Wild & Wonderful Monthly Update

March

We have made it to spring! We enjoyed windy day activities, revisited the health of our creek, learned all about geodes, and much more!

Revisiting the Health of the Creek

Last fall we studied aquatic macroinvertebrates. Macroinvertebrates are insects in their larva stages, such as dragonflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, and mayflies.

Last fall we found little to no macro invertebrates in our creek. We concluded that the inconsistent water flow may have been the reason.

We learned that macroinvertebrates are used to study the overall health of the creek because their sensitivities to pollution. Generally, healthy creeks support a diverse population of macroinvertebrates.

This time when we searched we immediately found an abundance of macroinvertebrate! We found mayflies, worms, crawdads, caddisfly larva, salamanders, and much more!

While on our search for macroinvertebrate we found a crawdad carrying its eggs!

It was a GREAT and engaging time down at the creek!

All about Geodes!

This month our emergent curriculum took us to learn all about geodes! A student found one on our land and everyone wanted to know more about it, what it was, and how to find one!

This was the geode found by the student that led us to study more about geodes.

This was another geode that we studied in greater detail. We learned that a geode is a type of sedimentary rock that forms when a cavity within the rock fills with minerals and over time becomes crystals. This process can take thousands of years!

Because we were studying about minerals we decided to include a mineral into our art project. We completed a water color painting of a geode and used sea salt to sprinkle on top of the paint before it dried.

When salt is sprinkled onto a wet watercolor painting it absorbs the water and some of the color. It leaves behind a vibrant colorful effect on the painting.

Processing a chicken

This month our Tuesday group had the opportunity to see a chicken be processed.The chicken had to unfortunately be put down. Thank you to landowner, Shakira Carpenter, for allowing us the opportunity to use the chicken for an educational lesson. We took the time to teach the children the reasons as to why a chicken has to be put down and the process in which a chicken goes through before being consumed.

Children had the option of opting out if they were not ready to see it processed. Thank you to Brittni and Nathan Sullivan for teaching us how to appropriately remove the feathers, the evisceration process, and inspecting it. It was extremely informative and the children enjoyed taking part in the process!

Welcome Megan Wilson

The Wild & Wonderful family would like to officially welcome Megan Wilson, our new educational assistant! Megan grew up near Nashville. She received her bachelors degree in Child Development from Middle Tennessee State University and went on to earn her masters degree in Teaching from Trevecca Nazarene University. She has been married to her husband for 14 years and they have three children, ages 11, 9, and 7. Megan has had multiple jobs in education, including preschool for 5 years and most recently an educational asssistant at Rossview Elementary for 1.5 years. She loves reading, hiking, adventuring, walking the dog, and being outside with her children. We are super excited to have her join our forest school family!

Windy Day Fun!

We had A LOT of fun flying kites during all of our windy days!

Family week

Family week was a lot of fun! Families came out and helped their children work on the obstacle course. Parents raked the trail, helped build obstacles, made signs, and much more. Thank you to all those parents that came out and gave up their day to be with us at forest school.

Wild & Wonderful Fun Run Obstacle Course

Please come out April 11th, anytime from 2:00-5:00 to run the race! A new heat will begin every 30 minutes. To register for the race please go the following link below. Following the race there will be a refreshment table and table the children have set up to sell items (cookies, t-shirts, etc.)

https://forestschool.gvtls.com/

If you cannot make the race, but would still love to support the students please consider donating. To donate please follow the link below and please put in the donation Wild & Wonderful Forest School Donation

https://tenngreen.org/how-to-help/donate/

Below are some new obstacles the children have been working on this month.

The Great Wall of China

Tripod Jump

X marks the Spot

Hurdles

Lily Pads

More Wild & Wonderful Moments

During family week we made chocolate soap over the fire. Each student was able to bring home a bar of chocolate soap.

This month we learned all about disruptive coloration, a method of camouflage used by animals to disrupt their prey or predators.

Thank you to land owner, Shakira Carpenter, for letting us love on her two day old baby chickens during family week!

Coming up!

In April we have very busy month! We will have beekeeper, Kristin Fulton, coming out to the speak to the students. We will be taking a field trip to the Adventure Science Center and we will have our Fun Run Obstacle Course on April 11th! Please come out and join us for the race! This will be our last full month of forest school for the semester before we break for the summer. Enrollment is now open for fall 2025!