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”
