The sun has finally started shining, so the Chestnuts set off along the shade of the hedge to the Forest School area with hats and water bottles. Along the way the children found lots of sticky weed growing in the hedge and some made crowns out of the plants they found!

“It is really scratchy”
“I would like to be a King in a castle with my crown”
“Look! The sticky weed is sticking to your clothes!”

The class started with a circle around the fire pit in the cool shade of the shelter. We talked about the summer and how midsummer’s day is next week, with the longest day of the year.

The class all smelled the midsummer flowers of the elder tree and set about making some elderflower cordial. The first step was collecting wood to make a fire, which they did completely independently, remembering they needed really dry wood and that they had to sort it into a variety of sizes from thick to really thin.

The class used their skills builder knowledge to support each other with their fire lighting by talking through how to use the fire strikers, listening well, supporting each other with encouragement and showing great teamwork with sharing the resources.

Once the fire was lit, they helped prepare the ingredients for the cordial. This involved talking through the recipe, picking flowers, adding sugar and lemon and taking turns to stir their cooking and tending the fire.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience. The developing independence in fire making skills was evident today.

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.

Some of the Chestnuts talked about symmetrical butterfly patterns as they created their own imaginative representations and flew them around the Forest School area.

Some went to the pond to investigate, following on from their last session. They found and looked closely at the skins left from damselflies which had developed from larvae in the pond.

Throughout the session the children reflected on the impact of Forest School, by discussing and evaluating their year. There were lots of brilliant comments:

“I like Forest School, the green and plants and nature make me feel calm”
“I have learned listening skills and creativity and teamwork”
“I like playing games together”
“I loved making fires!”

There was also lots of climbing of the trees and swinging on the tyre swing and the hammock and playing in the mud kitchen. Lots of the children chose to make bows out of wood that they had found and some spent time adding to the bug hotel.

It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children. And that they can reflect upon and acknowledge the impact of the experience of Forest School. Well done Chestnuts!

Today Oaks Class started their session by identifying and collecting sticky weed. We made it into a ball to practise throwing and catching as a name game.

We went to the field and played a brilliant game of ‘Beetle Tag’. The children all were beetles and scurried around trying to run away from the birds who were trying to ‘tag’ them. When they were tagged they had to lie on their backs like an upturned beetle until one of their friends rescued them.

The class all took turns to be the birds and were very fast and agile with their game play in the sunshine.

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 and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School Games.

This week Oaks learned to light a fire and how to be safe around it. They used cotton wool and fire strikers to ignite it, then placed it onto the top of the fire to burn down.

They talked about how they could tell which way the wind was blowing, by noticing the wood smoke flowing in a particular direction.
The class learned to identify Elderflower by the flowers and their scent. They then used their wood fire to make pancake fritters. We tried elderflower and dandelion fritters and all the children who tried them agreed they were delicious!

Then the children went on to learn more about different flowers on the Forest School site by collecting and printing them onto fabric with a hammers.

Lots of the children spent time playing in the wild areas of the site, following their own ideas and interests. They loved the tyre swing, the hammock and climbing trees independently.

There was lots of digging in the big hole at the back of the site and playing in the mud kitchen with saucepans and water.

Some of the children continued playing the 3 in a row, ladybird noughts and crosses game which they started playing at their last session.

At the end of the session the children tried passing a ‘woodland whisper’ along the full length of the line of 29 children. It started as elderflower and ended up… good attempt, but we will need to practise again! The children were lovely and quiet enough for everyone to hear the birdsong throughout.

Today Willows Class started their session by going to their garden patch to look at the daffodils they had planted. They counted 3 that were flowering and noticed that there were more which were dying because they had already flowered. Then they each threw in the ‘seed bombs’ they had made out of clay, mud and lots of calendula seeds.

“They are a sphere shape”

“Yeah, when you flatten it, it will be a circle!”

“I think the flowers will look beautiful”

“Then we can get more seeds from the flowers next year to grow some more”

We went to the field and played a brilliant game of ‘Beetle Tag’. The children all pretended to be beetles and scurried around, trying to run away from the birds who were trying to ‘tag’ them. When the beetles were tagged, they had to lie on their backs like an upturned beetle until one of their friends rescued them. The class all took turns to be the birds and were really great at noticing which ‘beetles’ needed to be rescued. Well done Willows!

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 and trees in relation to the seasons as well as the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School Games.

This week the Willows learned to make a fire and how to be safe around the fire. They practised being ‘Green Dragons’ by switching log seats and walking around the edge of the circle to be safe. They worked as a team, using their understanding of size and measure, to sort sticks into different thicknesses. In turns they put them into the bowl to build a fire with the large sticks at the bottom, building up to the smallest.

They talked about how they could tell which way the wind was blowing by noticing the wood smoke flowing in a particular direction.

Then the children went on to learn about different flowers on the Forest School site by collecting them and printing onto fabric using hammers.

Lots of the children spent time playing in the den which is evolving in the wild area of our site. They loved the tyre swing and the hammock, working on their vestibular and gross motor control development.

There was lots of digging in the big hole at the back of the site and playing in the mud kitchen with saucepans and water.

Some of the children continued playing the 3 in a row ladybird noughts and crosses game which they started playing at their last session.

Each child took it in turns to share and listen to what they had enjoyed about the afternoon.

“I liked banging the leaves with the hammers”

“I liked the woods and the fire”

“I liked the game, It was fun being a beetle”

The class started their afternoon by playing game of ‘keeper of the keys’. They took turns to have a blindfold and had to creep up silently to retrieve some keys from a metal bowl. It took care and stealth to do it successfully!

The children then had a go at printing with the plants and flowers to deepen their learning of different spring plants. They all smelled ground ivy and garlic mustard which are growing on the site. They made some leaf prints by folding plants in fabric and hitting them with a hammer onto wood to create prints from the juices inside the plants.

The children extended their ideas by decorating the wood further and making signs for the bug hotel. They want to continue this next time, so will hopefully use tools to construct small boxes with their decorated wood to add to the bug hotel.

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 and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learn-ing how to play Forest School games.

The rest of the afternoon saw Maples following their own ideas and interests.

Some of the children went off to explore what evidence of animals they could find. There were different footprints in the mud by the pond. They thought they might be a squirrel, badger, duck and other bird prints. Hopefully next time we can use plaster of paris to take casts of the prints to keep.

There was of lots of tree climbing as well as swinging on the tyre swing and hammock.

Some of the children continued to dig in their giant hole using sticks and trowels! They worked out how to add water to their mud and mix it to make clay.

Dormouse brought in a tree to plant, so with spades and extra compost they planted it together by the shelter area.

Some children made bows with string and freshly cut willow from the pond area. They tried to learn how to tie knots.

It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children.

The class were asked what their favourite Forest School experience was:

“I like making dens and different bases with my friends”

“I liked making paint from berries the best”

“I like being in nature”

“I like the mud kitchen “

“I like making things with clay, models and animals”

“I really liked making the bug hotel and making it bigger and drawing signs for it”

“ I like all of it!”

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.

This term Willows have a new learning journey- ‘Splash- What do you know about water?’ So we started our session by going to explore the two ponds at school.

The children each had a magnifying pot to look closely and had a go with a net to catch some of the pond life they found. With an identification chart the children managed to catch and identify damsel fly larvae, dragonfly larvae and some pond skaters.

They were very curious and engaged with observing the pond life and discussing what they had found, enriching and developing their vocabulary. The children found that there was a lot more wildlife in the pond at the forest school area and quietly approached it as there were three ducks who look very at home there.

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.

Lots of the children spent time playing in the den which is evolving in the wild area of our site. They moved lots of wood and enjoyed the physical challenge of climbing on the fallen tree. They then went on to create a ‘circus’ under a tarpaulin, moved logs for the audience to sit on and gave out dock leaf tickets. They performed a story they had made up about a sheep being rescued by a doctor! Very entertaining!

There was lots of digging in the big hole at the back of the site and playing in the mud kitchen with saucepans and water.

Some of the children had a go at the 3 in a row, ladybird noughts and crosses game. They ended up making their own rules and patterns and then went off to hide some other painted stones for Chestnuts class to find next time.

Well done Willows class for such a busy and engaged afternoon.

Willows class listened to the birds singing outside their classroom at the beginning of the session held in the spring sunshine this week.

They played a game ‘Spirit of the Forest’ where they pretended to be woodland birds: robins, woodpeckers and owls and had to fly through the forest without being caught by the trees.

Willows joined in with the rhythms and words of a song and then used tapping sticks to make up new rhythm patterns and took turns in leading the class. They played a listening and guessing game, by trying to identify some birds by their bird calls.

Then each of the children made their own colourful card bird, which they took off to fly around the Forest School area. Some children made nests for them, they counted their birds, took them into their den and made up a bird dance with them, talked about the patterns and colours of their birds, made bird feeders for them with pine cones and seeds and then proudly showed them off to Maples Class whilst they were out running their mile.
The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge they have gained from their Forest School experience.

The impact can be seen through the skills gained, tools used, the art and craft activities, observations and knowledge of fruit, plants and trees in relation to the fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School Games.

Some children took their birds to explore the bug hotel and found some woodlice and worms, which they thought their birds could eat. They also created a see saw and a bridge for the bugs in the bug hotel!

Some children enjoyed jumping in the muddy hole and playing in the mud kitchen.

They then passed ‘Stick Man’ around the circle to share what they enjoyed about the session.

“I liked going on the tyre swing and making my bird”
“I liked playing in the den with my friends”
“I liked making bird feeders, look, I hung them up on the trees”
“I liked making a nest for all of the birds, there was 11,12,13 birds”
“ I liked making my yellow hammer bird”

Well done Willows class for such a busy and engaged afternoon.

Doormouse lead Oaks last Forest School session for this term.

They started with a game of Tail Tag. Then they dug a large hole and using buckets, they filled it up with water. They said they were making an outside hot tub!

They also spent some time decorating stones with bugs and then hid them in Forest School ready for Willows to find in their session the following week.

They enjoyed making lots of things out of clay, as well as den building and tree climbing.

The session finished with a game of Fox and Rabbit.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge they have gained from their Forest School experience.

The impact can be seen through the skills gained, tools used, the art and craft activities, observations and knowledge of fruit, plants and trees in relation to the fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School Games.

The children talked about the signs of spring which they could spot. Daffodils are growing and the new growth of plants is starting. They independently planted some daffodil bulbs for next year’s spring along the edge of the forest school area.

The class learned a song and joined in with actions;

‘Spring is here’ said the bumblebee,
how do you know?’ said the old oak tree,
Because I saw a daffodil,
Dancing with the fairies on the windy hill’.

The children had a go at making some bird feeders of their own.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children gain 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 Maples following their own ideas.

There was lots of independent creating with sticks, to make signs, decorations and boats, which they tested on the pond.

Maples really enjoyed their den building and used secateurs independently to continue to cut back brambles from their den area.

They thoroughly enjoyed digging today, creating a huge hole and filling buckets with clay, which we can use during future sessions.

There was also lots of climbing and swinging and running around!

It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children.

The class started their afternoon by learning a song about Spring with actions.

‘Spring is here’ said the bumblebee

‘How do you know?’ said the old oak tree

‘Because I saw a daffodil,
Dancing with the fairies on the windy hill’

The children then split into two groups and one set off to weed their school garden beds and plant daffodils ready for next year. They worked brilliantly together and were very excited to find worms and small beetle larvae in the soil. They had also saved some apple pips from their snack and planted these in small pots.

“If we grow these into apple trees, we can plant them at Forest School and always have something to eat here!”

The class then made some tiny bees with alder cones and yellow string. They developed their fine motor control, by carefully winding the string around the cones, attaching a small pair of wings to them. Chestnuts took their bees to the vegetable garden to let them feed on the nectar of daffodils and even found a real bumble bee resting inside a daffodil trumpet!

Once the daffodils were planted the class set off to the Forest School area with a wheelbarrow full of weeds to compost and lots of tiny bumble bees.

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 the den area and spent lots of time moving large pieces of wood to place them as walls for the den. They climbed a part of the den next to the fence to look over at the surrounding fields and saw lots of crows.

This afternoon the lady bird board game was back and the children spent a long time trying to win the game, like noughts and crosses, to get three matching ladybirds in a row and block their opponents.

There was also lots of tree climbing, swinging and playing in the mud kitchen.

Some of the children found what they thought was a giant dinosaur footprint in the mud! They got very excited and went off to find some trowels to dig around it to uncover it more.

It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children.