Curriculum Corner: 'Forest Elementary'
Blue Mountain School's Forest School program offers Thursday and Friday outdoor learning for children in the community. Open to all families, it's become a favorite supplement for homeschoolers looking to add hands-on nature education to their weekly rhythm.
By David Choquette, Forest Elementary teacher
Blue Mountain School's Forest School program offers Thursday and Friday outdoor learning for children in the community. Open to all families, it's become a favorite supplement for homeschoolers looking to add hands-on nature education to their weekly rhythm.
This is what a typical day looks like for students:
The air was cool this morning, but the woods were green, purple, and yellow. Students had the chance to try two flowery crafts. We used hammers to pound pigment from plants into paper, a loud craft with surprisingly delicate results — some of us got beautiful leaf imprints while others created more abstract compositions.
After a short ramble to collect more plants, we made sun catchers with petals, leaves, and contact paper. The sticky, foldy, wrinkly nature of the contact paper forced us to move slowly and deliberately, thinking carefully about the patterns and noticing details in the plants we might have otherwise missed.
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After lunch, the Forest Elementary class heard the story of “Brewster the Magic Rooster.” (David heard this folktale from a friend, and an internet search suggests it’s an Appalachian retelling of a Hungarian story (which translates to "The Little Rooster and the Diamond Button"), but it’s hard to know with folktales.)
In music time Kris gave students a chance to be bluebirds and alligators, and introduced us to several interesting animals in “Down By the Bay.” After that, the group took a quick jaunt down to the creek to see the flame azaleas, a rare, beautiful plant that spends almost all year looking inconspicuous until it blooms brilliantly for two weeks in May. What joy to have several in walking distance of our campsite! Of course on the way we saw several other salamanders, mushrooms, strange bugs, and edible plants, too. You can’t go in the woods without finding a million wonders.
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Spots for next year's Forest Elementary sessions are open now. Forest School is a wonderful addition to any child's week, and a natural fit for homeschooling families looking for something special on Thursdays and Fridays. Email contact@bluemountainschool.net to learn more.
Does your student want more time in the woods this summer? Register for Blue Mountain School summer camp! It’s like Forest School five days a week, with Blue Mountain School staff, way more kids to play with, and a slip-n-slide. Weekly sessions start on June 28.
Blue Mountain School is a progressive, contemplative school in Floyd where intentional curriculum planning is part of the everyday.
