Forest School May - July 2024
Forest School Jan - April 2024
Robins and Fledglings this year will be enjoying weekly, afternoon Forest School sessions. This involves interaction with each other where communication is learnt and confidence gained.
Robins on Thursday and Fledglings, Year 5 on Friday had fun afternoons with three activities to take part in. A camp fire is a class favourite with the smalls to eat and Hapa Zome to create beautiful pieces of art. Free Play was also available for den building, playing in the mud kitchen or just playing with sticks.
Fire, Hapa Zome
Hapa Zome, Camp Fire , Free play
What a fun afternoon we have had today. The children were asked to select and prepare their arrows ready for assembling. Some were more successful than others but everyone had a good attempt at shooting the arrows. Following this the children asked about making swords and fishing rods. Well done everyone.
Bows and Arrows, Swords and Fishing Rods
To help the children with a positive attitude to sharing and supporting peers in activities the children worked in groups . Overall I witnessed lots of encouragement and positive comments to team members. Well done Fledglings for demonstrating these skills this afternoon.
After a watery play the children explored the forest school area which just keeps giving and giving. It was interesting to watch the children as they worked in harmony and were discussing ways they could remove a large section of a dead stump. An interesting array of leverage tools were used. When we finished the section was still attached although they had loosened it. Let's see what next week brings.
Fill Your Bowl
Robins had fun with the fill your bowl activity today and then they spent time enjoying the forest school area. Unfortunately the I Pad ran out of battery hence no pictures for this session.
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Fledglings were set a series of challenges today. Firstly, identify the picture to locate the box containing the clip. Secondly, answer the riddle in the box as a group and then clip your cards. They were able to do both with relative ease.
Pond dipping and free play were also on the menu for today.
Riddle Orienteering
During our session this week the children took part in orienteering - Looking for letters to make a word that named a tree - pond dipping and fun in the forest school area.
Tree Name Orienteering
Similar to Robins, the Fledglings were very good at recalling the safety instructions when around an open fire. It didn't take long before they had collected a variety of sticks and soon after the fire was laid and lit. Well done Fledglings for a very sensible afternoon around the fire.
Camp fire 2 Fledglings
Robins were brilliant today at sourcing the fire sticks and setting the fire ready to light for our second campfire this term. All had remembered the rules regarding fire protocol from the previous week and as usual the smalls were delicious!
Camp fire 2
Fledglings experienced their first Camp Fire in school today and after our initial safety talk before we left the classroom they all behaved very well whilst they sat and moved around the open fire. I think from all their faces the marshmallow experience was a very enjoyable one and they would like to try it again on another forest school session.
Fl - Camp Fire
After a discussion about safety when having a camp fire, Robins' first task was to collect suitable fire wood and place in the appropriate piles so the fire can be set ready to light. Following this the children in two groups prepared their willow toasting sticks, washed their hands and then positioned themselves around the camp fire to toast marshmallows and enjoy a smalls. Yummy!
Camp Fire
Fledglings have been discovering all about the Caribbean this week and so to end it the children were offered an opportunity to decorate a Mardi Gras mask with paint using any natural materials they wanted to. Sticks were the most popular followed by clumps of grass and leaves. Well done everyone for being so adventurous.
Pond dipping was requested as well and from the squeals of delight we all new something aquatic had been scooped out of the pond. But for some children just water and mud had to be their play thing to day. A very busy session indeed.
Mask decorating
Robins spent a lot of time painting flowers and trees using watercolour paints. During this time, two children discovered the joy of mixing colours so it was an exact match for the flower they had chosen to paint.
Summer Painting
Fledglings spent part of the session decorating their magic wands. It took perseverance and patience which they demonstrated well today. For the final part of our afternoon most of the children asked to go pond dipping, one of their favourite activities this term.
Magic Wands
Fledglings enjoyed making a flower garden as part of an extra session of Forest School this week. The final part of the morning involved building a moon buggy. What fabulous enthusiasm and ideas on what they could use for the seating, tyres, steering wheel and general shape of the buggy. WOW!
Flower Garden and a Moon Buggy
Robins were challenged with weaving nature around the edge of prepared card, thus creating a woven picture frame. The end results were very pleasing to the eye and Robins were discussing what they would display in the centre as a picture when they returned home.
Picture Frame weaving
Fledglings experienced the Hapa Zome activity today, enjoying the transformation of their material and the results they were creating from the variety of flora and fauna that was available.
Fledglings Hapa Zome
Using natural foliage, the children were encouraged to create a symmetrical pattern by bashing the flora and fauna with a stone, mallet or hammer onto a cloth. Eventually it was cut into the shape of a butterfly. The end results were very creative.
Hapa Zome
