This week, Oak class spent a beautiful, sunny afternoon up in our orchard and around the fire circle. The children were very excited to hear that we were going to light the fire and cook some marshmallows on it! The first job was to collect firewood for the fire. Miss Hare showed the children the different thicknesses of wood they needed and all the children were fantastic at collecting and organising it – using their finger thickness to decide which pile to put it in.
While they weren’t working with Miss Hare and Mr Hinder, the children got creative with some daisies, investigated the wildlife that lives in our school field and played games to build up their confidence and trust in each other. It’s lovely to see how involved all the children get in the games and how much more confident they are this term, than their first few Forest School sessions back in Term 2.
The children came and had a go at fire-lighting in groups of 4. Mr Hinder demonstrated how to use the fire steels to get the fire going using cotton wool with vaseline on it.
Freya knew exactly how to use the steels and Mya was particularly determined when her cotton wool was being stubborn! Even though he was a bit nervous to start with, Stanley’s cotton wool got going really quickly and all the children enjoyed seeing how quickly the fire started and caught onto the sticks which they collected. Then they roasted marshmallows and enjoyed making them go gooey inside – or as Molly described it, ‘like yoghurt!’
Well done, Oak Class! You were so sensible around the fire and were really encouraging of your friends when they found it a little bit tricky!
