KVFS will be closed Wednesday, 3/5, due to the forecast.
La Farge Schools and Kickapoo Valley Forest School will have a 2-hour delay on Tuesday, February 18.
Ever wonder why we chose a snail for our logo at KVFS? The snail represents so many interesting and important things for our Forest School.
The snail reminds us to sloooooow down, use our senses, and observe things closely- just like children do. The snail carries with it all it needs to survive comfortably in any environment and in an all-weather-nature-immersion school, we'll often be just like that snail!
And what better way to celebrate the snail-riffic joys of KVFS than with terrific silent auction items for this weekend's Heart of Winter event?
Registration for incoming 3K and 4K families is this Friday!
Enrollment for the 2025-2026 school year is live!
Click on the enrollment button on our website!
kickapoovalleyforestschool.org
Monday, January 20 is a planned teacher inservice day. We will kick off second semester on Tuesday, January 21!
If you are a Viroqua Food Coop member we'd love for you to vote for KVFS in the for the "Give Where you Live" program now open! https://www.viroquafood.coop/gwyl
Your support matters to KVFS and is so appreciated!
The KVFS Governance Council is excited to invite you to Music in the Park on Monday, August 26.
Loosey Stone, a local band featuring our very own teacher of the Oaks group, Ms. Rose, will be performing.
Walking Tacos and other refreshments will be sold, with proceeds to support KVFS!
Let's fill the park and show support for KVFS in excitement for a new school year!
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.”
― John Lubbock, The Use Of Life
Yes, it's true! Rest is so important at Forest School. After practicing times tables or hiking on an extra challenging trail, finding a branch to hold you or a hollowed-out log to nap in, is a real treat!
#forestschool
#kvfs
#lafargewi
#optoutside
#learningoutside
#wisconsinforestschool
KVFS is hiring two WisCorps Mentors for the 2024-2025 school year! Learn more here:
https://www.wisconsinconservationcorps.org/_files/ugd/881078_c22d2f55b0a54494a1e6c3bbbe3d540b.pdf
Enjoy your last day of spring break tomorrow, Snails! Tomorrow is a teacher inservice day. We look forward to seeing you back at school on Tuesday, April 2nd for the home stretch of the school year - is spring at forest school the best season at forest school?
Interested in Forest School? February is enrollment month! Join us this Saturday from 10-11:30 to see our forest schooling spaces, meet staff and ask questions. We hope you'll join us.
"Can you hear and feel a chickadee’s cold-weather chatter, the special crunch of snow beneath boots on a frosty walk when the temperature dips below zero, or the way hail makes pitter-patter noise on frozen ground?...The winter landscape lends itself to tuning in and noticing what quiet feels like. In forest school, we are taking time this season to listen in with more of ourselves, and in turn our world gives us so much to pay attention to." - from "the Owlet" issue 3, a KVFS publication
#winterquiet
#listeningskills
#forestschool
#lafargewi
#kickapoovalleyforestschool
#belowzero
#outdooreducation
#optoutside
#publicforestschool
Hot off the presses, our Winter Edition of the Owlet! Head over to our website for a clickable link (scroll to the bottom to the "News" section).
Happy New Year from everyone at KVFS! May 2024 bring you many outdoor adventures, growth, laughter, creativity and life balance!
When we are out on an adventure we often mark distances and boundaries with natural features, saying “you can run to the bur oak’ or ‘stop at the sumac’. In this way the children are learning to identify plants and trees, but they are also gaining hands-on real knowledge of their place. They know how to test branches for strength, which kinds of branches bend well for making a bow, how much water needs to be in sand in order for it to be moldable, how to balance a rudimentary seesaw and so much more. They know these things not because we drilled it into them, but because they have had the hands-on experience that lays the foundation for fundamental scientific knowledge. This hands-on, site specific knowledge is math, science, language arts all rolled into one. #kickapoovalleyforestschool #forestschool
Reminder: If you haven't already, please return all Wonderstate Coffee and Ceramic Mug orders in your child's folder or email to kvfs@lafarge.k12.wi.us on Tuesday, 11/28. Reach out if you have any questions!
As we head into our fall break, the KVFS staff wishes to share how thankful we are for the opportunity to teach and learn with your forest schoolers!
Wishing everyone a safe fall break and a Happy Thanksgiving. See you back on Monday, November 27!
Are you a member of the Viroqua Food Coop?
Don't forget to vote for Kickapoo Valley Forest School as a 2024 Give Where You Live recipient!
Vote here: https://www.viroquafood.coop/
It is through care that love grows. As early childhood educators, we see that the most effective way of fostering deep respect for the natural world in children is giving them the time and space in their early years to come to love the earth. It is through fitting themselves into a hollow in the ground, through laying their faces against a pillow of moss and inhaling its scent, through feeling the branches of a tree hold them, and getting dirt under their fingernails and in their hair and mouths, that children come to love wild spaces. For every adult who now fights to protect a wild space, there was once a child who felt at home in a wild space. #forestteacher #outsidelearning #KVFS
