We started Forest School today by learning a new game called Spirit of the Forest. The class chose which woodland animal they wanted to be; we had foxes, badgers and squirrels. The Spirit of the Forest then called the animals one at a time. When they were called they had to run across to the other side trying not to get caught. If they were caught they became a tree with long branches to catch other animals. Soon we had created a woodland full of trees – ”I am a pear tree”.
We looked at stones with different animal footprints on and the children had to guess which animal had made the track. The children then used clay to create their own tracks by pushing the stone into the clay leaving an imprint of the animal track.
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 learning how to play Forest School games.
Some children chose to make pine cone bird feed-ers, filling the cone with lard and then rolling it in sunflower seeds – “I’m making mine for a robin”. They then chose where to hang their pine cone feeders in a tree ready for the birds – “hang mine high”, this was so that the birds would be safe while eating.
There was some great independent play on the hammock swing, taking it in turns to push each other and trying hard not to make each other too muddy. There were also lots of wonderful creations happening in the mud kitchen.
We have some great tree climbers in Willows. They worked their way along a fallen tree, carefully balancing until they reached the snake end where they jumped off and ran round to have another go.
We finished today’s session by talking about the things they had enjoyed during their afternoon at Forest School.
“I loved tree climbing”
“The swing”
