March 14, 2015 Saturday Forest School
What a wonderful day! And such a joy to spend the day outside. It was a treat to welcome some new faces and reconnect with some old friends. We started the day with opening circle where we bring in fire, give thanks, sing and have snack.
After that we played Camouflage. We've got some really great hiders. Emmett and Jude were both fairly close to the campsite but they blended in so well that they were never seen!
During morning passion times, one group practiced archery while another one constructed houses for our local fairy and mole populations. During a mini woods adventure, the archerers found a possible kill site for a grouse or turkey as well as several deer beds and scat.
The afternoon commenced with a whole group game of Coyote Deer that ended in our Species Name Ceremony. Ask you child what their species name is! Camp groups met in the afternoon for whittling, treasure finding and sensory games.
Kids picked their special sit spots. Sit spots give us the opportunity to connect with the woods around us. This is a practice that we do everyday at Coyote Kids. It's a special spot picked by your child where they can sit quietly and observe. Some Coyote Kids also have sit spots at home.
The day ended with the gathering of stories and the BIG STORY. Today was the story of Artemis and Orion. As a village, we all took a solemn archery oath in honor of Orion.
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| Sharing information about our species names |
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| Finding the possible kill site. |
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| Nell uses her sense of hearing during Firekeeper. |
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| Firekeeper |
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| Adrian starts to build his bow. |
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| Bow building. |
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| Thanks to Ben for spending some volunteer time with us today. |
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| What do you think happened here? |
March 11,2015 Wednesday Village School
The calendar turned to March and in came Spring air, mud and Coyote Kids...... It's been a wonderful two weeks so far. I wish I could show you some pictures but I am so excited about all the activities that I keep forgetting my camera! Today we introduced archery! All the kids took turns shooting through a tripod target. During February the Coyote Mentors got together and spent a day carving bows. When we shot them today not a single one snapped! Some kids continued with archery during passion time and other kids made bird food, carved spoons or built traps. The bird feeding group rendered lard to pour into molds. Next week when they are solid again we will hang them from the trees for the birds. The spoon group began coal burning the center of their spoons. And the trap group learned how to set up traps from debris found in the forest. After what felt like 5 minutes, it was time for closing circle. The day ended with a story about Artemis, Apollo and Orion. As future archerers, the whole village took an oath like the one in our story. Ask a Coyote Kid to share it with you...... We will be on break next week but look forward to being together the week after. Today I was reminded again what a blessing it is to be outside and an extra blessing to share the day with amazing children.
Spring 2015 starts on March 4th. Stay tuned.....
Week 7
Last Session
April 30, 2014
As April came to a close, so did Sterling College and our Spring Coyote Kids session. We celebrated by making music, doing sensory stalking in the forest, and going on a wild edible hunt. Parents came down to join us. While there, they shared a sit spot moment with their child while wild predators roamed the land in search of noisy food. Our whole village participated in a joyful blind drum stalk. At the closing circle, each child was presented with a book of songs and a special note. Later, mentors snacked on brownies and received special notes of their own. The end of the session was joyful and sad, as endings can be. It was another great session of magical moments in the forest. Until we start again in the fall, I hope you all have many magical forest moments on your own. Write them in your nature journal to share at Coyote Kids when we meet up again......
Music making:
First we listened and turned our sounds into rhythms and beats (sticks cracking, water rushing, bird songs). That led to a rhythmic stick jam session. We then found sticks we loved and carved notches in them to add some extra rhythm options.
Forest snake...
Blindfold drum stalk with families:
Goodbye to all the field mice, squirrels, owls, moles, voles, foxes, coyotes, turkeys, lightening bugs, shrews, grouse and other animals of the forest. Until next time....
Week 6
April 23, 2014
Week of the SSSMSM, forest beauty parlor, bark basket making, and whittling a really hard stick. We started the day with the whole village practicing the art of making a one match fire. After that, most of the village went on the super secret spy mission into the forest. On the mission they found wild edibles such as ramps and trout lilies. They found and identified some wild inedibles as well. Priscilla set up a charcoal beauty parlor by the fire. It was a great day for her family because new baby brother twins had just been born that morning! Anzley learned the craft of peeling bark off a tree to form into a basket (and has been basket making like crazy ever since). Amelia spent most of the day diligently whittling a really hard stick with a really big smile. And Ange came to visit. Hooray! It was a day filled with fun, fun, fun and lots of really useful learning.
Super relaxed snackin
One match fire:
The happy whittler
Forest beauty parlor with Priscilla
Some of us turned into warriors.....
Some into divas!
Weaving a pine bark basket together with the roots of a cedar tree
Thanks for another beautiful day in the forest.
Week 5
Guest Mentor Day
April 16, 2014
Well, I just realized that it took awhile to get week four on here. I can only plead that we've been having so much fun actually doing Coyote Kids that we forgot to write about it! It's been a great couple of weeks. This day was All College Work Day at Sterling College. That meant several of our regular mentors were doing other jobs and we got some guest visitors for the day. It was great! We had Zak, Brihde and Tom from Sterling join us. Our favorite elder Duncan also came for a visit. We had a beautiful opening circle filled with sincere thanksgiving and a story about a golden heart.
Jackson then told us about a strange new species he had seen in the woods. As he was describing it, the animal jumped up with a strangled shout and ran off dragging its wooden tail behind it. Yep, it was stick-butt-asaurus day! Immediately after that happened, the entire village of kids jumped up and ran after it - really fast!! The mentors looked at each other and shouted "run" and we took off after the kids! Well they ran the whole way...and it turned out that our animal had led us directly to a porcupine den. We played some camouflage, fire keeper and then did our sit spot (hoping to see signs of the porcupine). During fire keeper our crazy animal jumped up and ran away again. After splitting into groups, we followed the tracks all the way back to camp. On the way, we saw several other tracks. One group found signs of a rabbit being tracked by a predator!
It was awesome to share our village with some new folks from Sterling and we particularly enjoyed the addition of their vibrant energy!
Porcupine Den - Front door
Back door.
Several kids give a demonstration of track patterns in the snow.
Jackson with two of our guest mentors for the day (Tom and Zak)
Tom was the fire keeper. While blindfolded, he used his other senses to detect people trying to add sticks to his fire.
The kids use fox walking to sneak up on the fire keeper.
Eager fox walkers
Thanks again for another wonderful afternoon in the woods at Coyote Kids!
Week 4 - Fire
April 9, 2014
It was a day filled with crafts and skills around the fire. These beautiful pictures speak for themselves!
Bowdrill
Tinderbundle
Coal burning a bowl
Blowing on the coal
Tandem bowdrill
I love seeing the mixture of joy and focus on the kid's faces. It can be so satisfying to work hard at something, no matter the outcome.
Week 3 - Peace
April 2, 2014.
What a beautiful day. The cold finally let up and the sun began to shine during the past week. Today's Coyote Kids session was peaceful and beautiful. We had many visitors. Allison VanAkkeren brought students from her outdoor education class down to observe. We were fortunate to be joined by Mianda as an apprentice. She brings with her many years of knowledge from attending Earthwalk. And we had the pleasure of a mom and little one visiting too. Our final visitor was what we believe to be a fischer cat or a mink. Many of the kids saw it running through the trees on our way down. We had a great adventure following the tracks as we made our way down to camp.
After opening circle we started passion time. Passion time makes up the bulk of our time together. It is a period when kids have space to explore their interests. Mentors notice what kids seem drawn to and use that to create activities. Mentors share their own personal nature passions with the kids as well. This is also the space where a child can go off in their own direction with a mentor and explore something completely different.
This week's passion for many kids was about the magic of using a knife. Wil and Anna's group worked on making beautiful sticks - whittled and decorated with pheasant, chicken, blue jay and turkey feathers. Several Coyote Kids commented on the wonderful feeling of using a knife and how powerful it felt. Gerry and Malaika worked with a group of kids making throwing sticks. The kids carved their own stick and then a fierce target throwing battle took place. Gina worked with several kids on building one match fires. For much of passiontime, kids sat peacefully in the snow, whittling, chatting, building fire and listening to the joyful shouts from the stick throwing game. It was the kind of day where you feel calm and peaceful in your heart. And lets not forget that it was also tons of fun!!
Building one match fires...
Peacefully whittling beautiful sticks...
Our little one guest for the day...
Throwing sticks...
Thanks to everyone for such a wonderful day...
Looking forward to more magic and connection with all of you next week...
*Thanks to Tessa for being the photographer this week!
Week 2 - Hooray!
March 26th in Vermont can sometimes look like this! We call this the Spring session but it doesn't feel like it yet! This week was filled with adventures. Jackson and his group tracked several types of animals. Gina and Anna created song lines with their group. Songlines are a practice of creating stories, songs and names for landmarks as you are walking through the forest. This is a great way to pay attention to your surroundings as well as honor them. Gina's group came upon cedar mall, thorny arch, giant's sit spot and queen's throne while tracking a deer. Malaika investigated trees and did some forest romping. Gerry and Tessa worked on whittling projects. Gerry showed several Coyote kids how to whittle a trap. There was much interest in whittling from the group this week. So much that we increased our knife supply to make sure larger groups of kids can whittle and learn knife skills when they are interested.
Jackson brings in fire at opening circle. Notice the new pads that everyone is happily sitting on!
THE TRAP WHITTLING DEMONSTRATION
Happy faces. It looks like the trap worked!!
*Thanks to Gerry for this week's photographs.
Week 1
Welcome Back Coyote Kids!
March 19, 2014
It was so great to see so many old friends and welcome new ones. Our first day was filled with songs, cordage, shelter building, and most of all bread on a stick!
Bread on a stick was hard to resist!
Jackson worked on cordage with several Coyote Kids.
Rhea enjoyed some peaceful time whittling.
Ade made cordage bracelets.
Evan hung out with some trees.
A trip to the wigwam inspired some leaf rubbings.
An energetic game of stick throwing spontaneously blossomed. Parsons and Gerry set the scene. They were out in the woods in need of food. Parsons was stalking a squirrel for their dinner.
And there's the throw!
Tribal bread stick fire!
See you next week!
*Thanks to Anna for taking pictures this week.
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