Coyotes, Oct 25

Halloween at Forest School

Hi! Safiya here, writing this week's blog. This week, the Coyotes welcomed Bow Valley college students to our class. Our class spent the morning teaching them knife skills, and showing them some activities we do at forest school. We started with a big game of Red Rover which most of the college students participated in. It was a lot of fun playing with such a big group of people since we usually only have five people on each team. This game was followed by the Coyotes using their leadership skills to teach and demonstrate to the college students how to carve different things into wood, such as notches, points, etc.

Since this week was the week that the Coyotes celebrated Halloween, the day was spent with games that encouraged us to step out of our comfort zones. This included covering an orange (which we used as a ball) in vaseline to make it slimy, and kissing a frozen dead fish (eeewww!) In the afternoon, the Coyotes did the Walk of Fear, which is a forest school tradition. For the Walk of Fear, we laid out a tarp and covered it with shaving cream, mussels, sweet onions, a dead lobster, and dead fish, and mouse traps. One of the Coyotes would have to walk through the obstacles blindfolded, and her partner would have to guide her safely to the end only by using words. Some Coyotes did the walk of fear in socks, and some did it bare foot! For me, this was a highlight of the day!

Thank you Safiya.

Stepping out of our comfort zones was definitely the theme of the day, which for the Coyotes is difficult to do as they seem capable in many different situations. Perhaps teaching a large group of adults has been the biggest challenge so far and yet the Coyotes engaged the students that they wanted to stay for longer.