KVFS is hiring two WisCorps Mentors for the 2024-2025 school year! Learn more here:
https://www.wisconsinconservationcorps.org/_files/ugd/881078_c22d2f55b0a54494a1e6c3bbbe3d540b.pdf
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”
― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life
Yes, it's true! Rest is so important at Forest School. After practicing times tables or hiking on an extra challenging trail, finding a branch to hold you or a hollowed-out log to nap in, is a real treat!
#forestschool
#kvfs
#lafargewi
#optoutside
#learningoutside
#wisconsinforestschool
Enjoy your last day of spring break tomorrow, Snails! Tomorrow is a teacher inservice day. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday, April 2nd for the home stretch of the school year - is spring at forest school the best season at forest school?
Interested in Forest School? February is enrollment month! Join us this Saturday from 10-11:30 to see our forest schooling spaces, meet staff and ask questions. We hope you'll join us.
"Can you hear and feel a chickadee’s cold-weather chatter, the special crunch of snow beneath boots on a frosty walk when the temperature dips below zero, or the way hail makes pitter-patter noise on frozen ground?...The winter landscape lends itself to tuning in and noticing what quiet feels like. In forest school, we are taking time this season to listen in with more of ourselves, and in turn our world gives us so much to pay attention to." - from "the Owlet" issue 3, a KVFS publication
#winterquiet
#listeningskills
#forestschool
#lafargewi
#kickapoovalleyforestschool
#belowzero
#outdooreducation
#optoutside
#publicforestschool
Hot off the presses, our Winter Edition of the Owlet! Head over to our website for a clickable link (scroll to the bottom to the "News" section).
Happy New Year from everyone at KVFS! May 2024 bring you many outdoor adventures, growth, laughter, creativity and life balance!
When we are out on an adventure we often mark distances and boundaries with natural features, saying “you can run to the bur oak’ or ‘stop at the sumac’. In this way the children are learning to identify plants and trees, but they are also gaining hands-on real knowledge of their place. They know how to test branches for strength, which kinds of branches bend well for making a bow, how much water needs to be in sand in order for it to be moldable, how to balance a rudimentary seesaw and so much more. They know these things not because we drilled it into them, but because they have had the hands-on experience that lays the foundation for fundamental scientific knowledge. This hands-on, site specific knowledge is math, science, language arts all rolled into one. #kickapoovalleyforestschool #forestschool
Reminder: If you haven't already, please return all Wonderstate Coffee and Ceramic Mug orders in your child's folder or email to kvfs@lafarge.k12.wi.us on Tuesday, 11/28. Reach out if you have any questions!
As we head into our fall break, the KVFS staff wishes to share how thankful we are for the opportunity to teach and learn with your forest schoolers!
Wishing everyone a safe fall break and a Happy Thanksgiving. See you back on Monday, November 27!
Are you a member of the Viroqua Food Coop?
Don't forget to vote for Kickapoo Valley Forest School as a 2024 Give Where You Live recipient!
Vote here: https://www.viroquafood.coop/
It is through care that love grows. As early childhood educators, we see that the most effective way of fostering deep respect for the natural world in children is giving them the time and space in their early years to come to love the earth. It is through fitting themselves into a hollow in the ground, through laying their faces against a pillow of moss and inhaling its scent, through feeling the branches of a tree hold them, and getting dirt under their fingernails and in their hair and mouths, that children come to love wild spaces. For every adult who now fights to protect a wild space, there was once a child who felt at home in a wild space. #forestteacher #outsidelearning #KVFS
Forest School Merchandise is available in many styles, colors and designs. Get yours (and your friends' and family's) today! Click here, or find the link for KVFS Merch Store on our home page!
https://www.bonfire.com/store/kickapoo-valley-forest-school-store/
Overheard at Friday Pick Up:
Visiting cousin to Forest Schooler: "You don't go to a normal school!"
Forest Schooler: "I know. It's rare and I love it!"
KVFS' Governance Council members devote hours of their time each week to provide leadership for our school. This week is Wisconsin School Board Week so take time to
thank a Governance Council member today! Current members include Anne Marie Fryer, Prudence Tippins, Laurie Drake, Jen Oium, Danielle Olson, Emily Schendel, Shawn Donovan, and Barb Sarnowski. Pictured are scenes from last week's Apple Social and Annual Meeting!
#LearningFromTheOutsideIn
Thank you teachers, staff, students and families for a beautiful first day back to school! Enjoy the long weekend and we will see you all on Tuesday!
#backtoschool
#forestschool
#lafargeschool
#lafargewi
#kickapoovalleyforestschool
#learningoutside
#optoutside
Thanks to everyone who turned out for the La Farge 4th of July parade!
#forestschool
#lafargewi
#learningallthetime
#forestschoolcommunity
#publicforestschool
#lafargeschooldistrict
Incoming four-year-old Forest Schoolers and their families enjoyed a beautiful morning playgroup today! Stories, mud kitchen, and exploration of some new natural play spaces in and around the La Farge School District Organic Garden made for a lovely time together. Thank you to Ms. Julia!
#LearningFromTheOutsideIn #ALittleDirtNeverHurt
KVFS 1st graders have been so lucky to work with volunteer Laurel Lee this spring as a guest artist. After a few weeks of landscape drawing techniques, this morning the children packed their watercolors and took a hike, where they were prompted to paint something inspired by the pond. How wonderful it is to be a forest schooler! #LearningFromTheOutsideIn
"My feet touch the earth.
My hands touch tall grasses.
My face touches sky.
I run through the morning.
I am alive in this world."
-from 'Breathe and Be' by Kate Coombs
#outdooreducation
#forestschool
#kickapoovalleyforestschool
#publicforestschool
#optoutside
#lafargewi
#wisconsin
