Squirrels set off on the hunt for some blackberries with the hope of finding enough that they could make jam on the fire, they were rather good at spotting them and managed to fill half a good sized tub. Some children then worked with a Teacher to peel some apples and chop them up. Others worked to lay the fire ready for cooking. They then used a flint and steel to light a piece of cotton wool, this can be rather tricky but they kept trying.
Once the fire was going the children placed the apple, blackberries and a little sugar onto a pan and cooked them until they were all soft. The children then took it in turns to toast some bread by holding it over the fire. They then had the chance to try their jam on the toast. This was enjoyed by all with many of the class coming up for more.
Some children chose to build dens using the tarpaulins. They did this by throwing them up into the trees over a branch and back down again to create a triangle. Using another tarpaulin they made themselves a floor. This was rather effective as you could get many Squirrels inside it.
Within our new forest school site, there were a few small trees that were located right in the fire circle, unfortunately these trees have to be removed. A few children used secateurs to cut off as many of the branches as they could reach. They then used a saw to cut down
the remainder of the tree. Working together they stacked the tree to one side, GREAT TEAM WORK SQUIRRELS!
While exploring our new forest school area the class came across many different types of wildlife. They found frogs hopping in the long grass and tucked under logs with some newts. They found slugs and snails hiding away in all the damp areas of forest school, some children walked about with a snail trailing up there jumper. There was a lot of excitement when a log was moved to reveal a slow worm, the class look it in turns to hold the slow worm before returning it to its hiding place.
