The class started their afternoon by imagining they were balancing along the branch of a tree, trying really hard not to wobble and fall off.
Then they all played a game of ‘you are only safe…’ where they learned to identify some of the plants in the Forest School area such as stinging nettles, dock leaves, buttercups, ground ivy, cow parsley and garlic mustard.
The children then tried printing with plants and flowers to deepen their learning of different spring plants on the site. They made some leaf prints by folding plants in fabric and hitting them with a hammer to create prints from the juices inside the plants. The class used some adjectives to describe their prints:
“Beautiful, colourful, patterned, and interesting”
“I really liked making my flower prints, they look really good”
Some of the class then made some ‘green man and women’ tree faces with clay and the plants, leaves and sticks that they had found. They developed their fine motor control by pressing the clay onto trees and sculpting face details using their fingers and sticks as modelling tools. Glance upwards as you approach or enter many of Britain’s great cathedrals and churches and it is more than likely you will catch sight of the Green Man looking down at you.
It was brilliant to see so many different faces and the class foraging to collect items to help develop their creativity from the woodland.
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.
This afternoon the ladybird board game was popular and the children played each other to get three matching ladybirds in a row and block their opponents.
There was also lots of tree climbing, playing on the tyre swing and hammock and playing in the mud kitchen.
“I am making some lovely muddy raspberry pie”
“I need some buttercups to add to my silly soup”
Some of the children continued to dig their giant dinosaur footprint in the mud. They got very excited and thought that they might uncover dinosaur bones, or a skull! They worked out how to add water to their mud and mix it to make clay.
“I mixed the mud and rolled it and then sprinkled some dust on top of it and I have made some dinosaur eggs!”
It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children.
