"Fire to Ink" at Woodside National Historic Site
The JK Forest and Nature School campers were excited to explore the meadow and the woods on this sublime August morning. New Mushrooms emerged as others completed their Fruit Body (above ground) phase. Questions arose: "What happened to the Mushrooms that were here last week?". Fungi have a wonderfully complex lifecycle we have been learning about.
The children lead the opening discussion and territorial acknowledgement, saying thanks to Mother Nature in many languages. The children reviewed the safety reminders, and protocols as a community and welcomed new arrivals to the camp.
The children helped with creating the safety area for the fire and gathered in small groups around the fire throughout the morning to taste smoked apples with honey.
A few pieces of charcoal were left after our fire. We offered the cold charcoal as an invitation to the group. The children had previous experiences drawing with charcoal, however they took the experiment a step further. They created temporary tools and crushed the charcoal into a fine powder. They carefully added small amounts of water to the chalk powder and created "INK" for their art exploration.
Watering the grass was a welcome invitation to cool down on this hot Summer day. Some of the children noticed the slowly drifting Cumuli above us and marveled at the changing shapes of the clouds.
Mindfulness moments emerged inspired by the Sky, reminding us all that meaningful discoveries visit us when we are calm, observant, and perceptive.
