Forest Kids

Forest Kids
on things they have noticed about spring: the changes in plants,
weather, birds.
Chloe, pencil poised, explains how bees get nectar from flowers.
Ariana and Alex are talking about how the sun helps plants
grow. “I know what it’s called,” says Ariana. “Photosynthesis.” She
says it slowly, pronouncing every syllable.
Scarlett is drawing birds flying home for the summer.
Van Stone wonders if she knows the word for that.
“Hibernation?”
“Close.”
“Migration!”
Down the hill at the opposite end of the site, eight children are
arranging themselves in rows separated by lines of sticks on the
ground.
Everyone who likes swimming best goes in that column, says
Lockerbie, pointing. Four children hop over the sticks and line up.
Everyone who likes climbing goes in another one. And everybody
who likes both goes in the third column. A flurry of movement.
This is a human graph. A moving math lesson. They compare
the graph. Which column has the most? How many more people
like swimming than climbing?
They are hopping and spinning, moving their bodies and leaping
across the sticks while they count and calculate.
Soon it will be time to start the walk back up the big hill to the
school. But first they gather around in the clearing to say huy ch
q’u to the forest. This is thank you in a Salish language. One of the
principles of Nature Kindergarten is to learn about local history.
Once a week, one of the Sooke board’s aboriginal educators comes
to teach them about local customs.
At 11:15, the children line up for a head count, one of the few
times they stand in formation, before heading to the trail.
As they scramble and skip, Hayden finds a stick shaped like the
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