Earthed Forest School

The rain didn't dampen our spirits as we headed over to site this morning. As the popular forest school saying goes, there is no such thing as bad weather only unsuitable clothing.
The rain offers so many opportunities and the children embrace being in it. This deeply fosters resilience.
As we approached the top we were greeted with big fungal clusters. Such a joy to see the excitement!
We lit the wood stove inside to dry off.

During circle time everyone shared what they loved about winter. I shared about the season as we approach the winter solstice this month, how we feel that and how we need the rhythms of the seasons in our life. What would it be like to miss winter? How does that effect our system?

The children made candle holders from wood rounds, air dried clay, sticks, stones, beads, shells and other goodies to enjoy over the darker evenings. The children captured a wonderful liking for this activity.

We made some banana bread for Ella and Reubens birthday and sang happy birthday.

We headed out for an explore in the clouds, finding more fungi, checking the traps and the transplanted trees. So touching to see these being cared for.

Most of the children spent the afternoon so engaged in digging and crafting new bowling runs, there was the twister of doom, extreme, and the x, x,x.
Such great learning through play, team work, sharing of ideas and mathematical thinking around calculations of the path of the ball with the slope, bumps and curves.
Through trial and error they adjusted the tracks as they went along and it was such a big achievement when the ball made it all the way!

Enjoy the candle light.

A fresh crispy morning, we are all feeling winter is just around the corner.. Just a small group today, we reviewed our soil types from last week and noticed the layers of silt that had settled more clearly in the jar with soil and water.

We had a talk about permaculture ethics, earth care, people care and fair share and how permaculture design is a wonderful design model that can be applied to any form of space.

Today the children became landowners with some extra cash to spend. They had to consider many different aspects with owning this new bit of land.
What the land needs, wind, sun, water and how it flows, soil, slopes, direction, wildlife and whats already on the land. Access and being off grid.
They also needed to think about their current skill set, what they knew and what they needed from other people to help them.

We took a walk around to feel into the different areas and what may go well there. Lots of ideas around having animals, zip lines, slides to the water, secret gardens, fruit trees and space for ball games.
We checked on our trees that were transplanted last week. All doing well.
When we got back everyone had a go doing a bubble map or concept design. I showed them one I had done from home. Some decided to draw there own spaces at home.

After we had a look at the new possum trap on loan from the enviro hub. Decided on a tree and got it sorted. This inspired the children to make their own traps in the digging area by the bunker. Most were holes with sticks at the bottom and some peanut butter for bait. The use of silver ferns are to attract, lure in small animals due to the white glow at night.

After lunch the traps were finished and we put a small rope ladder on the lower tree net, found some fungi, sawed some wood for the new work bench and played games.

We did a recap of the morning and hopefully some of that will come home to you.

Another beautiful crispy clear autumn morning!

Today we looked at soil. Many of us wrote up a list of a soil assessment in our nature journal. We talked about why we would want to test soil and choose our first location.
We smelt, looked at the colour, cover species, insect life and texture of the soil including a sausage test to determine the soil type.
We decided it was sandy based on the chart.

In a jar we put half soil and half water, shook it up and let it settle to see the layers, bottom being a very thick layer of sand followed by silt. We will observe more closely next week.

On our second location, it was a sandy loam, the sausage could bend a little.
Everyone dug a hole near the boundary fence line in preparation to transplant a tree. Many self sown native saplings are growing to close together. A long term goal would be to transplant and replant the sloping paddock.
The children choose kahikatea, mahoe, rimu, putaputaweta and manono.
Some children transplanted 3 each they loved it so much. The idea is for them to check and nuture them as they grow.

In the afternoon the children made a fire to roast marshmallows brought in by Jack.
We weaved most of the lower tree net, dug in the soil where the bowling runs are, hung out drawing in the tree net, games and sit spot to end.

Thanks Aaron.

With winter on its way, we all got into some medicine making.
Oxymel, Greek for oxymeli translates to acid and honey. Honey is antibacterial and soothing, while apple cider vinegar is high in acetic acid providing helpful enzymes and good bacteria. It extracts minerals and promotes the absorption of nutrients when taken with food.
We talked about why you would make an oxymel or herbal vinegar and looked at all the materials including their benefits.

We had a variety of herbs on offer, yarrow, mullien, rosemary, thyme, lemon balm, pineapple sage, white sage, common sage. A few spices, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Lemons and oranges.
We talked about what other plants we could find on site to use, rimu leaves, any edible weeds such as plantain, dandelion or herb Robert. Rimu, high in vitamin C and Usnea (old man's beard.)

We talked about menstruums and other forms of medicine such as tinctures and also the importance of choosing organic where possible to avoid sprays etc.

The children chopped as small as they could and put 4-5 tablespoons of their choosen materials into the jar, adding half vinegar and half honey or thereabouts.
This needs to be left for 2 weeks, (stir or rotate each day) then strained.
Label and store in fridge up to 3 months (maybe more but we used a mix of fresh and dried herbs.)
It might be a good idea to place it on a saucer incase of leakage. Out of sunlight and heat.

We lit the fire inside, melted some beeswax and dipped some leaves then left the Billy on while we went for a short walk to the stream.
We found some very cool fungi including, our native weraora and yellow club fungi.

We gathered some ferns to put on the bunker bed and had lunch along with rosemary and rimu tea with honey. Delicious 😋
In the afternoon there were games, slip and sliding, fire lighting and putting up the tarp.

Thanks Aaron.

This morning we all had a practice of the knots from last week. Some of the children mentioned they practiced at home which is so great to hear.

After we had a look at different tinder options and why diversity is important. We went into the bush to gather materials for everyone to make a bundle a bit like a birds nest and have a go using char cloth to light it.
We reviewed some practical skills for fire with a demo, some had a go starting their bundles. It takes time to develop a relationship between self and fire, knowing how and when to use the breath is great practice and confidence building for the children.

I had prepared a bread mix earlier this morning as it needed to rest for 3 hours before baking.

We have a Dutch oven on lend from Mentored by Nature and not had the opportunity to use it yet.
We had a rough idea on a ratio of embers and charcoal to place on top, and under the Dutch oven to reach an average temperature of 220 degrees to bake the bread. We have had a bag of charcoal in the wood shed for ages and worked to place some in the fire.

Great discussion around how to manage the temperature and why heat needs to come from the top as well as the bottom to create the ideal temperature. 30 mins with the lid on and 10 without.
We all had a bet on how the bread would turn out and were so pleased with the result.
Super yum 😋

After lunch there was foraging and roasting wild strawberries. Char cloth making, digging and working in the soil near the bunker, knife sharpening and games.

We reviewed our tinder material options from this morning, then gathered skeleton mahoe leaves, compared and choose the top quality ones for next week.

Thanks Aaron.

In our circle this morning we talked about different plants, foods or fruit that could be helpful when we are sick. Everyone shared their thoughts, some where: honey, garlic, plantain, herb Robert, lemon and ginger.
After, the children had a go blindfolded on a mixed terrain rope course. If we didn't have our eyes what sense would we rely on? They loved it so much they had 3 goes each.

Everyone took some Paracord and practiced doing a hank. I demonstrated the timber hitch and everyone had a go. Some of the boys wanted to absail off the bank using this anchor knot so we did that before having a go with a tension knot.
We will aim to practice these a few times this term and get them hardwired in.
A few had a go putting a tarp up while others found some bones under a tree, we have ID them as a rat.

After lunch Aaron and some of the children took turns throwing a rope over a high branch in a tawa to make a swing. It took many goes but had sucess and lots of fun using the remaining rope to steer the person on the swing.
We lit the fire in the bunker which needed a bit of adjustment but went great with a taller chimney and fire further back in the hole.
There were games, skipping and a sit spot to end the day.

Thanks for coming along Aaron.

Today we explored interconnectiveness, the web of life.
As a warm-up, everyone went off to find something they were curious about, then we discussed what it is and what it may need to live its life.
Next, everyone in a circle chose a piece of nature they were going to represent - the sun, a bee, tree, rain, fungi, etc. - and passed the string to other parts of nature, explaining the connection.
We looked at what would happen if one part was put under strain or cut off. This game is great with larger numbers, too.
It's so powerful to have this visual of how everything needs and is woven into one another.

We went off to explore real life connections and spotted: fungi, native seedlings and moss growing on one piece of dead wood, ferns and rata climbing up trees, ruby bonnet fungi thriving on dead leaves and ferns, fallen epiphytes heavy with water. We spotted some watercress in the stream and some gave it a try.

After we carried on with the shelter. Lashed the trap door, built up the chimney, made the shelf and started cutting rata for the bed.
Nearly finished!
There was a competition for the biggest, smallest and roundest earth ball.

To end our day we had games and a recap of nature connections from this morning.

Thanks Josh.

Super fun holiday program today. We did fire lighting, sliding down the slopes to the stream foraging for supplejack tips and wood ear (hakeke) fungi spotting and pizza making.

The boys all enjoyed making bows and arrows or spears out of supplejack creating their own meaningful play.

Thanks Gabriel.

We discovered a large native centipede and spider on the tarp which lead to great chats.
For our last day of term, we used our maps for an Easter hunt, but before we did, we all spent some time chatting about the compass, degrees, and directions in simple terms.

The children all had a go at taking 2-3 bearings each and got the hang of it. They were excited about finding some treasure! I had marked an X on each map with a bearing written on the back.

Next, there was another hunt for fabric bunnies and eggs in the trees.
As we are now in fungi season, we took a walk down into the bush to see how many different types of fungi we could observe. Several trees with wood ear were spotted, and we harvested a few from each spot to fry up later.
We talked about direction in the bush and quizzed the children on their current location and which way to get back.
After lunch, there was a fire to cook our wood ear, individual fire-lighting practice, digging, sawing lighter straight pieces of wood for our trap door to weave together, and a few games. We reflected back on the activities of the term and shared our personal highlights.

Thanks Josh.

We observed a few of the earth balls from last week, amazed, there were no cracks and they were very hard and solid. To test one, it was thrown at the ground and it didn't break!

To celebrate and acknowledge the autumn equinox a few days ago, we made some earth candles. We talked about what the equinox means and drew a little diagram in the soil of where the sun rises and sets, mid-summer, mid-winter, and during the equinox.

We collected wood for a fire and passed around a piece of fatwood I came across over the weekend. This wood is resin-saturated heartwood of dead or injured pine, highly flammable and burns in wet conditions. Most loved the intense pine, turpentine smell.
Using the back of a knife, I made some fine wood fluff shavings, added them to a bundle, and lit it with the flint and steel. All the children got a piece of fatwood to keep and have a go at shaving and lighting.

Afterward, we dug small holes for our candles and, once the wax was melted, poured it into each hole. This is pure beeswax from the land. The bees were very interested, as were the children observing the bees' behavior.

More mud mixture was made to plug the holes in the roof, and a hatch was latched.
We lit the fire inside the shelter to help dry it out, plus to see how it worked - a little smoke inside, but most of it went out the chimney. We covered the entire roof with dried ferns and corrugated iron for the upcoming rain, giving it a chance to settle and stay dry until we finish.

The ending circle was about what we enjoyed about the day and recapping fatwood.

Thanks, Josh.