This week at Forest school we have focused on revising our skills around fire lighting. Over the years the children have been taught how to light a fire using flint and steel and developed a solid understanding of fire safety.  In these sessions we are progressing further- we have talked about the legality of fire, recalled fire first aid and safety, and built on our technical skills;  moving from lighting tinder to building a fire with kindling and managing a fire safely.  The windy weather meant we had to reflect and adapt our normal safe seating in the wood,  instead we worked on the field, with children successfully using collected silver birch twigs to keep a small fire burning.

 

Ice and rain have heralded January and the Year 6s Forest School sessions- they have donned waterproofs and a gathered pocketful of resilience and ploughed on like champions.

These sessions are about developing independence and progressing the skills we’ve developed throughout the children’s Forest School career at Meadowside.  We’ve started by revisiting whittling techniques, recalling safety and pushing onto the next step of creating a stop cut, the children are now developing strength and dexterity.

In response to this week’s weather, we shifted our focus to den building using some more advanced knotting skills to create a taut and weatherproof tarpaulin.  We learnt the adjustable guy line hitch and quickly had to put our learning into context in a torrential downpour!

The children are old enough to competently and safely manage themselves around the fire, following rules that we’ve had in place since Reception class, and so toasted their own marshmallows and kept the fire lit despite the adverse weather!