| Forest
Forays:
Exploring the Pieces, Patterns
and Processes of Barnard Brook
an
interdisciplinary unit for 6th grade by Rob Hanson
The Pomfret School, Pomfret, Vermont
“I have traveled a good deal in Concord…”
Henry David Thoreau
For most, embarking on a journey implies
moving through a landscape in search of something or someone of
import: understanding river and mountain, farm and farmer. Yet,
as Thoreau clearly expressed, this knowledge may be obtained just
as well by staying put and letting rivers and mountains come to
you.
Forest Forays afford students an hour each
week at make such a steadfast excursion. Students begin their foray
be walking a mile-long stretch of Barnard Brook at The Pomfret School.
During this first foray, students choose a “Power Spot”
of their own: a place on the bank of the brook which draws them.
Then, over a course of ten months, they stay put and engage in a
variety of ways of journeying through their spot. Central to this
journey is the discovery of the “pieces, patterns, and processes”
of their Power Spot through such activities as writing field journal
observations, mapping their site, sketching the landscape, tracking,
writing poetry, creating their personal tree field guide, trapping
and studying insects, and creating natural sculptures using stone
and wood. From their spot, summer, autumn, winter, and spring come
to each student in turn allowing them to directly experience and
carefully observe the continuity and change of this profound cycle.
The Forest Foray journey will culminate
with two events. The first, a solitary overnight stay at their spot,
will allow students to directly experience and reflect on another
powerful natural cycle: day and night. Finally, from their collected
Forest Foray writings, the class will perform a coming of age SpeakChorus
for the Pomfret community at their graduation ceremony in June.
This final event will occur on the banks of the brook, providing
the appropriate babbling accompaniment for the Chorus.
The reader may regard the accompanying Forest
Foray tasks as the thoughtfully planned itinerary of a journey by
which children travel a good deal in Pomfret.
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