Beginnings

We are at the beginning of a new school year, and are welcoming new friends and a new teacher to our community.

During our first short week, our friends spent time exploring and practiced utilizing some tools, like hand lenses to see things up close. They viewed fungus, things hidden under leaves, and other curious findings around the forest. There was some playing of Eagle Eyes, where everyone got a turn being the eagle.

Early weeks of school are all about getting to know one another as well as the rituals and routines of forest school. We spent a little time in circle talking about how we like our community to treat us (and how we don’t). We’ll revisit this a lot in the coming weeks to have the children help establish a kind of community agreement. So far they’ve added their names and a drawing of themselves. Stay tunes as this page fills with student-created (and teacher-guided) rules of conduct.

The short week was cut even shorter by a tropical storm tease that closed our public schools for the day (which turned out to be quite lovely). Not too long ago, a similar weather pattern of the far arms of a passing hurricane turned tropical storm had many buses, and parents, stuck in traffic on flooded roads in the midst of a sudden tornado warning—hence the districts extra caution. Hence, sorry for the closure, but I’m glad all was well here, anyhow.

Friday’s small crew had a blast at the creek and got to explore some creek play tools like squirters, nets and buckets. We read a few books and otherwise just played and explored with our creek tools, having a lovely morning together.

We look forward to a fuller week ahead, and hope all are well enough to join!