Sapling Skills Series - Wednesdays

Children's curiosity reaches up and out naturally, like saplings searching for the sunlight. When adults are able to meet them where they're at, we can help cultivate the passion for learning and growth that is inherent in every person. We gravitate towards building, creating, exploring and making decisions that affect our world because we, as humans, have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years of living in direct relationship with the land. These skills are embedded in our collective memory; that's why so many kids love playing outside.

​

Our six-week Sapling Series is designed to provide an approachable, accessible introduction to many small-scale, place-based living skills for kids ages 8-12. We meet every other week on Wednesday afternoons for two hours at the Eastern Promenade in Portland and facilitate a rotating variety of outdoor activities. The classes we teach include: shelter-building, fire-by-friction, bundle-bows and arrows, making string and weaving baskets, coal-burned spoon carving, identifying plants and trees, foraging for food, tracking animals, and more.

​

First Quarter 2021 Dates:

January 20

February 3, 17

March 3, 17, 31

Time: 1pm-3pm

First Quarter 2021 Classes:

1. Making shelter, emergency preparedness, medicine from trees

2. Matchless firestarting, campfire safety

3. Animal tracking, tree identification, bird language, scouting and stalking

4. Bundle bows and arrows, archery, throwing sticks

5. Coal-burned spoon carving

6. Baskets from invasive species, natural cordage from plant fibers