Written by Shoresh Educator Niki Sos
After six amazing weeks, the Shoresh Outdoor School has come to a close! We had an
amazing time both our Kavanah Garden and Cedarvale locations. The kids finished by earning
their outdoor cooking and wild edibles badges through roasting apples and foraging for wild
herbs, like chives, mint and sorrel. We enjoyed our food and reminisced about how quickly
these six weeks have passed and how much fun we’ve all had together! At our Kavanah
location, we made a campfire and roasted apples with honey from Shoresh’s Bela Farm apiary
and found wild herbs that we made and enjoyed around the campfire. While at Cedarvale we
didn’t have access to fire, it didn’t mean that we were not going to get our outdoor cooking
badges! Instead, we used natural heat from the sun to make solar tea, flavoured with licorice
mint, dandelions, and red clover picked from around the park! While our tea was brewing we played games, enjoyed the amazing weather and prepared our herb-y salad!
Every week there were two badges to be earned through activities and actions. Some
memorable moments were made while earning out Shavuot and Teamwork Badges. The
Hebrew word of the day was Lechem, bread, in honour of the wheat harvest. After learning about
Shavuot we went on a search for our very own walking staffs, like Moses had when he climbed
Mt. Sinai. With our staffs in tow we started the trek up to our very own Mt. Sinai. For Kavanah
Garden, that was walking across the east don river then climbing a hill through the forest. At
Cedarvale, we foraged for their sticks in the bird sanctuary then climbed a giant hill and rolled
all the way down! In order to earn their teamwork badges, the kids helped each other find and
trade for the perfect walking staffs, then used them to help each other cross the ravine, as well
as encouraging and cheering on their friends!
Another great week was when we earned our Shabbat and Acts of Kindness badges. The
Hebrew word of the day was: Tzedakah. We learned about the importance of rest both for
ourselves and the land and had a moment of reflection after an activity-packed program. For
our Acts of Kindness badge, we learned about the meaning of Tzedakah, and how we can help
the plants, animals and people around us with our acts of charity and good deeds. In previous
weeks, we helped our worms with composting and helped insects by building them habitats in
the forest! This week, we made Tzedakah boxes out of recycled materials and decorated them
with words of kindness and drawings. At the end of SOS, everyone was able to take their
Tzedakah boxes home and use them for whatever charitable endeavors speak to them!
Though the Shoresh Outdoor School has come to an end for this spring, we look forward to the
upcoming Fall SOS programming from September 26th-October 31st, and all the fun we will
have there!