Willows have been spotting birds throughout the winter and have created their own bird feeders with pine cones. They topped up the seeds on the bird feeders to continue to feed the birds throughout the nesting season.

This term the Willows topic is all about growing, so the children had a go at learning to identify some trees around the school site. They created their own tree identification labels, which we then hung up on the corresponding trees.

Some children had a go at making bark rubbings with paper and wax crayons. They moved a sapling hazel tree, planting it in a better place away from the pond.

We found some wildflower seeds which the children sprinkled around the site to grow. Some of the class spent time replenishing the bug hotel with broken clay pots, sticks, leaves and wood. They found lots of bugs living there and made up some lovely stories about the creatures they had found. There was lots of time spent in the mud kitchen cooking and much enjoyment on the slack line and the rope swing. What a busy afternoon, 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 trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School games.

The class looked around the school grounds for signs of spring, using identification sheets to help them. They found daffodils and snowdrops flowering near the gardening area. Then they took a moment to find a quiet ‘sit spot’ in the Forest School area to observe and listen to the woodland.

This week Chestnuts started to learn a bit about recognising birds. The children played with toy birds and learned to identify them by their colours and bird calls. They talked about the materials birds might use to build nest and had a go themselves with hay, leaves, sticks and clay which they dug from the woodland floor.

The children had a go at making their own birds with card, chalk pastels and sticks and then flew them around the Forest School area.

The class spent time building dens from branches, playing in the mud kitchen and climbing trees.

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.

At the end of the session the class played a game of ‘Spirit of the Forest’, where they each became a bird and had to get from one side of the forest to the other without being caught and turning into a tree.

Willows have been spotting birds throughout the winter and had created their own bird feeders with pine cones. They topped up the seeds on the bird feeders to continue to feed the birds through the coming months.

Willows talked about the story they have been reading in class this week-‘The Three Little Pigs’. We talked about the different materials the houses were made of and how, why and if they were good materials for house building.

The children then had a go at using straw, sticks and clay to build different houses. Some of the children thought they could make houses, or nests for birds and most of the children spent time engaging with the properties of the materials, rather than house construction! They spent a long time digging the clay and mud and experimenting with adding water and straw to mix it. Then they pushed their mixture into the frog of a brick to create their own clay bricks with.

The children played independently, climbing the trees, using the slack line and the hammock, playing with the birds, digging clay, mixing clay with hay, making clay bricks and creating in the mud kitchen.

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.

At the end of the session each child shared what they had enjoyed about their session. It was great to hear such good thoughts and witness such great listening skills.

“I like making the bird feeders….the birds keep eating all of the seeds!”

“I liked playing with the birds”

“I liked making food in the mud kitchen…I made pancakes for Doormouse”

“I liked climbing the trees and going on the slack line”

“I like digging in the clay and the mud, if it is too dry, you have to add water”

“I think that the pond could be a home to the ducks, they are not there now, and maybe they flew away, because ducks have wings”.

Willows had been spotting birds last session and had created their own bird feeders with pine cones. They topped up the seeds on the bird feeders so the birds could continue to feed throughout the cold months.

The children played a game called ‘Spirit of the Forest’. They each chose to be a bird; a robin, a wood pecker or an owl and had to run and dodge, turning into a tree if they were tagged.

This week the children were introduced to more bird identification. They talked about the colours and patterns on the bird feathers and listened to bird calls to try and identifying them.

Then they found a quiet ‘sit spot’ and spent 5 minutes quietly watching and listening to birds. They then looked at bird identification sheets, some used their phonics knowledge to sound out and read the captions; robin, green finch, song thrush.

We made a fire and talked about fire safety. We used the fire to make a hot drink to have with a biscuit.

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.

Then the children played independently, climbing the trees, playing with the birds, making nests and creating in the mud kitchen.

At the end of the session each child shared what they had enjoyed about their session. It was great to hear such good thoughts and witness such great listening skills.

“I liked the hot chocolate”

“I liked playing with the birds”

“I liked making the big nest…it was a circle”

“I liked making food in the mud kitchen…and eating a biscuit with hot chocolate”

“I liked making the fire”

“I liked listening to the birds and sitting quietly”

Oaks set off for their Forest School session in the week of the Lunar new year. The class have been learning about the story of ‘The Great Race’ in which the order of the animals in the Chinese Lunar New Year are determined. This year is the year of the rabbit. They played a game of ‘fox and rabbit’.

The class learned about how to identify animals by their tracks and used flour, sieves and stencils to create some tracks on the woodland floor. They also had a go at moving like rabbits, to try to create their distinctive track marks and learn about how rabbits move.

On the way to the Forest School area, the Oaks looked at compasses. They all found North and learned how to set their compasses correctly. We played a game, learning about the different directions and the degrees in which North, East, South and West point in a 360 degree circle. Some children continued using their compasses in the Forest School area as part of their play.

The water in the Forest School area is finally starting to dry up, so the whole class spent some time clearing the area which has become very overgrown. They collected wood and sticks, removed rubbish and footballs from the area and worked together as a team to move large pieces of wood and palettes. It was great to see them working together so well and to have more space to explore and play in.

Some of the large sticks and branches were used to build dens. Some children used rope to tie some branches together to make a ladder and they even designed and made a coat rack for their den!

The children dug out some clay and had a go at continuing to create bricks which they started last session.

We put up a slack line between some of the trees in the wooded area and the children took turns taking physical risks and challenges by walking along it.

This week some of the children developed their tool skills, by using knives to start to carve with. They were great at listening to how to use the tools in a safe way. First they used pruning saws to cut the wood to a useable length. Then they had a go at peeling bark, sharpening the ends of sticks and some started to create patterns on their sticks and even tried to carve small mushrooms.

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.

Before the session, the class listened to a bit of the story of ‘Billy and the Minpins’, by Roald Dahl, linking with their learning journey topic this year. They heard the chapter where Billy climbs a very tall tree and then had a go on the trees in the forest school area themselves.

Some of the group used small logs and wooden pieces to create their own miniature Forest School area on the table under the shelter.

The Maples class continued to practise their fire lighting skills this week, recalling the skills practised from their last session. They helped sort the sticks into different sizes to start the fire with. Once the fire was going, the children heated water to make a hot chocolate, to warm them on the chilly afternoon. Some individuals were great at preparing the cups and drinks for everyone.

Then there was time to explore and play in the woodland. The Maples class showed particular interests in physical risks and challenges. They showed this through tree climbing, digging, stick creativity, swinging and by using the slack line.

There was some turn taking and balancing on the slack line. It was good to see the children taking risks and challenging themselves with working out how to balance, how to work out the best way of moving along the line carefully and how to turn take and share the space with each other.

Part of the Forest School experience is about risk and challenge and taking responsibility for their individual choices and actions. And also about how the weather affects them and the environment.

There was lots of ice around and the children explored the ice with great interest. They tried melting it, breaking it up into pieces and discussed the thickness of it. They really loved the bubbles inside the ice and were creative with using it as an ingredient along with mud and acorns in their mud kitchen. When the hot chocolate had been made, some took the pans to the fire to see how quickly the ice melted in pans on the fire. It is great to see their enthusiasm with scientific enquiry and changing states of matter.

Some of the class created some bird feeders using threaded cereal onto pipe cleaners and hung them around the Forest School area.

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.

This week the Chestnuts class started their session by listening to the story of ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’. We talked about how the different animals had made tracks in the snow as they moved about outside, like the animals in the story. The children also shared that they had made tracks in the snow when it fell in December.

The class set off outside into the wind, creating animal foot prints all around their outside area. After watching how to create footprints with stencils, sieves and flour; it was brilliant to see how engaged they were with having a go independently. They learned how to identify animals by their tracks. Deer have a print with 2 marks, fox have 4 paw prints and badgers have 5.

The class had a go at clearing out weeds from their gardening area. The children used rakes, trowels, buckets, wheelbarrows and gloves to help them. There was lots of interest in looking at the roots of the weeds and using magnifying glasses to look at some of the worms and insects they found. They talked about compost and put all of their weeds into the compost bins to use later on in the year to fertilise their plot.

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.

The Chestnuts are thinking about the ‘Great Fire of London’ as their learning journey this term, so today they shared their knowledge of what they had learned about the event so far. In the pouring rain, they watched as some sparks made a fire and observed it spread quickly as it did in London in 1666. They talked about fire safety and what a fire needs to burn; fuel, spark, air.

They discussed the materials and their properties that the houses were built with, how they were so close together and how this led to the spread of the fire. The children were very observant, watching how the fire changed as it spread, seeing smoke and sparks jumping from one building to another. Finally we used some water to extinguish the fire completely at the end of the session.

This week Willows started their session by listening to the story of ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’. We talked about how the different animals had made tracks in the snow as they moved about outside, just like the animals in the story. The children also shared that they had made tracks in the snow when it fell in December.

The class set off outside into the wind, creating animal foot prints all around their outside area. After watching how to create footprints with stencils, sieves and flour; it was brilliant to see how engaged they were with having a go independently.

Some children then went on to create clay footprint impressions and learned to identify badger, fox and deer footprints, by counting the marks of the footprints.

Willows had been spotting birds and feeding them when it snowed at the end of last year, so this week they created their own bird feeders with pine cones. Developing their gross and fine motor skills as they worked, the children covered the cones with lard and dipped them in seeds, before choosing which tree branches they wanted to hang them from.

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.

Then the children played independently, making up games, running around in the wind and continuing to play with the flour, stencils and animal identification sheets.

The children then all played a game of ‘Spirit of the Forest’. They each chose to be an animal and then a bird and had to run and dodge, turning into a tree if they got tagged.

After the children were inside and dry, they held Stick Man in turn, and shared what they had enjoyed about their session. It was great to hear such good thoughts and witness such great listening skills.

“I liked making prints with the clay”

“I liked using the flour…the deer print is my favourite

“I liked playing the game, I was a woodpecker and I was really fast”

“I liked going in the puddle on the running mile….and making foot prints with flour”.

“I liked playing with my friends…I was a blackbird”

“I liked making the bird feeder and the flour and the clay and everything!”