Art in the Old Growth 1-24-16

Yesterday's outing in the Old Growth Forest was filled with creativity and inspiration as we wandered, sat, ate, pondered, and created art of all forms below the giant Sentinals. The morning brought beautiful weather with a mix of misty rain and sunshine as we loaded up Moose, the Wild Whatcom mini-bus. Before getting on the bus, we shared as a group what came to mind when we thought of art. We agreed that "art is anything you create," as one girl shared, including drawings, paintings, poetry, music, dance, books, and storytelling. We challenged the girls to think about the idea of all art as a form of storytelling - a theme we would continue to explore throughout the day.

The girls' imaginations were already in high gear as we set out on our journey to the Shadow of the Sentinals Trailhead. With an hour of driving ahead, we set our minds to the task of creating a group story, word by word, each girl continuing where the last had left off. As words became sentences, our first story of the day began to unfold. The girls created the following comical and creative storylines, adding one word at a time, turn by turn:

Story #1

Last night when I was hugging my pink koala, I was drooling on my pillow. Suddenly, I remembered I was thirteen! My mom woke me up to see a large manatee. Because I was thirteen, I screamed and jumped off my pillow. I landed on my pink koala. "Ouch!" she cried. "Whaaaa...that hurt!" I crawled over to my mom, who comforted me with a musty smelling onion and I started to cry on my pillow and the koala kissed me. "Happy birthday, you were fooled," the musty smelling onion cried! Then I decided to slice the onion. 

"Ahhhh," I yelled, "You smell!" 

"Well that hurt a lot, and I'm so sad." 

Suddenly, there appeared a weaner dog that was yellow and fat and ferocious! The dog had kankles with boils. It pounced on the large manatee. The manatee screamed in pain!...TO BE CONTINUED...

Story #2

The Story of the Famous, Yellow, Fat, Ferocious, Kankled Weaner Dog

Once upon a time there was a famous, yellow, fat, ferocious, kankled weaner dog puppy. The weaner dog had a green lawyer. The weaner dog lived in a yellow, fat house. His name was Pig. He liked to play with his friends in the snow. After he was done playing in the snow, he went inside and had hot chocolate. He would always pre-make the hot chocolate and when he came back in, it was always luke-warm. He was very sad but he was also always baking papaya pie! He was sad because his friends made fun of him for being fat...TO BE CONTINUED...

After an impressive round of Silly Story Creation, we arrived at our destination, the Shadow of the Sentinals Interpretive Trail. There was snow on the ground all around us so we bundled up before setting off on our adventure. 

The girls used their Collaborate and Compromise skills to lead us down the trail, stopping to check in with the group before turning off the main path. There were informative signs all along the trail, with pictures, facts, poems, and diagrams explaining our surroundings.

We hiked until we got to a giant Douglas Fir tree, said to be 680 years old! The girls joined hands and wrapped around the tree. It took all 9 girls to fit around the tree!

We continued down the path, noticing the giant trees around us, both alive and dead. We discussed the important role of snags and fallen trees, and the differences we noticed in this forest compared to other forests we had been in.








We hiked slowly, and observantly, until we completed the half-mile loop and found ourselves back at the bus. The bus became our classroom for a brief, interactive story of the history of this place. We then loaded up our packs with all the art supplies we could carry and headed back to the trail to find a peaceful, inspiring place to do art in the old growth.

The girls settled under the 680-year-old giant fir tree to do some artwork, creating drawings, story-boards, fictional narratives, poems, paintings, and even some nature art. We set up a stove at our new "base camp" and made hot beverages to keep our bodies and minds warm!

After about an hour of creating and enjoying the beauty of the place we were in, we spread out to sit in silence for peaceful place. The sun, previously covered by clouds, began to shine through the forest canopy just as we settled into our chosen spots for peaceful place. Though we all could have stayed in that place and in that moment for the rest of the afternoon, we regrouped to share our stories and creations from the day. And what an amazing display it was!

We shared our Attitude of Gratitude for the place we were in and then made our way back to the bus. Many girls agreed this was a place that they would return to and a story they would bring home to friends and family!

  

Please enjoy the full album of the day, here.

Rock Trail Romp 1-23-16

What an incredible day we had with the Rockin’ Earth Worms (the girls' chosen group name for our outing), this past Saturday! The day flew by as we meandered our way down the Rock Trail, playing games, hiding in caves, and scrambling over nature's playground all the way! A steady rain kept us movin' and groovin’ throughout the day, yet smiles and spirits remained high — Thanks to all for exemplifying our Be Prepared motto in true “dress-like-a-duck” fashion! Some highlights of the day included…

- Playing the Native Wildlife Guessing Game as girls gathered in the parking lot, followed by a Names with Actions (a fun name game in which the girls shared something about themselves through actions that the group repeated) - We had a lot of talent in Saturday's group! Ask your daughter what action she chose to represent herself.

- Each girl finding her own Stretch Your Edge rock to carry with her throughout the day, so she could pull it out if/when she need to for a reminder of her strength.

- Watching the girls Widen Their Circle when we put our buddy system into action with friends we didn’t know as well.  (We also created a fun count-off system and throughout the day called out our designated word to make sure the gang was all there: “I am flying to Hawaii because it is fun and sunny!”

- Identifying plants such as Sword Fern, Douglas Fir, and Hemlock as we set off down the trail. We even discovered that Hemlock needles taste like pomegranate. Thanks, Hadley, for sharing that knowledge!

- Transforming into Hawks and Voles as we played Preditor/Prey along the trail.

- Collaborating and Compromising as we made our way down the trail in search of a good lunch spot. We found the perfect place to set up camp in a large, sandy cave under a very impressive sandstone boulder.

- Discovering caves in the giant sandstone cliffs and crawling into them. The girls really Stretched Their Edge by climbing up into the biggest, highest cave of them all. We fit eight girls in the cave, with room for more!

- Scrambling through natural tunnels and creating an impromptu puppet show behind a giant slab of sandstone.

- Spreading out amongst the ferns and moss-covered boulders as we did Peaceful Place. Some girls lay or sat out in the rain the whole time, letting the mist surround them and feeling the raindrops fall on their cheeks.

- Drinking hot cocoa to warm up as we shared about our Peaceful Place experiences.

- Telling stories, jokes, and riddles as we hiked back up to the parking lot.

- Yelling, blowing, singing, and sharing our thanks to the forest when we returned to the trailhead.

- Playing “Keeper of the Treasure” back at the parking lot.

- Ending our day with a very thoughtful and inspiring closing circle, sharing our Attitude of Gratitude, and one example of how we Stretched our Edge during the day. Ask your daughter what she was grateful for on Saturday, and what stretched her edge! 

Thank you for sharing your fantastic, curious, adventurous girls with us! To view more pictures from our day, click here.