Peter Solarz
AnasAbdin
todays bird
$LAYYYTER
❣ Chile in a Photography ❣
Product Placement
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Three Goblin Art
Love Begins
Origami Around
Sade Olutola
hello vonnie
styofa doing anything
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trying on a metaphor
RMH
he wasn't even looking at me and he found me
roma★
oozey mess
art blog(derogatory)
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@studentiaecosia
Children at ECOS get to experience mentoring and leadership throughout their journey. Children help teach skills they already know, lead games, and help younger kids find their way. Instructors spend time introducing conflict mediation skills, community building initiatives while providing one-on-one mentorship in areas of interest specific to different children.
Learning through story is a nourishing way to receive and process information. Sharing the knowledge of trees through storytime!
Preschool Mushroom Exploration and Safety Walk!
Our Wednesday Woodpecker crew, exploring mushrooms!
Mushroom dances, art, and more!
*we do not consume any mushrooms as part of our curriculum*
Autumn: Plant Identification, Mushrooms, Forest Floor Exploration and More!
ECOS is well into another year of exploration, play, and imagination in the forests of Olympia. School experiences at ECOS are about creating genuine connections to nature, self and community. This is accomplished through a variety of games, hands-on lessons, projects and performance arts. Some of our exciting curriculum includes medicine making, tracking, learning bird language, shelter building, fire building, plant identification, aidless navigation, and more!
We have been busy so far this fall, getting to know one another and our surroundings! The beginning of the year is crucial foundation building for basic skills and knowledge necessary to our journey towards nature fluency throughout the year. For example, learning the life cycle of plants and animals in order to translate the seasons. By understanding seasons and other cycles, one can then begin to read the forest and its messages. We started the first day of school with song-lining, getting to know our corner of the woods through story and relationship building. We explored the woods and spent time naming landmarks that felt important to us. This will be useful as we move through the year and build upon the story of our journey through the year in the forest.
From there, we learned about the life cycle of trees and the importance of all stages to the health and longevity of a forest. We used movement to act out the inner workings of a tree's layers and their appearance throughout the seasons. Learning through performance is a powerful way to embody the focus of your curiosity and explore it in new ways while gaining new understanding. How do you feel when you embody a tree you see? What does it feel like to move the same way as the leaves that are falling? What do we see when we are down low on the forest floor like the bugs? How does it feel to pretend to be a salmon in a game that recreates the perils of swimming up stream to spawn?
Once we understood more about a tree's role in the life of a forest, we began talking about the forest floor and decomposers fungi, bacteria and invertebrates. How is soil made? Is soil different from dirt? Why is compost useful? How do worms make dirt?
In fall, we see mushrooms popping up all over making it a great time to find mycelium and do spore prints!
The forest is beginning its journey into winter, the energy of the trees and plants moves down the stem or trunk, gathering in the roots as leaves fall away and bare twigs become more prevalent. Now is the time for wildcrafting plants whose roots are useful in medicine making.
Just as with the forest, you may notice yourself starting to feel more restful after a busy summer or feeling more introspective. This is your body doing what comes naturally to it, responding to the changes going on around it. You may feel like eating more to nourish your body and store up nutrients for winter. Listen to your body. What is it telling you?
As October moves along, we are coming to a time of recognizing our ancestors and being grateful for all that has lived and passed on in order to make new life. Just as we explore the forest floor being made anew through fungus, bacteria and invertebrates, what will be made new in your life? What must come to an end in order to make room for new beginnings? Who are you grateful for that who may no longer be living that has given you a gift of knowledge, patience, time, or otherwise?
These are the metaphors and lessons tied into the intricate web of nature. These lessons nourish us as we learn how to better understand that cycles of the wild spaces around us. Through exploring the wild around us, we are better equipped to comprehend and explore the wild within us while divulging the truths of our own nature and our relationship to the world around us.
Season's Blessings,
ECOS Instructors
Cedar Tea
Making some hot cedar tea on a cold Autumn day in Olympia
Photos by Jasmin Dickerson
Watch to hear some thoughts from the students at Environmental Connections Outdoor School on their favorite parts of our programs this fall. To learn more, visit our website at www.environmentalconnectionsoutdoorschool.org, or email us at [email protected]
Our program today was fun in the sun! We talked a lot about tree rings on fallen old growth trees, built a fort, played on the beach, made Mothers' day presents in a cave on the beach, and learned about edible and/or medicinal plants by tasting, talking about, and drawing 4 common native plants.
Playground
