the sharing board, identified what we knew, learned about what we didn't, and saved our favourites for our home collections. I forgot to take the picture of the sharing board today...it was really colourful though with red and yellow leaves. Autumn is beginning to settle in friends.

Create a beautiful weekend!