Willows class were on the lookout for animal tracks and footprints today. They found some prints on the path and thought that they might belong to Jimmy the school dog.
“His prints look like circles and small triangles”
They then found a clue and sounded out the word ‘FOX’ and learned that fox prints are similar to dogs, but you can draw a X through a fox print.
Then they found some deer prints and thought that they might have been left by Father Christmas’ reindeer Rudolf!
The class then spent time exploring and following their own ideas in the Forest School area. There was lots of busy play in the mud kitchen and the children were very resourceful finding water to mix into their creations. The children’s negotiating skills were evident in the way they played and shared resources 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 fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School Games.
The WIllows children were very involved in climbing in the large ivy bush today and were proud of their skills of taking turns and working together to problem solve, when one of the branches snapped, by working together to move and reposition branches and other logs around their playing area.
Some of the Willows used stencils to push into wet clay, to create animal footprints. They talked about how the clay felt really cold and then rolled it into balls before squashing it into shape to create impressions of animal footprints. They then had a go at writing labels to accompany their clay prints.
At the end of the session the class listened to the story of The Gruffalo’s child, joining in with some of the repeated refrains and looking at the animal tracks which were in the snow in the illustrations.
They then passed ‘Stick Man’ around the circle to share what they enjoyed about the session, whilst enjoying a cup of hot apple juice.
