To start forest school Willows worked as a team to transport all the materials that we needed to site. Some of the boxes that we had for den building needed two to carry them, great team work Willows!
These boxes were then used to create dens; the children used crayons and charcoal to decorate the outsides of the box dens.
We talked about Hedgehogs, what the look like, how they would feel and if anyone has seen one in their garden. Willows then created their own Hedgehogs using a selection of autumn leaves to make the spikes found on their backs.
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.
Using green leaves some children created beautiful leaf rubbing pictures, with crayons and charcoal. They did this by placing the leaf under the paper then rubbing the crayon or charcoal over the top leaving the leaf shape on the paper.
They also took it in turns to make a conker caterpillar/worm. They did this by using a palm drill to make holes through conkers which they then treaded it onto a pipe cleaner. This can be tricky as they have to push and twist at the same time. I was impressed at the effort they put in to make sure the palm drill went all the way through.
We finished our session with a game of keeper of the keys. There was great encouragement from the class, cheering on the thief of the keys to make it back to their seat before the keeper could catch them.