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: