Cache Valley Forest School

It’s a good sign when hands get muddy out here😜 In this case we were learning about beaver ecology and had to get some hands on practice experimenting with dam building. We started with a simple trench on a slope and each group was challenged to slow the water down in whatever way they chose. Some used sticks and mud, others created different channels and packed them with grasses, while a few groups made wider depressions to create larger pools. We then gathered water from the nearby stream in a bucket and poured it down each “river” to test our beaver engineering! 🦫 We finished the day with muddy hands, new playful connections with the land, and a far greater appreciation for the roles of our beaver friends in the broader ecosystems.

In whatever learning adventures you find yourself up to this week, hopefully it involves a bit of mud. We highly recommend it 😉
-
-
-

It was a bees and other bugs kinda day for the Pathfinder class this last week! We had a special bee-biologist guest who visited and led us on so many neat adventures looking into the world of pollinators! While many of us often think of the domesticated European Honey Bee when we think about bees, we learned there are so many (4000+ species in the US alone!) native bee species who all fill critical roles in the native ecosystems. Did you know many species of bees live in the ground? Or that some have cute fuzzy mustaches? Or that some bees can burrow into stone? Some are large, others so tiny they are hard to see! We enjoyed having this whole other world open before our eyes, with lots of exploration, questions, and even the opportunity to make some bee hotels from invasive phragmites stems foraged along the roadside.

We wrapped up our morning with a renewed fascination for the little beings in the world around us. No walk in the park, or trip out to the mailbox will ever be the same 🐝🐝 Have you seen any pollinator friends recently?

-
-
-

It’s always a good sign when the landscape provides an opportunity to go “off script” and deviate from your plan. Last week on the way to our Forest school location , we say a Coopers Hawk swoop down along the roadside, so our arrival game shifted to a rousing game of Hawk chases little bird. Then later as we wandered through a meadow the students began asking questions about last year’s dried Mullein stalks, which led to some reading in a plant guide and then the creation of a couple handdrill sets. Somehow with all that we still managed to fit in our carving lesson too. As teachers we prepare and come with a plan, but our true work is learning to be mindful of the lessons the landscape is asking us to discover. This usually means being okay with things not being perfect all the time, and letting go of our own vision and trusting the natural processes of discovery will always be more valuable in the end. Some days, like this past week, it’s obvious. Other days less so and we fall back on what we came prepared with. Everyday it’s fascinating and a privilege to work with these curious minds in wild places.

In the moments you find yourself outside, big or small- we hope you too can capture the lessons waiting to be discovered all around us.
-
-
-

This week we found ourselves capturing the gifts of tracks left in the springtime mud! It’s super simple and wonderful way to connect a little deeper with the tracks you find on your adventures.

Here’s how we did it-

-Find a track! Ask the questions that really get you thinking like the animal- where would I walk if I were a ____? What might I avoid or seek out? Perhaps act it out too if you’re feeling really like embodying the animal and incorporating some animal forms into your exploration!

-Once you’ve found a track on a relatively level surface create a little mold to press into the substrate around the track. This will prevent the plaster from just spilling out in a puddle before it sets up. We used recycled paper board but many different materials would work!

-Mix up your plaster according to the instructions (should be available at your local craft store in the form of Plaster of Paris or Perfect Cast)

-Gently pour into your mold, filling it a good 1/2in above the top of your track (we didn’t do this on all of them and the contours of the track formed some weak spots that we learned could be avoided by filling the form a bit more!)

-Let it set up! Times will vary depending on climate but the ones we let sit for at least 45 minutes turned out the best. This provided the perfect time for some snack and games:)

-Gently pull the cast from the track and scrape off obvious chunks of dirt/ sand but don’t clean it completely yet. Let it cure 24 hours before giving it a thorough cleaning with a brush and/ or toothpick to clean out any remaining substrate.

There you have your cast track! Study it, draw it, show all your friends and nerd out about animals with them:)

Looking back over some pictures and clips from last Friday’s Forest school, I was impressed with how many moments of unscripted celebration and learning were represented in the small handful of moments captured throughout the morning. From learning knots, starting fires without matches, and all the countless curious observations along the way there’s truly something incredible about this kind of learning. It’s learning that empowers, reconnects, inspires, and even when it’s tricky (those knots aren’t always easy to learn!) it provides opportunities to try again and learn from the material, landscape, and those around us.

Here’s to another week learning real skills outside, asking real questions about the world around us, and of course incorporating lots of play in the mix too:)
-
-
-

Service project day at Forest school! In all the things we get up to we try to teach the importance of living in reciprocity in our relationships with people and place. That certainly can look many different ways, but on this Forest school Friday it meant taking some time to clean up the park spaces that have so beautifully facilitated our learning and adventures the last couple weeks.
Litter picking in the dry stream bed, working together to clear brush, and some trail restoration made for a lively day. Today and always we’re feeling grateful for another day spend working and learning alongside these incredible young people!
-
-
-