We continued with our bird theme at forest school today. The class set off onto the school grounds looking for eight little bird teddies that were hiding around forest school. Once they were all found we listened to the bird sounds that each teddy made, talking about what each bird the teddy was.
Sitting as a group around the fire circle we went through some of the rules that are there to keep us safe when we have fire. They learnt how you must never go in the fire circle unless invited by an adult, also that they can shout ‘red dragon’ to anyone that walks uninvited into the circle.
A few children stayed in the circle and helped to get the fire ready for lighting. They started by placing some larger sticks of the ground and working their way up to smaller sticks, then placing some dry oak shavings on top. Using a flint and steel they had a go at striking a piece of cotton wool that once lit would be added to the fire. They found this a little tricky but with some help it was soon lit and added to our fire. When the fire was ready the children added popcorn kernels to a sieve that was then placed over the fire, when asked what would happen they said “it will go pop, pop”. When it was ready we added some sugar and the class all enjoyed a handful or two of popcorn.
Other children chose to gather some dry grass and twigs to create a big bird nest for all the bird teddies that had joined us at forest school. Using pens they decorated some stones to use as eggs, it looked very sweet all the birds huddled in a nest together.
We finished today’s session with a game of bat and moth. The children all held hands to create the cave. Two children were chosen to go in the middle, one as the bat and one as the moth. The bat was blindfolded “it’s gone all dark” listening for the moths squeak, trying their best to catch them as the moth ran away around the cave.
