Wild & Wonderful Monthly Update

August

Wild & Wonderful Forest School had a great opening month! Families were able to tour the land and see where they will be having class for the semester. Our Littles class started lessons on nature journaling and fire building. Our Middles Class was assigned their forest school pen pals, took their first hike to the creek, had an introductory lesson on shelter building, and much more!

Touring the Land

Families were able to come out August 14th and tour the land, meet the teacher, and get to play with their new friends. It was a fantastic turnout!

Littles Class

Intro to Nature Journaling

Nature journaling is the practice of observing and recording your experiences in nature. It typically involves using a sketchbook to capture details about the natural world. A journal entry could include drawings, paintings, poems, etc. Nature journaling has been shown to improve observation skills, enhance memory, boosts creativity, teach mindfulness, and foster a deeper connection to nature.This month the Littles class got an introduction into 3 different mediums they can start to use while nature journaling to engage different senses.

Students were able to learn how to complete a leaf rubbing with crayons.

We had our first kid writing lesson in writing plants we identify.

We were also able to paint our butterflies with pokeweed ink and rock paint.

Lastly, we had an introductory lesson on watercolors and the color wheel. We focused on two plants that gave us complimentary colors.

The Littles also had the opportunity to start and build their own fairy fire. For the next couple weeks we will be taking a look at several different methods in how to start a fire.

Middles Class

We were able to take our first hike to the creek to learn about macroinvertebrate, but unfortunately the creek was too low to find many. We will be trying again in the upcoming weeks.

While exploring the creek, students were able to learn about a saddleback caterpillar.

Students caught several crawdads in the creek. We learned how to identify a female from a male crawdad. Some students were able to hold them for the first time!

The students greatly loved exploring the creek for the first time. Next month we will be recycling old two liter pop bottles to teach the students how to catch fish in the creek.

The Littles and the Middles class were able to go apple picking on the land this month and we made some homemade applesauce over the fire! The students had a wonderful time collecting apples.

Students were also able to make chocolate soap over the fire this month using goat milk and coco.

More Wild & Wonderful Moments

Students started building a turtle habitat for some turtles we found.

The Middles Class enjoyed a fun game of Noodle Smash. Students had to sneak in and capture the ball without being hit by a noodle that was being frantically swung in all directions by a blindfolded student!

Students creating their first story stones of the semester. Story stones are stones that have images painted on them to aid a child in storytelling. They are wonderful for building imagination, developing language skills, encouraging creative play in children, and teaching literacy terminology to build a good story.

Students were able to look through a microscope to see the scales of a butterfly up close.

Intro into shelter building. They are currently learning the clove hitch as well as the trucker’s hitch.

A lesson in visualization. The Middles class voted on the book I Survived The Blizzard of 1888 as our first chapter book to read together. While the teacher is reading a chapter, the students must illustrate the chapter. In creating these mental images children are improving reading comprehension and recall.

Students were put in teams and had to put up their own hammock without any help from the teacher.

Students played a fun game called Find That Tree. Parents led their blindfolded child to a tree without touching them. The student could use all their senses other than sight to study the tree. The parent then returned their child to their original location, where they could remove the blindfold and have to find the tree that their parent had led them to while blindfolded.

Echoes from the Forest

In this section, “Echoes from the Forest,” you’ll hear directly from parents and students as they share their first impressions of the forest school. These reflections give voice to the experiences, joys, and discoveries of our community so far.

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“After teaching public school for over a decade, this past spring we decided to homeschool. Wild & Wonderful Forest School is exactly what I was hoping to find! My son is absolutely thriving in this setting. His curiosity is piqued every week and the emergent curriculum used allows for the flexibility to pursue students interests. After each forest school day, my son can’t wait to tell family members about all of the things he learned, experienced, and created.”

~ Lydia L., Parent of Jackson/Littles class

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“It’s really fun, I like making friends. It’s way better than normal school. I like the book we are reading. Everybody is nice and it’s really fun.”

~ Claire, Student of Middles Class

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“Forest school isn’t just for kids!!I am having just as much fun as my daughter! Fresh air, friends, and an awesome learning space where we both fit right in. Not only do the kids learn through play and different activities…the adults do too! Which I think is the best part.”

~ Nickie P., Parent of Trinity/Littles class

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“ I like doing the story stones and I like playing on the obstacle course.”

~ Ian, Student of Littles class

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“ The teacher is nice, where we sit at the fire is nice, and all together the place is awesome. I wish forest school was every day.”

~ Max, Student of Middles class

Coming Up!

Coming up in the month of September we will be learning how to plant milkweed for monarch butterflies, welcoming the fall colors with eco prints, diving deeper into emergent curriculum lessons, and so much more! We also have our very first field trip of the semester planned to Circle B Horse Stables at Kanawha State Forest. Lastly, we will be starting our Trailblazers class this month!

Bringing Childhood Back to Nature