Woodstock Farm Service Day 3-12-16

The Sea Stars joined with the Silver Salmon and Trilliums this past Sunday for a day of service at our adopted site, Woodstock Farm! The group gathered in the muddy, busy parking lot of North Chuckanut Trailhead before loading onto the bus for a short ride to the service site.

At our Opening Circle, we checked our preparedness, as the weather called for a day of low temperatures and potential rain. We also talked about why we are serving today, and reviewed another motto, Our Cups Overflow. The Sea Stars agreed that people are not the only ones whose cups can be empty, and that today we would be filling the cups of the cedars, firs, ferns, fungi, eagles, rabbits, deer, maples Woodstock Farm in all it's bayside beauty. The girls pointed out that even though we "pour our overflowing water" into other's cups, our cups are not really emptying but in fact filling!

With that magical aspect in mind, it was time to get to work! The Sea Stars dropped packs, had a quick snack, and then hopped into work! The Sea Stars were gifted a job of finding the micro-weeds sneaking their way through the gravel path.. It was not a task for the weak of mind, and the girls remained so focused for hours on end!

With a good chunk of service done and many native plants left free to breathe and grow, it was time for lunch! The three groups rejoined on the bluff where we ate, chatted, and compared mud stains and "battle scars" from our busy morning of brush hauling, weeding, and invasive plant removal. We played a giant game of Spider's Web all together and then it was time to get back to the bus and head home! These days go so fast, and the Sea Stars really pulled their weight in work!

Enjoy the shared slideshow from the day here!

Mottos especially alive today:
Be Prepared
Our Cups Overflow
Safety First
Widen Your Circle
Walk Your Talk
You See It You Own It
Attitude of Gratitude

Art in Nature Day in 100 Acre Woods: 2-26-17

The Sea Stars gathered again for the second half of an awesome 2016-17 season on a brisk and sunny day in 100 Acre Woods!  We began our day with an Opening Circle. As we had new-to-us mentor, Lauren, and EMA Claire joining our group, we all explained what it was like to be a Sea Star. We talked a lot about the Mottos that guide our time in Explorers Club. See if your Sea Star can name a few!

Opening Circle

Our group also weighed in on our comfort of art. The girls acknowledged that the day wasn't about being "good" or "bad" at art, but about exploring our creativity! It was encouraging to watch the Sea Stars stick to this all day, never belittling their or anothers' work, and always finding ways to support others in their journeys.

The first artistic medium we used was the forest itself!  We used fir cones, leaves, ferns, sticks, and bark to create self portraits.  Check out some of our portraits below!

Sometimes on cold days, moving your body is just what you need, and it was clear that helped keep our bodies and hearts warm and happy!  We practiced our unique gathering call several times, debating whether to add sound effects or not, and several spontaneous dance parties were had to get our blood pumping to our chilly fingers and toes!

The latest dance craze to sweep the nation:
The Sea Star Squish!

About halfway through our day, it was time for a decision-making circle about what to do and where to go next! As the Sea Stars will likely let you know, decision-making in a group of thirteen is HARD! We're learning how to hear everyone's voice, how to Collaborate and Compromise, and how to do this as efficiently as possible so we can get going and move! Meeting everyone's needs is always a challenge, but we were proud to see Sea Stars asking regularly if people were in agreement, if there were any dissenting thoughts, and taking this feedback gracefully. We are excited to see how the problem solving skills of these girls develops in the months and years to come!

Collaborating and Compromising!

From this decision circle, we moved to do some art and play some games. We wandered through the forest to reach the Games Grove, and set up a little basecamp where we would stay for the rest of the day. We started our time in the thicket with an art activity called "Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!", where we focused on perspective drawing. The girls chose to draw a larger scape and drew all that they could, then they zoomed in on maybe a tree in the scene, then zoomed in again and drew a close up detail of the bark and lichen on that same tree. It was a great exercise in understanding the scope of our observation skills in addition to practice in drawing in a variety of ways.

After that still and quiet activity, it was time to get moving and get warm again!  So we finished our day with a few rousing games of Spider's Web.

All of a sudden it was time to make our way back to the trailhead to meet parents!  We closed our day with a Circle of Thanks. We felt gratitude for the practice of art, for games, for each other, and for the woods that we called home for the day! Another fantastic adventure with the Sea Stars!

Our Words of the Day? : "Mud, trees, art, life!"

To view a slideshow of our day, click here!

Our Forest-Inspired Self Portraits: 

 

Arroyo/100 Acre Wood Trek 12-3-16

The Sea Stars gathered on a chilly December day for their final exploration of 2016. Due to saturated soils, Holly and I decided to switch up our outing on the fly, which ended up working out well! A new regular GEC outing perhaps?

The Sea Stars enjoyed an opening circle where we shared the story of our names. Some of us are named after mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, even great-great-grandmothers, aunts, friends, famous musicians, grandfathers, etc. Some of us didn't have a name story. Some of us made them up! It was a great practice in empathetic listening, and really hearing what someone else was sharing without jumping in with our own additions. We also discussed the challenges that nature was presenting to us for the day. We talked about glacial and river valleys (can your Sea Star tell you which is U-shaped and which is V-shaped?), and why this river valley might be less safe than others. We were all on board with the idea to avoid the thin sections of the Eastern Arroyo canyon, so off we went to explore the Western sections!

We went on the hunt for salmon, and found SO MANY dead salmon, and no live ones. Many of the girls were shocked at first-- (seeing a lot of dead things at once can be shocking for anyone...!) but after a while, most of the girls leaned into their curiosities and spent more time exploring, observing and getting to know these noble dead creatures. We talked at length about how many dead salmon is actually a truly fantastic thing for our ecosystems. See if your Sea Star can identify an organism that dead salmon assist!

After our time with the salmon, we stopped for some games in a wonderful game grove. Game time was 100% dictated by the Sea Stars. At one point, Holly and I looked at each other and thought "Wow, they've totally got this. We don't need to even be here!". Though that isn't 100% true, the girls are doing a fantastic job at determining what they'd like to do during their outings with Explorers Club. It's helping with their independence, communication skills with both adults and each other, and for advocating for their needs in a group. Good work, Sea Stars!

The girls decided it was time to head up to the 100 Acre Wood, so up the trail we went! We found giant leaves, funky fungus, and walked each other on a never-ending series of partner-lead Trust Walks.

By the time we reached the 100 Acre Wood, we were hit with rain! We munched our lunch and then played a few rounds of Spiders Web before enjoying a blissfully wet Peaceful Place. The girls were drawing, creating contraptions with nature, and laying on their backs to taste the rain. It was glorious.

With just enough time we hiked back to catch a solid closing circle and share and Attitude of Gratitude before pick-up. Looking forward to the future adventures for the Sea Stars in 2017!

-Hannah

To see a slideshow of our day, click here!

Interurban/Clayton Beach Traverse 10-23-16

The Sea Stars gathered on another gorgeous fall day to explore Bellingham's finest trails and beaches on their first-ever traverse outing (meaning, we would leave one place and finish in another). As always, we greeted each other with joy and excitement and made our way up to the Interurban Trail. There we spent some time interviewing a partner about an exciting new thing in their life, and shared about our partner to the group.

From there, we talked about how we could help our group thrive during our day. One of the ways we thought of was using our motto, LIBK. The girls really seemed to connect to this idea and we committed to using our words to share our needs throughout the day. The Sea Stars have always enjoyed deep interpersonal connections to each other, and this commitment really spoke to that. Rebecca and I noticed lots of intermingling, joyful play, and interesting conversation between all of the girls-- such a special thing to be part of!

On our walk, we stopped at every little thing we noticed that was special-- in true Explorer's fashion. We found a creek and bluff to traverse and explore, climbed on rocks on the beach, made nature self portraits, enjoyed a serene Peaceful Place, and embraced a sunshining day in October!

For a slideshow of our day, click here!

Woodstock Farm Service 11-20-16

Two GEC groups contributed joyful purpose to our shared service day, taking pride in our new role as caretakers of Woodstock Farm.

At our gathering meeting, we learned about the history of this place and the role of generosity and forward conservationist thinking that led to its preservation. Thanks to Cyrus Gates, his family home and land has been gifted to Whatcom County for all to enjoy - Mr. Gates also had a strong hand in protecting Larrabee State Park, Arroyo and Fairhaven Parks, Sehome Arboretum, and the Mt. Baker Bulb Farm (since turned into Bellis Faire Mall due to a legal loophole).

We brainstormed on who the users of the park are: humans, yes, but also raven, salmon, chipmunk, raccoon, weasel, mouse, heron, slug and so much more. We talked about why a park needs caretakers for all these stakeholders, and what occurs without people lending a hand to manage trails and terrain. Since our gathering area was adjacent to a stand of alders, thimbleberry and salmonberry, overrun by invasive blackberry, the girls quickly understood how invasive species take over native ones rather quickly.
Then we were off on a very short trip by bus to our destination just up the road. The next few hours were spend collaborating in purposeful work, removing invasives with care and attention, singing and talking while we worked.

All of us were spread out across a small section of trail; pulling, digging, laughing and chatting. What a fun thing to witness!

If you have not been to Woodstock Farm, take the time for a short visit.  The old homestead is owned by the city of Bellingham.  It is a beautiful site and you can wander around, take in the views south across Chuckanut Bay, or explore the grounds.  Wild Whatcom has been partnering with Bellingham Parks and Rec for many years, engaging in service alongside other volunteers from our community.  This season marks the first season for the GEC in having a permanent site, adopted by us with the purpose of providing unlimited opportunities for stewardship.  Our first project has been to clean up a trail leading south from the top parking area.

Thank you for the strong sense of connection and commitment to GEC and to doing service that you have instilled in your girls.

Our Words of the Day: "Rolling in mud and blackberry service!" 

Nettle Harvest Skills Day 9-25-16

So, we started our day with some nature magic. Like we do. But not ordinary magic, mind you, but the "amazing oh my goodness I can't believe I'm seeing this" kind of magical nature moment. Gathered in our morning circle after a quick game, we sat down in the center of the labyrinth in Fairhaven Park to welcome a new girl and talk about our day ahead. We were in the midst of our check-in when we were interrupted by a loud ruckus coming from a flock of crows in the copse of nearby fir trees. One of our mentors wondered out loud what was happening since the crows sounded so upset, explaining that amount of ruckus can be a signal that something is amiss in the bird world. Crows sound off to warn others of intruders, like hawks or owls. We shared that there is a long history of crows and owls engaging in eating each other's babies, so there's a lot of animosity between those two species. And that's when a Barred Owl flew out of the fir trees and landed just behind us, in plain view! Like it was in the queue! We about all fell over!

The crows flew over in their murder to surround the owl and give it a hard time. The owl put up with them for about three minutes, and then flew off. We couldn't have planned it better. Wonder-full way to start our day!

In Coyote mentoring, we mentors strive to lead from behind, fostering leadership skills by asking pertinent questions or just getting out of the way as the group makes decisions about their day's exploration. We do this by giving the explorers the opportunity to decide upon their own plan for the day that incorporates the focus for our outing. Out focused learning today was: Be Safe and Harvest nettle. Girls were in charge of deciding how our day unfolded, so games showed up BIG for the Sea Stars.

Some of the great assets the Sea Stars embrace is their ability to play and Widen Their Circle by including new friends. They love games! The awesome power of games to practice our socio-emotional skills is HUGE, and it leads to great connections between the girls as they collaborate and compromise for the greater good of the group. That's a big challenge for fourth graders. And all the rest of us, too. We played Birds and Worms (ask your explorer about the pipe cleaner game, which happens to be a useful too for teaching about the concept of adaptations for survival. Were they an American Robin, a flicker or a Stellars Jay? and several types of tag. Since these girls are so adept at playing together, we gave them a new challenge, at a moment when they couldn't decide what game to play. Their challenge was to make their own game up, incorporating nettles and life cycles. Mentors and educators do this all the time, as a way to practice skills and experience learning in a deep multi-sensory way. And of course, the Sea Stars had their game theory hashed out in about fifteen minutes. We have some strong speakers in this group and we will continue to work on taking care of each other and making sure ALL voices are heard, as all opinions are valid. Theory is not the same as practice, so we had to play a round and see how it worked out. The girls had a great time playing our nettle game that brought in familiar aspects of other favorite games.

We settled down to ear our lunch, and move on through our plan.

Harvesting nettles for cordage!

It was time to crack into our nettle skills, and the girls worked in earnest to harvest, prepare and strip the nettles into string. In harvesting, we remembered the one in twenty principle, where we will take only what we need and what is sustainable for the specific harvesting habitat. Many girls enjoyed (purposeful) nettle stings while removing the leaves from the stalks. We quickly got into a work-flow, and the girls seemed shocked when we ran out of nettles and needed to clean up! We acknowledged those who came before us to use nettles and cordage for a wide variety of purposes, who learned to harness the wild nettle for us to be using today.

We wound down our day with some time spent walking, crawling, skipping, and dancing through the beautiful Fairhaven Labyrinth, before settling down for a sunshiney Peaceful Place. We shared our Attitude of Gratitude at the end of the day, and relished our day full of connection, appreciation, and focus.

To see a slideshow of our day, click here!

Outing at Clark's Point: 6-5-16

Along the edges of Clarks Point are wind-sculpted sandstone cliffs, red-barked madrona trees, towering firs, and tide pools waiting to be explored. Thanks to Doug and Peggy Clark, 78 acres of the magnificent Chuckanut shoreline will remain one of the last large, relatively undeveloped pieces of coastal property in private ownership in the Pacific Northwest. After orienting ourselves to the land, the Sea Stars had to choose to go to the west or east viewpoint, each side provided a very different experience—we decided to go east and see what adventures and lessons would unfold in Mud Bay.

Traversing the short path down to the shoreline, we greeted sword fern, lady fern and bracken fern; we acknowledged the lovely but toxic bleeding heart flowers; inspected a whilttled woodpecker tree; and plucked a few invasive herb Roberts, otherwise known as “stinky bob.”

Arriving at the beach we crab crawled along the edges of the sandstone to a magnificently sculpted cave that was our amphitheater for the day. With great enthusiasm the girls headed to the edges of the shore where mud beckoned them. Prior to our arrival we talked about how mud liked to gobble up shoes and so the girls should approach mud with caution. Alas, the mud of Mud Bay taught us some very important lessons this day:

* Walk quickly across the surface to avoid sinking.

* Observe the tracks of other people and walk in their footprints.

* As exciting and inticing as mud may be, do not rush into the mud, STOP and consider Safety First: What are the unseen dangers? If I get stuck how can I get out? If I get scared how can I push through this challenge and return safely back to shore? If I get hurt, am I close enough for help?

* Mud is wonderful, but it can also present challenges that can be overcome; this is called Resilience.

Continuing our wander down the shore, we admired the giant sandstone boulders, found caves of shade, and had a lovely Peaceful Place under the shade of Douglas Firs and Madrona trees. After our long sunny muddy day the girls summarized their experience in these words: “Mud galore, Awesome Resilience!!”

Mottos in play today: Safety First, STOP, The Only Way Out is Through, Get Dirty!,