Kingfisher Academy Tree Club
November 30th, 2011 Classes,Kingfisher Academy,Outdoors Education
This school year, Jonah is leading an ongoing program called “Tree Club” with elementary students at Kingfisher Academy in Atlanta. Every two weeks, this group travels to an intown greenspace to study trees, explore the woods, and hike. We learn about two more trees each week and we’ve posted a blog about our adventures and our trees.
Visit the Tree Club blog by clicking on this link or on the photo to the right!
HSE Civil War Bicycle Tour
May 6th, 2010 Classes,Homeschool
We are kicking off a collaboration with Bicycle Tours of Atlanta and are offering a new urban adventure: A Bicycle Tour of the Battle of Atlanta.
Our first tour for the general public will be held in collaboration with the B*ATL Event Festival in East Atlanta in July.
Last week, we rolled out a version of it with a group of families from Homeschool Excursions (HSE).
So, why is Sure Foot Adventures leading Civil War tours? We believe in helping people find creative ways to get outdoors, and a bicycle tour is a perfect intown adventure. We also wan to help people connect with the land around them, and learning history is a great way to do that. Are we Confederate sympathizers? No. We approach the story of the Civil War as a national tragedy (for the destruction and death it caused) and as a huge victory over the system of slavery. But most of all, we want participants to see the layers of history in the land around them and the neighborhoods we ride through.
At 11 a.m., our group of 10 cyclists departed the Zoo Atlanta parking lot in Grant Park for an 8-mile ride that approximated Civil War troop movements and visited important sites from the July 22, 1864 Battle of Atlanta.
Starting behind Confederate lines at Fort Walker, the only remaining visible earthworks left from the Civil War in Atlanta, we took a long uphill ride tracing Hardee’s night march and then criss-crossed Moreland Avenue (Leggett’s Hill) on side streets, learning the history of the battle and its significance.
General Hardee’s night march has always particularly intrigued me, probably because it involved hiking! General Hood ordered Hardee’s men to embark on an all-night, 12-15 mile march around the flank of the Federal armies in an attempt to attack from their rear. Many of these soldiers had just pulled back from fighting at Peachtree Creek, only to be sent on this extreme night march which culminated in a full day of vicious fighting. The most amazing thing to me is that these soldiers did not give up. It’s incredible, really, what humans can do when pushed.
In designing this bicycle tour, I originally wanted to bike the entire route of the night march. Many of the roads on Hardee’s route still exist (Key Road, Fayetteville Road, Flat Shoals Avenue, etc.), but this route would double the length of the ride. Instead, we ride directly to East Atlanta (one location where the battle began) via Ormewood Avenue. Ormewood has a long, slow hill which I hope helps participants simulate some of the fatigue that Hardee’s troops felt during the night march. Truthfully, though, nothing can simulate that!
Our tour visits the site of General McPherson’s death (for whom Fort McPherson was named), the remains of Leggett’s hill (which was mostly destroyed by the I-20 overpass at Moreland Avenue), the center point of the battle, and the Railroad Cut featured in the Cyclorama Painting. We use the height of the Inman Park MARTA Station overpass to look at the terrain surrounding the battle.
More than anything, I believe that bicycling the battle route allows participants to truly connect with history because the Civil War was so influenced by terrain – a fact which can’t be truly understood when driving. On bicycle, we can cover the whole battlefield (as opposed to the small area we can cover on foot), but we are forced to recognize the hills and valleys that so affected the fighting.
Plus, it’s great exercise and a wonderful way to see the intown neighborhoods of Grant Park, Ormewood Park, East Atlanta Village, Edgewood, Reynoldstown, Inman Park, and Cabbage Town.
This group of homeschool students were excellent cyclists, followed group-riding safety guidelines to a tee, and loved learning history while NOT sitting behind a desk. One young man raced me up a steep incline near Leggett’s Hill (and beat me, of course). Several participants chose to carry their bikes up the long staircase at the MARTA station, instead of taking the elevator (not that there is anything wrong with the elevator–those stairs are LONG). All in all, it was a great day of riding and history. Several participants even toured the Cyclorama in Grant Park after we completed the tour.
Please join us on a future bicycle tour! Visit biketoursatl.com, batlevent.org, and surefootadventures.com for more information about our tours.
City Chicks Kids Outing
May 4th, 2010 Chickens,Classes
Two weeks ago, in collaboration with the East Lake School Coalition, we led a city chickens outing with ten 2-4 year olds and their parents.
Though most families were from intown neighborhoods, one made the trek all the way from Marietta for our outing.
I was a bit nervous about the outing because young kids are often afraid of chickens. So, I set up the class to introduce the chickens to the children in stages. While families were arriving, everyone stayed outside of the chicken yard. Once everyone had gathered, I went inside the yard and showed the kids that I was comfortable with the birds. I then caught one hen and brought her outside the fence in my arms, lowered her to the kids’ level, and showed them how to pet her. We looked at the different parts of the chicken body. I even held one bird upside down (for only a short time) so the kids could touch her feet and spur nubbin.
By this time, the kids were getting used to the idea of these big dinosaur-esque birds. So, I brought out Spilly (our blind chicken) and let her walk in circles among them while they petted her. Finally, I invited any children who wanted to meet the chickens into the chicken yard. Everyone came in! We explored the coop, collected eggs, tried to pick up the chickens, and fed them a whole loaf of white bread.
There were only a couple melt-downs among the kids, which I think must be expected when you get 10 young children together with strange animals. The most beautiful thing that I saw was that the kids went from marveling at the birds to playing with and around the chickens as if they were normal pets in only an hour. Though most Americans have been separated from connections with their food sources, these kids spent an hour playing in my yard with chickens all around them.
To end the class, I lit a campfire in the fire pit and we all sat in a circle while I told the story of “Spilly & the Swallow,” an adaptation of “The Mole and the Swallow” story that my father tells on his children’s album, Howjado?
Finally, we all made paper plate chickens (which the kids immediately realized were perfect “chicken hats”). You can view the patterns on Denise Fleming’s website.
What a fun afternoon! One of the children still stops by every few days with his mom to feed our chickens. I look forward to our next City Chicks Kids outing in the next couple months. Until then, check out the East Lake School Coalitions other outings.
Breaking Ground at Camp Ruth
April 13th, 2010 Classes,Kingfisher Academy,Outdoors Education
We at Sure Foot Adventures are extremely excited to announce that we have broken ground at our new camp near Stone Mountain.
The 30-acre Ruth Lord Memorial Camp is a 20-minute drive from Atlanta and will be the home for many of Sure Foot’s day programs and periodic overnight camping trips.
Today, I took a group of 5 Kingfisher Academy students to the Camp and we marked three new trails and built a fire pit at the campground location. Of course, we also climbed in the “elephant tree” and played in Little Stone Mountain Creek (which runs through the camp).
Here’s the master plan for the camp:
We want to keep everything as primitive and “Leave No Trace” as possible, so we’re building trails to minimize the impact caused by bushwacking. Our campground area is in the center of the camp, away from the creek to avoid human contamination. The campground is edged by large hardwoods and will contain a fire pit area covered by a high tarp to allow programs to occur even when it’s raining. Tent pads will be spaced evenly around the camp.
Adjacent to the campground is a very large fallen oak which we will turn into an outdoors classroom. How? We will clear brush and small limbs from beneath the cage of large limbs created by the fallen tree. Within the embrace of these limbs, we’ll build benches. What a nice way to “recycle” a fallen tree. Any limb we remove from the dead tree will become firewood at the campground.
Want to help develop the campground? Interested in participating in a future program at Camp Ruth? Contact us!
HSE Mapping & Orienteering Class
April 5th, 2010 Classes,Homeschool,Outdoors Education
I recently taught a Mapping & Orienteering class for 10 kids and their parents from Homeschool Excursions. I highly recommend checking out this group. Vered, the director, puts together excellent and diverse programming for home school families. I love that Homeschool Excursions groups are racially, politically, geographically, and gender diverse.
The class was held at the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in Decatur, and it was cold that day! With the gorgeous weather we’ve had for the past week, it blows my mind to think that we almost called off this class because it was snowing when we woke up!
The first father and son to arrive were into scouting and the young man was attempting to get an orienteering merit badge. I’ve was only a Webelos Scout for two years in elementary school, so I had no idea what BSA would require for a merit badge. It actually made me a little nervous: “Am I teaching enough skills and in enough depth?” Luckily, when I flipped through the merit badge book, I found that my class covers most topics, though I’m not as focused on terminology as BSA is. As with most things I do, this class is focused on practical orienteering skills.
Nevertheless, the class must start with a discussion of the concepts of longitude and latitude. Then, we looked at top maps of our area and tried to find clues on the map that would help us figure out, without a compass or GPS, where we are. We looked at contour lines, landmarks, bodies of water, roads, etc. Finally, we pulled out the GPS and pinpointed our location using longitude & latitude coordinates.
Compass-making was next, and we each built a magnetic compass using a needle (that we magnetized by rubbing on a magnet), a styrofoam float, water, and a plastic cup. Why do we do this? Making a compass teaches us how and why a compass works. This knowledge makes the use of a store-bought compass more intuitive.
So, we took our store-bought compasses, blank maps of the nature preserve, and our wits and walked the entire length of the park, identifying landmarks, deciding which direction to go, and looking at the flora & fauna. The kids were particularly intrigued by the landmark I call “The Beach” and navigated us towards where they thought it might be. We found it – a sandy area along South Peachtree Creek – and the kids spent awhile playing, climbing trees, and running around (playing in nature is one of my favorite parts of any class).
Once the kids led us back to our outdoors classroom using their maps and compasses, I told them that everything they had done today was wrong! Yes, wrong, because we did not correct for magnetic declination. (Come take the class, if you’d like to learn more.) I like leaving that lesson to the end because I think it drives it home more forcefully the fact that one small degree of difference can cause all calculations to be disastrously incorrect.
Finally, I introduced the participants to geocaching, the international treasurer-hunting game. We created and hid a cache (the kids named it “The Beach” after their favorite part of the Nature Preserve), and then I posted it online for others to find. As of when this post was written, 11 people have already found and logged our cache!
Despite the chilly weather, I thoroughly enjoyed teaching this class with these participants and look forward to bringing another group to the Clyde Shepherd Preserve soon!
Homeschool Excursions has also posted an excellent photo diary of the class on Facebook.
Raising City Chickens Class & Tour
March 24th, 2010 Chickens,Classes
Two weeks ago, I got to teach yet another class on raising backyard chickens. In the past, my classes have mainly been for kids. But this time, the participants were all adults and either planning on or investigating the possibilities of starting their own coop!
Our 14 participants were mainly from intown neighborhoods and ranged from young to old, single and married. There were definitely several people who were using the class to convince their spouse that raising chickens is a good idea.
In comparison to other classes on raising chickens, I design mine to be practical and hands-on. The classroom is my backyard (which I covered with a tarp on this drizzly day), and the first thing we do is let the chickens roam among the chairs and make sure each person starts out by learning to hold a chicken.
As usual, Spilly, our blind chicken, got the most lovin’:
We looked closely at coop construction, methods of watering and feeding the birds, measures to protect the chickens from predators. We discussed flock-sizes, daily routines, feeding kitchen scraps to your flock, uses of chicken poop.
The participants had great questions and it was lots of fun for me because I could see that they were analyzing every topic we covered, figuring out how they’d, for example, protect their own birds from hawks.
Whenever I could, I’d demonstrate a technique (such as clipping the birds’ wings, as you see in this photo) rather than just explain it. The participants got to watch me run in circles trying to catch our Ameraucana (named Bully Hawk). We passed around chicken feed and oyster shells. We fed the birds bread. We built a homemade waterer from a bucket and planter.
After my presentation, many questions and plenty of chicken-chasing, we went on our tour. The participants got to meet three very different chicken-owners and see a wide-variety of coops. Most of the chicken-owners on the tour built their coops themselves, using mostly scrap wood (as did my wife & father-in-law). One coop had seven birds, another had twenty. I think the tour helped the participants really visualize how they will bring chickens to their own backyards.
To date, at least three participants have ordered chicks (one ordered 25 and wants to share!) My cousin in Memphis even called me the evening of the class and asked me for advice, because she’s going to start a flock. And I’m still hearing from people who are excited about taking the next class I teach. Another is not scheduled until the fall, but if we get enough interest, I might be able to teach another in mid-May. Contact me!
Raising City Chickens Class
September 28th, 2009 Chickens,Classes
Sure Foot Adventures recently co-sponsored a class on raising chickens with Homeschool Excursions and Wind, Water & Wisdom. Roughly 20 people participated, and the participants got to know our 13 backyard chickens, learned about what it takes to raise chickens, and visited other families’ coops.
Though Atlanta had be inundated by rain for days, the skies cleared for our class. Despite the inevitable mosquitos, we were able to comfortably sit in the backyard, hold & pet the chickens, and learn. This class was primarily for kids as part of the Homeschool Excursions program, but parents and several other adults participated.
So, what happens in a chicken class? We “met” the chickens–Fatty White, Spilly, Bully Hawk, Jackie Joyner Clucker, Mr. Whiskers, etc. We learned how to hold chickens and we looked at their anatomy–waddle, feet, spurs, comb, wings, and so on. We also talked some about why one might want to raise chickens: for food (eggs and meat), as pets, for fertilizer, etc.
Though much of the class was “lecture,” we regularly took breaks from listening to catch and hold chickens, learn how to built waterers and feeders, and generally interact with the birds. I was amazed to see how much of a connection the kids developed with the chickens in such a short period of time. One young man told me that he made it a point to pick up and hold every one of the 13 birds!
Another experiment we did was to crack store-bought eggs (the carton claimed they were “fresh from the farm”) alongside some of our backyard eggs. The difference was amazing–large, viscous yolks (backyard) versus small, tight yolks (store), and of course backyard eggs have yolks with such a vibrant orange color!
Finally, our group hopped into vehicles and carpooled to four chicken coups in Decatur. We saw new breeds, interesting coop designs, and even a pet rabbit that co-habitated with chickens!
After the class was over, some families chose to stay and participate in the slaughter and processing of a rooster–a painful task that starkly demonstrates where our food comes from.
Many adults contacted me before this class and lamented that they were unable to come because it was held on a weekday. We plan to offer another Raising City Chickens class on one Saturday in the next couple months. If you are interested, please tell us!
Photos
View photos from our adventures on Facebook
