This term Chestnuts topic is all about growing, so this week the children planted some tree saplings along the boundary with the field, looking carefully at the complexity of the roots of the saplings and how the shoots were developing this year’s new leaves. They found lots of worms and woodlice when they were digging and used a mini beasts identification sheet to check what they had found. We spent some time banging in stakes around the sapling trees to support and protect them to help them grow.
The saplings are hawthorn, silver birch and rowan. Referring to information in books and tree identification cards, Chestnuts created some lovely ID tags to hang on the trees in the Forest School area. Some of the children also tried making bark rubbings of the oak tree bark with paper and wax crayons.
The children put up two planters on the mud kitchen and filled them with compost and some butterfly friendly wild flower seeds and gave them a good water to help them start to germinate and then grow. They also planted some of the wild flower seeds carefully around the base of their newly planted saplings.
The class spent time playing in the dens they have made, swinging on the rope swing and climbing trees. We noticed that there were tadpoles in the pond, so the class had an enjoyable time watching them dart around the pond. The mud kitchen was really busy, with children creating fantastic muddy mixtures and a ‘scrumptious stew!’
The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience. The impact can be seen through the skills, tools used, art and craft activities, observations and knowledge of the fruit, plants trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School games.
