Chestnuts started their Forest School session today with a game of Keeper of the Keys. To play the game, the children have to sit in a circle with one child guarding a set of keys of the middle. A child from the circle is chosen to sneak in, steal the keys and then run as fast as they can back to their spot before the keeper catches them. It was great to hear the class cheering each other on.
Once on the Forest School site, the children were given a pot of cream to shake as hard as they could. Shaking the cream will eventually turn it into butter. When it was ready the children sat round the fire circle and tried some of the butter on a cracker. This was enjoyed by most of the class with many of them wanting another one and another!
Many of the class chose to try using a knife to whittle their own piece of Willow. They started by spreading themselves out around the fire circle, making sure to leave a good distance between each other, and placing a glove on the hand that would be holding the Willow stick. After a safety demonstration the children were able to try for themselves and did really well at removing the bark. Once all the bark was stripped from their stick, an adult helped to add a point to their stick creating a pencil. They crushed up some charcoal and added a little water to make a black paste to draw with. They drew on our fire circle logs and nearby trees.
There was plenty of free play in the mud kitchen, den building and on the slackline.
The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience, this can be seen through the skills gained, tools used, art and craft activities, observations and knowledge of the fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons.
