05/07/21  In our final session in the woods we finished off working with the wood that we had sawn, by decorating it. We made some tiny clay hedgehogs as well and had time playing and exploring the woods in a self directed way.  The children developed a huge leaf pile which became the source of different games including ‘jump in the leaf pile’, ‘nose dive off a rolling barrel into the leaf pile’ and ‘hide in the leaf pile!’   A leaf pile maybe a feasible cheap alternative to Xmas presents this year… 🙂

 

13/10/21 This week in the woods…

We spent time looking at the many colours of the leaves at this time of year, we listened really carefully so that we would know how to keep safe using the bowsaw, the children sang their wonderful harvest assembly songs as we wandered down the embankment and we cooked and gobbled up campfire popcorn! A big hit!

We’ve got stuck straight into using tools at Forest school with the Year 2 class.

We’ve taken time to learn about fire safety, and then taken the first steps towards fire lighting by learning to hold the ferrous rod and steel and make sparks, which takes a lot of dexterity and develops fine motor skills.   On the same theme we worked on overhand knots to keep up the practice for shoe lace tying…

We’ve started using hacksaws independently in pairs, to cut small sticks and practise the sawing action we will need later in school when we work with bow saws.

The children have identified rosehips, and learnt about their medicinal properties.

We’ve been visited by squirrels, spiders and a very friendly and persistent kitten in the woods, who caused a distraction!

And we ate campfire toast and baked apples and made dens and leaf kites! A busy few weeks!

The weather has turned and our woodland site is extremely muddy and cold. Please ensure your child comes to school wearing warm layers of clothes with waterproof trousers and coat on top, for Forest school days. They should have a dry school uniform to change back into, in a named bag.