Town Forest Walk

Today we had a fantastic town forest walk! Though it is winter, the weather was mild and many kids found themselves soon overheating in their snowpants and gear enough to tie their jackets around their waists for a bit! It was wonderful to see them enjoying their time in our "nature playground" - exploring thickets, shinnying along fallen trees, "skating" on pools of ice, crossing streams on stepping stones, and imagining living as long ago pioneers!

This week in our outdoor classroom we have been working on a little risk assessment. As kids do not often get the same opportunities or time to play outside as we may have had as children at their ages, many have undue or disproportionate anxiety about outdoor activities. They may be uneasy about walking on a path that feels uneven, or climbing a hillside that seems steep, yet they wonder if it would be safe to jump off the roof of our school building. We worked with them on weighing whether some physical challenges were, in fact, manageable - like jumping off a low wall, or scaling the hill behind the Lilja school trail, and which were unsafe - like jumping off a building! Watching kids take on some fun challenges in the woods today, we feel that our efforts this week really paid off!

Our explorations also uncovered scat evidence of our forest friends - deer, fox, and fisher. One group spotted owl pellets. We wondered if these were from one the great horned owls that we know inhabit the town forest. Also, in our ongoing endeavor to preserve the beauty of our outdoor spaces, we cleaned out some bottles and cans left by careless visitors to recycle appropriately.

Enjoy the pictures below from our walk today!