This week the Willows class used willow which we had cut from the pond area, to create stick men. They used peelers to carefully peel the bark off the sticks and then drew faces onto them with pens. They used pipe cleaners to create arms. They used their stick men to go and play with 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.

Then the children had the chance to play with the mud kitchen and go on the hammock. They made some excellent dishes in the mud kitchen and served them to Dormouse.

They used their stick men to go and play with around the Forest School area. At the end of the session the children each held stick man to take it in turns to share what they had enjoyed about their session. They shared with each other what they had enjoyed about their Forest School session.

“I loved being on the hammock with my friends”

“I liked making a stick man, it has wings!”

“I liked going on the (slack) line, it was wobbly and I was a bit scared but I did it again and again.”

Due to the recent torrential rain and its effect on the Forest School area, Oaks Class walked up to the Upper Dicker Park this afternoon for their Forest School session.

On the way each of the children had a stick, which they used to collect fallen leaves. They had to try to find as many different leaves as they could to make a leaf kebab.

The whole class explored the playground together. They showed great confidence and personal challenge trying to climb from one end of the climbing structure to the other without touching the ground. There were some great acrobatics, along with problem solving, when working out how to manoeuvre themselves through and over areas they found tricky.

Some of the class went on the see saw together, shifting their collective weight from one side to the other and even trying to balance in the middle of it.

We put up a balancing rope between some of the trees in the wooded area and the children had a go at taking physical risks and challenges by walking along it. Some of them used each other to steady themselves and some used sticks to help them balance along the length of the rope.

Some children made up their own games and enjoyed playing hide and seek in the wooded area.

There were lots of accessible climbing trees, and it was great to see the individual capabilities of the children with their climbing. Also to hear how they felt by being up high and the change in perspective it gave them.

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.

Oaks ended their session on the playground, with an energetic game of ‘fox and rabbit’. Then they thought about the activities and wrote a fact and an opinion about the things they had enjoyed and achieved during the afternoon.

“I liked playing hide and seek with my friends”
“I liked hanging upside down on the climbing frame”
“We went to the park for Forest School this afternoon and I liked balancing on the ropes”
“I didn’t like the rain…the wooded area was like a huge umbrella sheltering us from the rain”
“We went to the woods at the park…I liked it when my friends swung me really high in the hammock”
“It is my birthday today…going to the park for Forest School was great”

Before the session, it was great to see Maples topic books with their reflections about their last session. They had annotated photographs of themselves at Forest School and written about what they had enjoyed and why.

Maples 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 watched popcorn ‘pop’ by heating it on their fire with great engagement! And of course eating it! Some children helped to fix the popcorn maker, talking through their problem solving ideas to make it better for the second round of cooking.

Then there was time to explore and play in the woodland. Maples 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 excellent turn taking and balancing on the slack line. It was great 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 take turns and share the space with each other.

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.

Using tools to dig in the large ‘dinosaur footprint’ hole they had created was very popular. They were very engaged in making clay balls with the clay which they had dug out.

Due to all of the rain, a stream and a pool of water had been created. Some of the class were very interested in working out how to dam and then divert the flow of the water into the ditch behind the Forest School area. It was brilliant to see such great teamwork, such as using cups to pass water along a line and pour it into the ditch.

Part of the Forest School experience is about risk and challenge and taking responsibility for their individual choices. Some children chose to stay under the shelter and create with wood, pens and wool. Some other children got very wet and muddy and started to learn about their choices, how they explored and how their choices affected how they felt as a result of the weather and elements they engaged in. Some got water in their boots, as they chose to go in the water. Some got very muddy as they chose to engage with digging and exploring in the mud. Afterwards we talked about taking individual responsibility for ourselves and considering the cause and effect of the weather, seasons and elements.

There were some creative uses of found objects- making bows and developing the creations they had made last session. Some children used coloured string and wool to decorate, wrap and weave around sticks following their own ideas. There were also some designs beautifully drawn on wood.

The Chestnuts class developed their fire lighting skills this week, recalling the fire skills from their last session. They helped sort the sticks into different sizes to start the fire with. Once the fire was going, the children watched popcorn ‘pop’ by heating it on their fire with great excitement! And of course eating it!

The whole class also explored the Forest School area and chose to follow their own interests.

There was lots of rain left from the recent we days, which went into ‘cooking’ muddy dishes in the mud kitchen.

Some children found that they could sculpt the mud into snowmen, or mudmen! The children carefully created different sized spheres and connected them together with their fingers, sculpting the mud. They put them carefully in the shelter of the bug hotel to dry out and look at next session.

The class took digging tools to the large hole and explored digging out the rain soaked mud, watched the rainwater flow through the site and into the ditch and experimented with trowels, pots and pans, to try to work out how to transport the rain water and mud around the site for their sculpting and mud kitchen play.

The fallen tree and branches proved popular again with the children, who spent time climbing and challenging themselves to balance and move along the branches in different ways.

We put up a slack line, which was popular with the class. They showed balance, resilience, risk taking and perseverance when trying to move themselves along the length of the slack line. It was great to see their pride in developing their skills.

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.

Well done Chestnuts for a very busy afternoon.

The children helped to collect a wheelbarrow full of sticks, which had been blown off the trees by the wind. They used these to make a fire. The children talked about fire safety and why it was important to keep themselves and others safe around fires.

“You have a glove to keep your hands safe”

“You need water to put out the fire”

“Firemen are good at putting out fires”

“Fire is hot and can burn you”

They had a go at walking around the fire circle space, rather than across it. Then the children all worked together to build a fire with their sticks, talking about the different sizes of sticks from thick to thin. When the fire was laid, they took it in turns to use fire strikers to have a go at creating sparks to ignite the cotton wool. It took some courage and perseverance but the children worked really well and lit a fantastic fire!

Once the fire had burned down, the children watched as we cooked popcorn in a sieve on it. They were very excited to see the kernels popping and very enthusiastic about eating it! They then talked about what sound the popcorn made and had a go at sounding out the initial sound of the word.

“It is ‘p’ for popcorn”

The class listened to a story about a Hedgehog who lived in a pile of leaves as they ate their popcorn around the fire.

There was time for the children to make their own firework ribbons by tying wool onto sticks. They then made movements, danced and tried to draw graphemes they had leaned with their fireworks. The wind was blustering, so it was a lot of fun and it was great to see the children proudly showing off their fireworks to the rest of the children at Park Mead and they ran their golden mile past the Forest School space.

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 had the chance to play with the mud kitchen and go on the rope swing.

At the end of the session they helped put out the fire by pouring cups of water onto the fire pit. They shared with each other what they had enjoyed about their Forest School session.

“I loved eating the popcorn”

“I liked making my firework”

“I like playing with my firework”

To start the afternoon, Willows shared their knowledge about autumn and how the leaves fall from the trees. Each child had a stick and went and collected lots of different types of leaves and put them onto the stick to make a leaf kebab. We talked about looking closely at the shapes of the leaves as a way of identifying them. We found many different colours— curvy oak leaves, yellow birch leaves, red cherry leaves and some heart shaped leaves.

The children played a game of ‘beetle tag’ on the field. They took turns in being beetles and birds and had to try not being tagged, by showing agility and being able to run, turn, stop and dodge. When they got tagged the children had to lie on their backs like beetles with their arms and legs in the air! It was great to see teamwork and turn taking during the game. Well done Willows.

The children listened to the story of ‘Leaf Man’ who goes where the wind blows.

They then had a go at using palm drills to try to drill holes in conkers and acorns. The children showed good perseverance with drilling and then threading them onto pipe cleaners. Willows were good at counting how many they had drilled and threaded. They then hung them up in the Forest School shelter. The children were then inspired to put their drilled conkers on sticks which they put into a pumpkin. They found feathers and their leaf kebabs which they decorated the pumpkin with also.

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 had the chance to choose their own exploration and play. They spent a long time playing in the mud kitchen with acorns. Lots of them enjoyed exploring the bug hotel and in the fallen tree area.

Willows ended their session by passing ‘Stick Man’ round the circle and sharing what they had enjoyed about the afternoon.

“I liked swinging on the hammock”
“I liked playing the beetle game”
“I liked playing in the mud kitchen”
“I liked drilling the conkers and making them to hang on the tree”
“I liked collecting leaves”

Oaks Class started their afternoon with a game of ‘fox and rabbit’. They worked really well as a class, and were good at noticing which members of the class had had a go and were very agile with their running!

Some of the class showed great perseverance when using the fire strikers to light the fire. They practised being patient in taking turns to use the tools and with the strong wind, which threatened to put out the fire as they were lighting it! They then used sticks to toast marshmallows and sandwiched them between biscuits to make smores, which were delicious on a cold, windy day!

The whole class then explored the Forest School area and chose to follow their own interests.

There was lots of drilling into conkers and acorns with palm drills. The children showed a developing independence in using tools to carefully drill holes on them, then threading them onto string and adding details of colour and design with pens.

Some children created with clay. Creating small sculptures and adding details of textures and features using clay tools and autumn finds such as blackberries and hawthorn berries.

There was lots of industrious moving of branches and logs to create a den with a trampoline in the overgrown fallen tree area.

A group of children were really involved in digging in the clay rich soil. They then discovered they could ram the soil into the ‘frog’ of a brick to create their own bricks. “We just need to make 100,000 more, then we can use it to build walls of our den”

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.

Oaks ended their session by working in pairs to discuss what they had done, enjoyed and achieved during the afternoon. They each wrote a series of words on reflection stickers after discussing together.

It was great to see the perseverance of the children getting themselves ready; with their wellies and waterproofs to venture out into the rain and Forest School.

The children played some nature identification games called ‘You are only safe when you are touching…’ They looked at clover leaves, yellow flowers, fallen leaves, sycamore helicopters, oak trees and acorns. One of the children brilliantly shared their knowledge of acorns, carefully explaining how they are the babies of the oaks and they grow into big trees.

They learned they shouldn’t ever eat anything they pick, unless their supporting adults have discussed it with them, because it might make them ill.

The children had a go at copying rhythms with sticks and learned a song to sing with tapping sticks.

They explored the Forest School area, identifying which places were safe and which parts they had could only explore with adults. They learned how to wash their hands whilst in the Forest School area. There were some tall nettles, prickly brambles and large wet, muddy puddles which the children saw and then stayed away from. The children spotted the bird boxes and all jumped when a bird flew out of the large owl box on the oak tree!

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 had the chance to play with the mud kitchen and go on the rope swing. They spent a long time making ‘soup’ and other concoctions with all of the acorns they had collected from the floor.

“This is some vegetable soup for you and the grass is grated cheese on top”
“I changed this acorn to be money, you can buy some food from the mud kitchen now”

Some children were very interested in exploring the bug hotel and looking under the logs to look for minibeasts. They found some spider webs, a moth, some woodlice and some slugs.

Willows ended their session by passing ‘Stick Man’ round the circle and sharing what they had enjoyed about the afternoon.

“I loved swinging on the rope”
“I liked playing in the mud kitchen”
“I like the slugs I found”
“I liked collecting acorns, I got more than 8!”

Finally Willows had a go at passing a ‘Woodland Whisper’ along the line from child to child. It started out as ‘acorns’ and finished as ‘hotdogs’! We will practise again next time! Well done Willows for engaging and playing so well at your first Forest School session.