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. In small groups they chatted and recorded some of their ideas.
“I felt joyful, happy and proud because I achieved new stuff, like making a fire”
“Forest School makes me feel calm, happy and relaxed”
“I can feel how soft the flowers are”
“I got better at building a den, last it was a pile of sticks and now it looks better”
“I love the slack line, making paper birds and building dens”
“I feel better because I have lots of fun at Forest School”
“I feel happy because I love doing exciting things”
“I like climbing on the logs and balancing on slacklines”
“My climbing skills have got better, I want to climb more trees now”
“We could play more hide and seek games”
“I feel happy and alive in the woods”
“I feel happy and calm”
“We learned about growing flowers and how to make bug palaces”
“The ropes and swinging on the hammock are my favourite!
“The trees in the woods are great, they are there to get us air to breathe”
“I love animals and plants, so I love the nature at Forest School”
We then set off for the woods together on a beautiful bright morning. 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, inspired by the buttercups. 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!
The class all found 2 sticks and tapped out patterns and sang a song together to start the woodland session. The children had a go at creating symmetrical butterflies with pastels and paper, attaching them to sticks to fly around the woodland once created.
There was lots of time for independent play this week, with the children digging in the hard mud, balancing along fallen logs, making nests for birds with sticks and leaves and exploring the woodland in summer. The Squirrels were really good at challenging them-selves to balance on the slack line and took care to take turns well.
They loved swinging on the hammock and independent play on the fallen logs, decorating them with pastels. At the end of the session 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.
A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who came and supported the children so brilliantly during our Forest School sessions.
