The last session of Forest School of the year brings a time of reflection. The whole class thought about their Forest School experience and it’s IMPACT on them this year.
YOU – Has forest school affected how you feel about yourself and your well-being- If so how?
“I feel Happy and excited, happy, happy!”
NATURE – Has forest school affected how you feel about nature – if so how?
“bees, flowers, leaves, trees”
“When it is sunny the flowers grow so high”
“Foxgloves are poisonous, you don’t touch them”
LEARNING – What skills did you learn or develop this year at Forest School?
“I really like spending time with my friends and teachers”
“Making things with nature and pictures”
What activities did you enjoy most or would like to do more of?
“I like playing around”
“Making with clay is good”
What did you like about the woodland space and Forest School environments?
“I like the sticks”
“I love bugs…digging for them and looking for woodlice”
“I like my friends in the woods”
We then set off for the woods together on midsummer’s day. On the walk to the woods the children collected samples of wildflowers and plants on sticky tape, they tried to create the colours of the rainbow. They talked about, buttercups, herb Robert and blue coloured speedwell. They were careful to avoid the stinging nettles. Some of the plants had grown so much since the last time we visited the wood, lots of the bracken was taller than the children and the adults!
We took a jar of cream along the way to try to create butter The children took it in turns to shake the jar furiously throughout the morning and in the end it changed to make butter, which they tasted with crackers in the woods! It turns out the buttercups were correct- they do like butter! Once in the woods they each had a go at decorating their own card butterfly with chalk pastels. They then fixed them onto sticks and flew them around the woodland.
The class all found 2 sticks and tapped out patterns and sang a song together. We played a game of ‘1, 2, 3 change tree’ where the children had to run to find a new tree
to be safe at before the end of a countdown. There was lots of time for independent play this week, with the children balancing on the slack line, swinging on the hammock, digging in the mud, creating mud mixtures and paint and exploring the woodland in summer.
At the end of the session the class managed to pass a ‘woodland whisper’ all the way along the line of them, listening brilliantly to each other. They also shared some of the things they had enjoyed about their session. Well done Hedgehogs, it was great to see the children engaging so well with developing their physical risk and challenge when exploring the woodland. A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who came and supported the children so brilliantly and got involved in all of their play.
