Forest Schools

The children really enjoyed the outside woodland area and spent their time looking for signs of changes to the seasons. They compared the colour of the leaves and feet their texture.

Year 4 learnt what it might have been like for Native Americans in the forest school last term. Children used palm drills and peelers to craft medallions and make sacred animals out of clay. They thought hard about which animal spirit they possessed and adopted a Native American name. Children learnt how to safely start and put out fires and used the fire to cook bread and toast marshmallows.

We used the larger Forest School site for this session and began with a game to keep us warm and help us explore the site. After, we discussed which animals we may find in the woods today. We went looking for mini-beasts, having decided that these were the most likely type we would find. After realising they preferred sheltered, dark, damp places we collected some materials from the forest floor to make a bug hotel. Children worked alone, or in pairs to make their own habitat suitable for the animals we found.

This was our first session with Year One. Once we had introduced ourselves and gone through the rules and expectations for the forest school we played a game to get used to our surroundings. We played 1, 2, 3 Where are you? - Children find a place to jump from and shout back "We're here!". In doing this, we found all sorts of different plants (and some animals) and managed to find some signs that Spring is on its way.

In the last session we familiarised ourselves with the woodland environment and searched for items that expected to find in the woods, and then items were would be surprised to find. We focussed on our listening skills, playing 'Pattern ball'.

Changes Outside

We worked in teams to make the highest leaf pile, before measuring them. We looked around at the trees before estimating how many different types of leaf we could collect. There were nine different types that we named. Finally, we made some pictures, inspired by the artist Andy Goldsworthy. We tried to 'block' colours and types of leaves together.