February Happenings
I feel so fortunate that we can call this place our classroom!
This is Sticksaboxen, which the kids named after a book I read on the first day of school or anyone's first day, Roxaboxen. It's a place full of friendship, time and space, trial and error, imagination, and myriad unexplored nooks. The sticks here are anything from completely dead and cracking to still alive and bendy, from the tiniest twig to the mightiest rocket ship made of an entire fallen tree!
Nature News
We took a hike up to our favorite climbing spot and were surprised to find eight of the "classic mushrooms," fly agaric (Amanita muscaria). Someone had built a little fence around this one and we acted as "naturalists on the go" by pointing them out to passerby.
We also found little fields of tiny, brown mushrooms so gave this place a new name, Mushroom Forest.
The weather has run the gamut ever since Winter Break... Cold and rainy, hot and sunny (sometimes on the same day!), and even so windy our normal park shut down a couple days due to potential danger from falling trees! Thankfully, we have a backup park at Point Pinole. We get to watch trains there, and the engineers wave at us and honk as they go under the bridge, which makes us jump and crack up laughing. Every. Single. Time.
Documentation
I like to bring along this trusty Nikon to document my outdoor teaching. I've used it for roughly ten years now. I've even fallen on it and been able to repair it myself! I have to admit, though, the lens cover's been slightly more unreliable ever since I slid down an exceptionally steep path last summer with it attached to my belt loop and it got a load of dust in it! I keep it attached to my belt loop or backpack, and that handy carabiner means I (and the kids) have it at the ready any time a photo or video is thought of.
I wrote extensively about my documentation methods in the article, "From Fear to Freedom: Risk and Learning in a Forest School." The article is expanded as a book chapter in Nature Education with Young Children if you'd like to explore how I record data further.
Enrollment Availability
I have the following enrollment periods available:
-Remainder of the 2020 - 2021 school year,
-2021 summer camp,
-2021 - 2022 school year.
I keep the web site updated with availibility, and more information and the application are available there:
Social Media Links
If you'd like to keep more up-to-date on our goings on and get links to community resources, please "like and follow" me on social media. All the links are in my signature below. I'm even trying to upload a YouTube video every few weeks now. Here's a link to the latest video from a wet and rainy day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAsiuw176Cg
Facebook (www.facebook.com/TeachOutside)
instagram (https://www.instagram.com/outside_school/)
YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDHGkinQRTgRWM9ZUB_0xOw)
iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/people/teachoutside)
Sending you some virtual hugs... I hope that you and your loved ones are well!
Take care,
Heather