Herons 2017-18: Week 3 - Clan Forts & Firekeepers!
Opening Circle
At Opening Circle, we had a special guest - Ms. Jenn! Jenn is an experienced outdoors woman and will be substituting for all Programs at Nature Connect. She brings wonderful curiosity, knowledge and a playful energy to our facilitation team! After sharing gratitudes, we all enjoyed a snack and listened to Ms. Kathryn tell a story about Firekeepers...
Firekeeper story and game
Long ago, before people had fire they lived in the cold and dark. But then, a brave young person from the village climbed to the top of the nearby mountain and stole fire from the Gazumbas! Gazumbas are blind giants with amazing hearing, so only a person with the skills to walk silently through the forest could get close enough to borrow some fire. We had a great time practicing our "fox walking" feet and trying to steal some "fire" while Ms. Britt pretended to be the blind gazumba. It was harder than we thought it would be, but one person from each group was able to save the village!
Clan Forts
After Firekeeper, we split into our clans for the rest of the day. Last week we had a lot of fun building forts as a group, so this week we added a challenge - Each clan would build a new fort in a location unknown to the other clan. We will be working on these forts/shelters throughout the rest of the year and are exploring different ways of building them, and how to camouflage them in the woods.
Most of the day in both the Sycamore and Maple clans was spent trying to find the perfect spot. Some places had good trees, but were too visible. Other places were well hidden, but just didn't have the right feel, or even felt downright uncomfortable for no identifiable reason. After canvassing a large area, that included pine thickets, fields and hardwood forests, we found the perfect spot. We had a great time the rest of the day exploring our new clan home and working on the fort.
Closing Circle
One of the most exciting aspects of closing circle since we have split into our clans is hearing about the exciting adventures and explorations of the other clan. Both clans had lively discussion about interesting things they found while searching for fort locations - including a really cool animal bone! We haven't come to a consensus about what the bone is, but we had many guesses and added it as the first item in our nature museum!
