Willows started their Forest School session today by helping to move some woodchip down to our site at the bottom of the school field. They worked together to fill up the wheelbarrow and some trays. While we were doing this we talked about where the wood chip had come from, Willows were full of questions “why is it in little bits?” and “why is it smoking?”. Once down at Forest School they spread the woodchip around on some of the more muddy areas.
The class were shown where a bird has decided to make a nest up in the roof space of our shelter. They were asked what they had to do if they were near the nest – “be really quiet”. They said this was because of the baby birds and that if they were quiet then they would be able to hear the babies.
Some of the children then chose to create their own nest except their nests were for dragon eggs instead of bird eggs. They made their eggs by decorating some stones. They wove willow together to create a circle, wedging sticks into the sides to make the bottom of the nest and then lining it with grass.
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.
There were lots of things being cooked up in the mud kitchen this after-noon. The children spent quite a bit of time transporting water from another area back to the mud kitchen. They started this with a pot that was full of holes, however they soon discovered that they needed to change the container that was being used in order to move the water successfully. When asked what they were cooking I was told – “Dormouse pancakes”.
