The class started their afternoon by practising ‘fox walking’. They all had to try to silently walk in a ‘sneaky, stalky’ kind of way, as foxes do when they are approaching their prey. The children tried hard to walk toe first, then heel, to make as little noise as possible.
The children then spotted some animal tracks and looked closely at the shapes and number of marks there were, before identifying each print. Some children then used stencils to create their own tracks with flour and a sieve. Some used the stencils to create clay prints of the wood-land animals.
There were some animal skulls, bones and feathers to investigate and the children responded by asking lots of questions.
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 gained, 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.
The rest of the afternoon saw Chestnuts following their own ideas. They really wanted to continue with their work on the bug hotel, so searched for old pots and sticks to add to it and even found some clay in the ground whilst doing this.
They worked well together to create a barrier to remind everyone to keep away from the really wet areas and paths in the Forest School site.
This then led to some lovely den building. The groups of children moved logs into their dens to create sitting circles and then thought they would like a fire in the middle “to keep us warm…it is cold!” So they collected some woods and then had a go at practising their fire striking skills.
There was also lots of climbing and swinging and playing in the mud kitchen.
It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children.
There was time at the end of the session to share and listen to what they had all enjoyed about the session whist drinking a cup of warm apple juice.
“I liked making the animal tracks and sprinkling the flour”
“I like making the fire, I did it from a spark!”
“I liked the clay, but it was really cold and washing my hands was cold too!”
“I liked making the den with my friends, we carried the wood together and I liked our log seats”
“I love the mud kitchen”
