Forest School

Maple class set off in the autumn sunshine for their first ever Forest School adventure to the woods. Stop-ping off along the way at the Wellie tree the class felt the bark “it’s squishy”. Then as a class they all held hands to see if they could make it all the way around the tree, they only just made it.

Making their way further the class squelched through mud, kicked through leaves and found long sticks that they then used as walking sticks. They also learn that we shout ‘Pedal Power!’ when we see someone coming so that everyone know to move to the left and let them pass.

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 activi-ties, 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.

Once in the woods some children chose to go on a leaf hut looking for as many different shapes of leaves as they could find. They had an ID sheet that they could compare the leaf to so that they could work out what tree their leaves belonged to, they sound some Hazel, Holly, Oak and Silver Birch leaves. They also found a leaf that was longer than their faces; this one belonged to a Sweet Chestnut.

Others chose to go off and explore the site indecently. They took it in turns to swing their friends in the hammock; they also paddled their wellies in the small stream that runs through Forest School. A small group of children made some improvements to an existing den, working together to lift part of a long pallet and adding it to one side of the den. They then took it in turns to climb the den and slide down the pallet.

Maple class finished their session by listening to each other say what they had enjoyed most from Forest School today-

“I loved the hammock”
“I loved the walk”
“The slide”
“The woods are so peaceful”

Maple Class started their session on the playground ready to have a go at conker rolling. Standing in a long line they took it turns to roll there conker as far as they could and once it had stopped moving they ran and stood where their conker had landed. Once everyone had rolled their conker the children picked their conker up so that they could have another go, they were all trying to beat their distance from the previous roll.

As a group the class walked around the edge of the playground on the hunt for as many different leaves as they could find, they found Beech, Sycamore, Cherry and Silver Birch leaves. These leaves were then used by the children to do some leaf rubbing pictures. They placed the leaf upside down with a piece of paper over the top, then using a crayon they rubbed over the leaf, making a print of the leaf. The children tried many different leaf and colour combinations.

Some of the class chose to create things using clay. They made some Hedgehogs using the husk from a conker to create the spiky back, then using a stick they poked holes into the clay body to create the eyes. Others chose to use the conker itself as a snail shell, making the body of the snail from clay. They then found two small sticks that they could push into the clay as the eyes. The conker snail shells were then coloured in a variety of bright colours.

There was some great team work from the class today as they chose to take on the task of raking up as many leaves as they could. This was to clear an area so that they could build themselves a tarpaulin den, pegging it as high as they could up the fence so that they could walk inside without bending over.

Great work Maple class!

Lilac Class set off in the sunshine for an afternoon of Forest School. Stopping at the wellie tree, the class were asked if they thought that if they were all combined would they be as tall as the wellie tree. There were some very mixed answers but using a stick to work out the rough height of the tree, the children then laid down head to toe starting at the trunk of the tree, making a long line to see if they could reach Dormouse who was standing where the class had agreed the top of the tree would be. The line was a little wonky but if straight, Lilac class combined were as tall as the wellie tree!

Once in the woods the class divided into groups of their choosing, one group went to gather some fire wood, another prepared apples and blackberries for jam making and the last group laid and lit the fire. Once the fire was roaring the prepared fruit was placed in a pan and cooked until mushy. The children then took it in turns to toast some bread over the fire. Eating the jam, on toast was a huge success!

Willow Class set off in the rain for a rather soggy Forest School session. Stopping at the Wellie tree the class used a stick to work out the rough height of the tree, they then all held hands with the first person touching the tree and stretched themselves out in a straight line to see if they were as tall as the tree. Willow class were almost as tall as the Wellie tree!

As they walked along the Forest Way the class came across many large puddles. They spent time jumping in them trying hard to make big enough splashes to get their friends. Some tried to jump over the puddles, which they found that this worked best if they ran before they jumped. Finding a large puddle in a field entrance the children started jumping in it and the water quickly changed colour, one child shouted:

“we are making chocolate milk “

Once at forest school some children helped to lay the fire and practice their fire lighting skills. They listened and followed the instructions given, and it wasn’t long before they had managed to light their cotton wool. The children then had a go at making apple and blackberry jam, which was enjoyed by all the class in a sandwich.

With all the rain that has fallen, the stream that runs through the wood was nice and full. The children used trowels to create a channel leading to a hole in the ground. The water then rushed down their channel before disappearing down the hole. They used the excess mud to make a bank to stop the water going the wrong way, Great team work, Willow Class!

Last week, all Year 5 and 6 children from the Ashdown Cluster met for an adventure in the forest. They set off making their way through some squelchy mud and many puddles before arriving at our destination.

After having a tour of the area and going over some safety rules for Forest School, the children were divided into groups, ready to set off to explore by themselves and to try some of the planned activities.

Once the children had got the fire roaring, they were able to a roast a marshmallow, and once it was looking nice and gooey (and maybe a little charred around the edges) the marshmallow was placed between two chocolate biscuits ready to be enjoyed!

Amazing team work was observed happening amongst the children at the stream where they worked together to make many dams using long lengths of wood. They gathered up some thick clay-like mud and packed any gaps in the wood where the water was managing to get through. After this, the dams worked well as they created little pools of water behind them. These are some of the things the children said they enjoyed at whilst on their Forest School adventure:

“I loved jumping in the stream”

“I liked building dams”

“S’mores”

“I loved fire lighting”

It was great to see the children from all three schools working so well together.

Cherry Class had their first trip to Forest School on 19th September and on the way decided to stop at the Wellie tree, to see if their class was a tall as the tree.

To work this out, they used a stick to estimate the rough height of the tree, leaving Dormouse (Forest School lead) standing where they thought the top of the tree would reach if it was laying on the floor. Each member of Cherry class then laid down head to toe, starting at the trunk of the tree and making a long line to see how far they would reach and established that as a class, they were almost as tall as the Wellie tree!

Once in the woods a group of children helped to lay the fire and light it ready for making jam. A pan of apples, blackberries and blackcurrants was placed on the fire to cook with the children keeping it stirred. Once the fruit was soft they added some sugar and in preparation for the taste testing, others held bread over the fire to toast, spreading it with the finished jam sharing it with their classmates.

Many of the class chose to practice their fire striking skills using a flint and steel to light a piece of cotton wool. It was fabulous that despite finding it a little tricky, they did not give up. It was great to see the perseverance from the children to light their cotton wool and the joy they got when it burst into flames.

The Impact of Forest School can be seen through the skills gained, tools used, art and craft activities, developed together with observations and knowledge of the fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons. The skills involved in learning to play Forest School games are an added bonus to the school curriculum!

On Thursday 12th September, our new Maple Class had their first Forest School experience in school.

They started their session today by looking at some pictures of the journey that they will be taking down to the Forest School site further into the term, and talked about all the different things they may find down in the woods.

Getting into activities, some of the children chose to make paint using blackberries, squashing and crushing them with sticks until they had a paste then added a little water. Using old buddleia flower heads as paint brushes, they then painted a piece of fabric which they plan to hang in their outside area. One child scooped out the squashed berry paint, placed it onto the fabric, folded the fabric in half before jumping up and down on it to add even more colour to their fabric picture.

Some of the children chose to make wonderful soups and potion creations in the mud kitchen, adding leaves, mud, twigs and some crushed blackberries left over from their painting to a saucepan before adding water and mixing it all together!

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.

We finished our session today by passing round Harold the Hedgehog, and when each child had him they shared what they had enjoyed most about their Forest School today with the class .

“I liked playing crushing the berries”
“I like washing the blackberries off the mat at the end”
“Making soup”

Maple class started their session today with a few members of the class sharing some feathers that they had collected and brought in. As a group they talked about who the feathers belong to. One of the feathers that had been brought in belonged to a Great Spotted Woodpecker whereas others belonged to Wood Pigeons.

As Maple set off on their journey to Forest School they came across a bunch of feathers on the Croft, the feathers were the same as those they had just looked at in class. They belonged to a Wood Pigeon.

As the class made their along the Forest Way they soon came across a bridge and the children decided to go and have a look under the bridge saying:

“maybe there’s a troll”
Luckily there was not!

As the children hid under the bridge an stomped their feet across it in pretence. Still no troll, definitely a few Woodlice dropping down into those underneath.

Once in the wood some of the children helped Dormouse to put up the slackline. They wrapped the line round the tree making sure that it was not twisted, then carefully posted the end through the ratchet. Next they tested their strength by pushing the ratchet forwards and backwards to tightening it observing as it tightened:

“it’s getting hard”.

Once the slack line was up some of the children took it in turns to walk along it, however they had no top line to hold onto. Instead they were given two sticks to use as walking sticks for balance. It was great to see them give it a go even if they did find it a little wobbly; many of them went back to try and do it again.

Other members of the class went go off to make improvements of their own to some existing dens that had been created but another class. They worked well together to move the sticks they wanted for their den, and to place the materials they had gathered to create some amazing shelters.

Some children chose to play in the hammock swing, taking it in turns to push each other, others practiced the sawing that they had learnt last time they visited the woods.

At the end of the session the class were today if there was anything new that they had done at Forest School that they had never tried before:

“making a den”

As this was the last trip for Maple Class, they spent time in their favoured activities, increasing their skills and continuing to learn new ones.

Well done, Maple Class, it has been a wonderful Forest School year!

Willow Class set off for an afternoon in the woods in glorious sunshine. As they made their way they had the task of shaking a tub of cream, hopeful that they would have made butter by the time they arrived at Forest School. Along the way the class stopped to play a game of tag eagle eye, being given the count to 10 to hide as far away as they could. Each time Dormouse closed her eyes for 10 the class had to come out from their hiding place and tap her hands, then run back to hide before the count to ten ended without being caught. Much fun was had by all!

By the time the class arrived at Forest School, the cream has been shaken enough to become butter. The class then sat around the fire circle taking it in turns to look at the two different outcomes (butter milk and butter) from all their hard work. The butter was then enjoyed by all on crackers, with many of the class coming up for seconds!

Butter tasted, the children moved onto more strenuous activity, with a few children choosing to learn how to put up a slack line, wrapping the two parts of the slack line around two different trees, making sure that it was not twisted. The tail of the ling line was then treaded through the ratchet and they tested their arm strength by tightening the ratchet as much as they could. This was a little tricky but as a team of three they managed to pull it tight. Once up, they realised there was no top line to hold onto, so instead were given two sticks for balance.

Holding the sticks they pulled themselves up onto the slack line, then using them as giant walking sticks made their way along the line. It was great to see the children of Willow Class being so kind to each other by holding the sticks still while their classmate climbed up onto the line.
One child said:

“I think it’s easier if you have wellies on because your foot is bigger”

An idea that was discussed with agreement reached that this is because it gave the foot a larger surface area.

The children were challenged today to build themselves a den and they worked in groups to gather the materials they might need. One group chose some very long sticks and propped them up into a tree stating:

“we are making a tee-pee”,

They then gathered some moss to cover their roof. Another group worked well together to gather some very long branches. These were then propped up in a hazel coppice to make a large circular den. Some on the lengths that they were bringing back were so long that the decided to saw them in half to make them a more manageable length! Again there was some wonderful teamwork while building dens together with great words of encouragement from members of the class to any classmate that was trying something new.

On our last trip this year, it was great to see how the class had developed in teamwork and perseverance.

Well done, Willow Class!

When Cherry Class set off for Forest School this week, they took a jar of cream with them taking it in turns to shake the jar hoping that it would turn to butter and as they arrived the cream had indeed become butter! The buttermilk was poured into a cup and the butter spread on crackers so that the class could look at and taste the two different products of shaken cream.

All felt it was well worth the effort and enjoyed the outcome of their hard work!

On the way to Forest School the class stopped in one of the fields so that they could play a game of Eagle Eye. Dormouse closed her eyes for the count of ten and the class ran to hide. When she opened eyes the whole class had disappeared, and needed to make sure they stayed quiet and hidden until she closed them again. On the next count of ten, the children needed to come out of hiding, run up to tap her hands getting back to their hiding place before she opened her eyes again. Those not quick enough were ‘caught’. The class really enjoyed this game and to play it many times.

On arrival, most of the class made their way down to the stream hoping to find some water but what they discovered was a broken bridge! Showing ingenuity, they managed to fix the broken end using a log. Once the bridge was fixed the class got out the trowels and worked really well together to redirect the water that was flowing down the stream.

Some children chose to use a hand saw to cut a thin disc of wood. They made sure to put a glove on the hand holding the wood to keep themselves safe and learnt about their “blood bubble”, which is the area that no other child must enter when they are using the tool. The children worked really hard to cut their discs; even when their arms were tired they kept going until they were all the way through. Great Work!!

The small fairy garden that had been created the last time that Cherry Class were in the woods had sadly been destroyed but a few of the children worked really hard to recreate it. They banged sticks into the ground with pieces of wood balanced on top, used wood shavings to create a floor and stones to create a pathway. On completion the sticks resembled Stonehenge and the children are prayerful that the new garden will survive until their next visit.

Maple class started their session today by having a look at some items brought in by children to the class. These items were linked to the bird nests and eggs looked at in previous sessions and included:

• the nest of a bird; it had fallen out of a tree in their garden.
  As a class we talked about the different materials that a bird uses to build their nest, how they are
  more twig like on the outside and then softer and finer in the middle.
• An ‘already hatched’ egg that had been found during the half term.
  The class talked about what bird they thought the egg may belong to, establishing that it most likely belonged to a Blackbird!

On the way to the woods the class had a jar of cream that they had the task of shaking, in the hope it would turn into butter. As they arrived at the bridge they all gathered round as the jar was opened to see if it had worked:

“It’s butter!”

Sitting in the sunshine the class enjoyed trying the handmade butter on a cracker before heading the rest of the way to the woods.

Once they arrived at Forest School, some of the class chose to decorate some discs of wood which they then used a palm drill on to make a hole at one end. They found out that they needed to make sure to push down hard as they twisted the drill into the wood. When each hole was made they treaded a piece of string through to turn the disc of wood onto a necklace. This was rather tricky to do but they learnt a little trick of using a stick to help get the string through the hole!

A few of the class talked about the log dogs that they had made in a previous session which they said they had sadly lost. As they had liked then so much, they asked if they could make another one although this time they were going to be log cats! The children looked around to find the right sized piece of wood to make their cats, using a hand saw to cut the wood to the length they wanted, then decorated it with a face at one end and tail at the other, finishing it off with a piece of string to pull it along with.

There was lots of free play in the steam with the children adding to the bridge that they have been creating over there last few sessions. They also spent some time practicing their balancing skills on the slack line.

Maple Class set off on a beautiful sunny afternoon to Forest School and as they made their way across the fields and along the Forest Way were really observant to everything around them. They found some feathers, and when asked what bird the feather had come from they shouted:

“a pigeon”

One child then noticed and pointed out a couple of pigeons in the field.

A little further they came across some more feathers that were very different, black with white spots and worked out that they were from a Woodpecker. The class also found some insects on their journey:

• a caterpillar on a bench and
• a piece of wood covered in woodlice and an earwig.

Once at Forest School, one child chose to help put up the hammock, wrapping the straps around the tree and working hard to stretch the hammock across and clip it to the straps. Opening the clips and attaching them was a little tricky but they did not give up until it was up. Great perseverance!

When it was up the children took it in turns to climb inside, wrapping themselves up with the hammock like a chrysalis and then emerging as a butterfly – wonderful examples of their learning journey this term.

Some of the class chose to create printed leaf pictures, applying a small amount of paint to the underside of a leaf and then printing it onto paper. They discovered that they could use different leaves to get different shaped prints.

There was some amazing balancing on the slack line today from members of the class who normally choose not to have a go at the slack line. This can be hard to do as it can be a little wobbly moving along it. Again, very impressive perseverance from these children to make it to the end without falling off, (and when they did fall off they got straight back on and had another go).

Maple Class helped to carry on with the making of the new Forest School Fairy Garden. They moved all the old dead taken from around the edge and piled it up in the middle to create a habitat pile which they talked about, establishing they were creating a good home for any bugs that may choose to live in the woods. They also helped to move the large tree root into place that had initially been moved by Lilac Class last week – well done Maple Class as it was rather heavy!

Before Willow Class set off for Forest School on Thursday 9th May, they were told about a bird that has decided to make its home in the log/coat store. They talked about the importance of being quiet if they were close to that area so that they did not ‘spook’ the bird or frighten it away. Very practically they suggested that they:
“Leave all the bags outside so that we don’t scare the mummy bird away.“

Willow Class have a photo of the eggs that have been laid in the nest, and have been challenged to identify what bird the nest belongs to!

As they made their way to Forest School, the class had a scavenger hunt, with many things to find from something long to three different shaped leaves! The children found a muddy ditch as they walked using a stick to test the depth so they could wade through while trying their best not to get their wellies stuck in the mud:
“it’s so sticky”.

Once at Forest School a group of children gathered all the digging tools and headed to the stream. Using the tools they started to dig out the logs that had been put in by another class before as a dam as they wanted to allow the water to flow straight down to the ditch. They also moved some mud around to create some steps down to the stream so making access a little easier. They soon discovered however, that as they smoothed the mud with water it made their steps rather slippery!

A small group chose to pop on some gloves, doubling them up and grabbing the secateurs to start to tackle the brambles that have swamped the fairy garden. They worked really hard cutting them down as some of the brambles had grown almost as tall as them. While clearing they came across some Cuckoo Spit, and learnt whenever they see this, that there is a small bug living in the frothy liquid called a Froghopper.

There were some beautiful leaf printed pictures created, by applying a small amount of paint to the underside of a leaf and them pressing it down onto paper. This left a very clear print of the leaf.

Mixing the paints they managed to create pictures of multi-coloured leaves observing that:

“I made purple”
“I made orange”.

With the sun starting to shine, on Thursday 2nd May Cherry Class set off on a spring scavenger hunt. There were many things for them to look out for as they made their way to Forest School from something red to a spider’s web! They discovered that some of the things were a little trickier to find than others, lots of spiders but not many webs.

As they walked they looked at the trees and talked about how they looked a little different now that all the leaves were out.

When they arrived at Forest School, the class were asked to be as quiet as possible when hanging up there things because a bird has decided to make a nest in the coat store. The class have been challenged to work out what type of bird is nesting their from a picture that has been taken of the eggs in the nest. Good luck with that, Cherry Class!

Using leaves and paint some children chose to create some beautiful printed pictures. They did this by applying the paint to the back of the leaf, placing it paint side down on some paper, rubbing gently then peeling the leaf away. This left a print of the leaf showing all the veins.

herry Class got very creative with their colours, mixing them to see what colours could be made and using multiple colours to create ‘leaves of many colours’.

The children also got very busy in the ditch, working together to clear it of logs:

“I made the water run faster”.

As they followed the water down the ditch the children found that it disappeared into a small hole in the ground. Using sticks they poked at the hole, knocking away the build up silt and mud to leave a much larger hole which allowed the water to flow away more easily.

With all the moving around in the ditch the sides became rather wet, which became perfect for mud sliding. The children took advantage of this, taking it in turns to slide down the bank and into the water!

On Thursday 25th April, Maple Class set off on a beautiful but still chilly sunny afternoon for Forest School. The children were given a Spring ‘scavenger hunt’ sheet to look for all sorts of different things on their walk along the Forest Way from things that crawls to different shaped leaves!

The class worked really well gathering all sorts of items, helping each other out by sharing their finds. They found Buttercups for ‘find something yellow’, which they used to hold under each other chins to see if they all ‘liked butter!’

In the hunt for something long there were many sticks gathered, which got longer and longer as the walk progressed. In the end the sticks needed to be dragged all the way to Forest School!

Once there, they talked about what the class may have noticed during their walk and in the woods that was a little different to the last time that they were there:

“bluebells are everywhere”,
“the trees are covered in green”.

As it was the start of a new term, time was taken to remember how to be safe when at the fire circle, that they need to go round the outside if they want to move from one side to the other but also to shout ‘red dragon’ if they see someone walking through the circle.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge they gain from the whole experience. This can be seen through the skills gained, the tools used, art and craft activities, observations and knowledge of fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play forest school games.

Many of the children chose to go and check on the bridge that they had created last time they were at Forest School, but unfortunately discovered that it was no longer there. They were not too concerned by this as it meant they could again work together as a team to gather lots of new pieces of wood to create a new bridge. Some children then cautiously tested strength of their bridge by laying down on it!
Other members of the class chose to practice their balancing abilities on the slack line, and were tested a little more when the line was gently wobbled by Dormouse.

The session finished with the children sitting around the fire circle and taking it in turns to listen to what each other had enjoyed about forest school.

“the stream”
“playing with my friends”
“looking for things”

On Thursday 28th March , Maple Class had their Forest School lesson in school, continuing their theme of birds.

The class started by going on a bird hunt for ten little bird teddies that had hidden themselves in the classroom. This was enjoyed so much that the birds were hidden again by a child for round two of bird hunting!

Once all the birds were found, the children took it in turns to hold them up and as a group talked about what they were. Dormouse gave a little information about each bird as they looked at them. While describing how the green woodpecker fly’s one child exclaimed it was:

“like a roller coaster”.

They all got to squeeze their bird while the class listened to the sound it made.

The children were then able to make their own bird nests full of colourful eggs. They used hay to create the nest, shaping it in to a circle and making sure to line the bottom well to keep the eggs safe. They then coloured in some stones to use as the egg which came in all different sizes and colours.

While making the nests the children talked about where a bird would choose to nest and what materials they would use to build it.

When asked what the nests were for the class replied:

“for eggs, that hatch”.

Other in the class chose to use pens, paint, crayons and pastels to create some beautiful spring leaves. They spent time looking at the different shapes of leaves that were beginning to grow outside and finished the lesson by taking turns to listen to what each other had enjoyed about forest school.

“the bird hunt”
“everything”
“making eggs”

Lilac Class set off for Forest School on a sunny afternoon, although it was still rather soggy under foot following the extensive rain we have experienced over recent months. The class enjoyed squelching through the mud as they made their way across the field and as they walked the class discussed how we are now heading into spring, with some children spotting the early signs as they walked.

Once at Forest School they split into two groups. One group worked together to gather as much firewood as they could, making sure to only collect dry dead sticks. The other group laid the fire ready for lighting remembering from previous sessions that the larger sticks go on the bottom, working to smaller sticks at the top. Using a flint a steal they quickly lit a piece if cotton wool to get the fire going, and once it was nice and hot they cooked bacon for everyone to enjoy a bacon sandwich.

The class spent a lot of time playing in the ditch as it had a good flow of water running down it. They continued with their dam making from previous sessions, using mud to hold the logs in place. This created pools of water to splash in.

One member of the class chose to help remove all the leaves that had gathered on the roof of the log shelter, which were allowing water to collect and create puddles making it sag. With the help of an adult they moved a table to stand on, then using a birch broom swept the leaves and the water off.

Willow Class started Forest School by learning a new game called ‘Bat and Moth’; the children all stood in a big circle to create the cave and two were then chosen to go in the middle. One child was the bat and other the moth. The bat was blindfolded and had to listen for the moths squeak, trying their best to catch them as they ran away around the cave! Much fun was had by all and it was a great way to start the lesson.

The class then moved on to bird identification. Sitting as a group they looked at nine different bird teddies testing the class knowledge on bird recognition. They had a go at guessing what each one was, doing rather well and only getting stuck on a few! They even managed to get the Jay which was the one the Forest School Leader thought they would find a little tricky. They said they:
“could tell it was a Jay because it has blue feathers on the wings”.

Having identified the birds, the children made nests for them with some hay which they twisted round to make a circle. Making sure there was plenty of hay to line the bottom of their nests, stones were decorated, some with stripes and some with spots and were placed as eggs in the nests ready to be sat on by our birds! Some children chose to place their nests in the tees or in the hedge, and it was great to see so many colourful creations in the trees.

The class then worked on creating some lovely bird drawings on disc of wood. Helping each other they worked well in pairs and took turns to saw a wooden disc off the end of a Silver Birch branch; one child held the branch still while the other did the sawing. Some found this a little tricky but no-one gave up, and it was great to see them using their skills of perseverance which they spent so much time learning about last term!

We are so thankful to have the opportunity for the children to attend Forest School classes as the impact of these lessons for the children is can be seen in the knowledge they gain from the whole experience, the skills gained, tools used, art and craft activities developed, their observations and knowledge of the fruit, plants and trees in relation to the seasons together with the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School games.

Thank you to Dormouse (Abi Sharp), our Forest School leader and to all of the volunteers who facilitate these opportunities for our children.

On Thursday 1st February. Maple Class went off to Forest School and while the sun was shining it was still cold, so they wrapped up warm before heading off for their afternoon exploring the woods.

On they way some children chose to find different coloured natural materials to fill egg boxes. They noticed lots of brown and green colours around them and wondered what colours they might notice in Summer and in Autumn?

They also used their senses of hearing and smell today, to listen to the sounds around them and to smell what was in the air.

Maple got very excited to see lots of sheep, noticing them running across a field. During the walk, they also saw their first cyclists so were able to call out ‘Pedal Power’.

On arrival, some children decided to swing and climb. Others chose to add to a bug hotel. The firm favourite for many children was the stream and a group made a bridge out of sticks Lots of fun was had splashing and going on, and under the big bridge.

The children in Lilac Class thoroughly enjoyed their trip to The Ashdown Forest this week.

Through the morning, they took part in tree felling to support the growth of wild heather on the heath. The children used saws and loppers to cut down the trees in groups, and finished the session with a hot chocolate.

Noah decided:

“The tree felling was my favourite bit.”

After lunch and a bit of litter picking, the children worked in teams to build dens in the forest.

Logan and Isla said this was:

“Fun and the best bit.”

The children worked brilliantly in teams and persevered to create dens that were waterproof and windproof.

We would like to thank the staff at Ashdown Forest for this opportunity and Wealdlink for the transport.

On Thursday 25th January, Lilac Class set off for Forest School across the very squelchy and muddy Croft and as they made our way over the style and into the field came across something lying on the floor.

The class all had a good look and a discussion about what they had just found ensued including questions of:

“where did it come from?”

“who ate it?”

They came to the conclusion that what they could see was the leg and spine of a deer, (they were correct), and that it was most probably brought there by a hungry fox!

As they continued their walk to Forest School the class used some binoculars made from toilet rolls to help spot birds. On their journey the children spotted, and recognised, a Robin, a Magpie and two Crows.

On arrival at Forest School they discovered that the new shelter had been blown down by the recent strong winds and helpfully, some of the class got to work to get it safely taken down. Then, using sticks to get the tarp over the rope, managed to get it back up again as well.

Some children gathered everything they needed to light a fire, which they also laid stacking the wood largest to smallest. The levels of perseverance employed to light the cotton wool was very impressive, with the children refusing to give up until it was done.

Once the fire was going corn was placed in the popcorn sieve and held over it. As the corns warmed they started to pop:

“it’s popping, it’s popping”,

were the excited cries ,with the popcorn then enjoyed by whole the class.

A group of the class worked well together to build a den using shovels to dig a hole for their Y shaped branch which created the support for the roof. The other end of the roof was placed in the V of a nearby tree, and using other sticks they started to create the walls. Great teamwork was shown and developed as they gathered the materials and worked out which pieces of wood would best be placed where.

Well down Lilac Class, an amazing afternoon!

On Thursday 11th January Cherry Class set off for the woods on a sunny but rather chilly afternoon in search of some tracks made by animals and it wasn’t long before they came across some frozen in the mud!

Using their identification sheets the class decided that what they found belonged to a dog.

A little further on they came across some deer tracks and also lots of boot prints!

There was a lot of ice around today which Cherry Class had great fun jumping on to crush the ice.

As they walked along the Forest Way someone spotted something in the field “look, a big frozen puddle”.

The class then threw sticks trying to hit the icy puddle, a few of the sticks made it that far and slid along the ice.

On arrival at the Forest Site, Cherry class were really keen to get going, wanting to check out he stream and see if it was frozen. It was not frozen but had a good steam of water running down it and a group of children decided to build a bridge over it. They worked as a team to place two logs from one side of the bank to the other and then filled in the gap with more logs going the other way. They then made what they called “cement” from mud and water, which was laid it over the wood.

They plan to check on it next time to see if the mud has gone hard!

Some children chose to make pipe cleaner bird feeders by threading Cheerios and hanging the finished feeders in the trees. While they made them they looked at pictures of some of the birds that can be found in the wood, and the number of the birds they could correctly identify was impressive.

Others looked at stones with pre-cast animal foot prints on, working out what animal the foot print belonged to, then used clay and stones to create their own, pushing the stones into the clay to make the animal prints.

The session finished with a woodland whisper when all agreed a little more practice is needed to avoid the muddled message that reached the end!

Before leaving for Forest School on Thursday 4th January, Maple Class spent time looking at some stone animal tracks and were amazing in their accuracy when guessing the animal that had left each!

As they walked along the Forest Way, they were then on the hunt for any real animal tracks that had been left on the mudding path. They found many dog tracks with the children pointing out that some were made by “a big dog” and some were smaller so possibly made by “a puppy”.

While walking the Forest Way the children spotted many very large puddles in the fields exclaiming, “look at the flood”

The class then discussed how much rain there had been and how the rivers get so full they “spill out onto the fields”

Once in the woods the class was very keen to get going wanting to explore the ditch and to see how much water was flowing down it. They spent a lot of time walking in the ditch, watching the water making mini waterfalls over the roots. It was deep enough in places that it almost went over the tops of their wellies. A small mud slide was

reated in the bank as the children slid down it into the ditch.

Some of the children created a bird feeder with a pine cone by rolling it in lard and then in bird seed. Time was spent carefully choosing a good tree to hang it from ready for the birds to come and eat.

We finished our session today by looking out on the ride to see if we could see anymore animal tracks. We found some that belonged to a deer; we looked at how you can
tell what way the deer is walking as the imprint in the mud was a different size at each end.

The Impact of Forest School for the children can be seen through the knowledge they gain from the whole experience. This can be 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.

Thank you to our volunteers for making these afternoons possible.

On Thursday 14th December Cherry Class set off in the rain prepared for a muddy and adventurous afternoon. As the class crossed The Croft they discussed how boggy and wet the ground was identifying that:

“it’s because of all the rain”.

When they got to the ‘wellie tree’ they found a hole in the mud stuffed with dry grass, and the class decided in must be the home of a snake.

As they continued their walk one member of the class showed them where a ‘geocache’ was hidden, so they added the class name and date to the list of people that had signed already and popped it back for the next person to find!

Once at Forest School the class sat round the fire circle and were reminded of some of the rules to keep safe when around the fire. They also discussed that should not pick or eat anything growing or laying around as it can make one poorly.

The class then set off for some free play within the woodland. Some chose to play in the hammock, taking it in turns to swing each other. Another group took the digging tools to the ditch and tried to create a dam to slow down the flow of water, which they did by using some large lumps of wood.

The fire was lit today ready for the children to have a go at making a s’mores, taking it in turns to come into the fire circle and toast a marshmallow. Once the marshmallows were toasted they placed between two chocolate biscuits ready for them to eat :

“it’s so gooey” many exclaimed!

At the end of their session, everyone sat enjoying a hot chocolate to warm up and took turns to say one thing they had enjoyed about the afternoon:

“everything”
“s’mores and hot chocolate”
“playing in the ditch”
“making a dam”

With all of the fun had while attending Forest School it is important to remember the Impact it has for the children in the knowledge they gain from the complete experience which can be seen through the skills gained, tools used, art and craft activities completed, their developing 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.

On Thursday 7th December, Maple class set of for a muddy walk to Forest School, talking about the noise their boots made as they walked and jumped in the mud:

“squelch”

As they walked along the Forest Way, the class were on the hunt for a large stick to take back to school for an outside project they are doing. They spotted one in the hedge and there was some great team work as it took quite a few working together to pull it out and then carry the long stick all the way to Forest School. Some children found slightly smaller sticks that they used to push the fallen leaves along the floor

“I’m sweeping leaves”

Once in the woods they were having their first sessions with fire, so recapped on how to be safe around the fire circle Some helped to lay the fire, starting by placing larger sticks at the bottom and stacking it up to smaller sticks on the top. They then had a go at using a flint and steal to strike a piece of wool cotton; this can be really tricky but with a little help they managed to light it.
When the fire was going Maple Class took it in turns to come into the fire circle and toast a marshmallow. They carefully knelt down on one knee and held their marshmallow over the flames turning it till it was all toasted. The marshmallow was placed between two biscuits ready to be eaten:

“yummy”

The children then had time for some great free play in the woods. A group explored the ditch, running and splashing in the water pretending to be motorbikes. Some children practiced their balancing skills on the slack line and others used the hammock as a swing.

Using a tin some of Maple class created a mini bug hotel. They collected moss, leaves and sticks and placed them inside the tin to make it cosy for any visitors, talking about what may come to live in their mini bug hotel:

“a spider”
“a bee”

The session finished sitting around the fire enjoying a hot chocolate and listening to what each had enjoyed about Forest School that day:

“I liked all of it” “S’mores”
“Motorbike game in the ditch”

On the way to Forest School this week, Lilac Class stopped at the wellie tree and tried to work out whether they would be as tall as the tree if they all stood on each other’s shoulders if? The children were split about 50/50, so they will need to work out the height of the tree to see what half of the class was right.

Once at Forest School ,the class were very keen to get started. We reminded ourselves of the rules of the forest that keep us safe, they then set off to explore and do their own activates.

A group of children stayed to help build and light the fire which was a little tricky to get going as everything was so damp. Their perseverance to light the cotton wool was impressive and they did not give up until it was done.

Once the fire was going the kettle was placed on top ready for the hot chocolate and Lilac Class took it in turns to come into the fire circle and toast a marshmallow, which was then placed in between two biscuits ready to eat.

There was some great team work in the ditch today. Using some large logs a group of children created a dam with mud to support the back of the dam to fill in any gaps that the water was managing to escape through.

At the end of the session they broke the dam and raced the water down the ditch.

While lifting some logs a smooth newt was found and named Jeff; he was shared with the class and then returned carefully back to the log he was found under, with the care taken to keep the newt safe fantastic.

The kettle soon boiled and the class sat class to enjoy a hot chocolate to warm up.

And to talk about the things they had enjoyed about forest school:

“Having a hot chocolate in the hammock”
“Playing and building the dam”
“S’mores”

Willow class were very excited to be going to the woods for their forest school adventure this afternoon and we set off with a stop at the croft for a quick game of keeper of the keys.

As we walked the rest of the way to forest school the children collected may different coloured autumn leaves with comments including: “I found a spotty one”!

We talked about how the leaves had changed colour and fallen from the trees and that this is how they knew we were in autumn.
When we arrived at forest school we sat around the fire circle, reminding ourselves of how to safe around the fire but also that we do not pick and eat anything at forest school as it can us poorly.

A few of the children stayed to help build and light the fire. They stacked to firewood largest at the bottom to smaller twigs at the top. They then persevered in using a striker to light a piece of cotton wool to add to the fire. Once the fire was roaring the children came in small groups to toast a marshmallow, which we placed between two biscuits ready to be eaten. The class also enjoyed a mug of hot chocolate “so yummy”.

There was some great free play by the class today, some choosing to swing in the hammock and others practicing their balancing on the slack line. A team of children worked together to remove some logs that were blocking the water from flowing in the ditch, using spades, trowels and their hands!

We had some rather muddy children by the end of the session, but great team work Willow Class!

We finished the session by telling each other what we had enjoyed about forest school today which included: “playing in the ditch” and “the s’mores”

Maple Class got themselves ready for their first adventure to the woods for forest school. We talked about how to be safe by never picking or eating anything we find as it could be poisonous and make us poorly. They also learned how to shout ‘Pedal Power’ when we see oncoming cyclists, so that everyone can move safely to the side and let the cyclists pass.

As we walked we talked about what season we are in; Maple Class knew that we are in autumn. We looked at the trees and the colours of the leaves, how they had changed and fallen to the floor.

Using a stick the children collected as many different leaves as they could and pushed them onto their stick, creating a leaf kebab:

“wow, I found a big leaf”,

“I have a brown one, a green one, a yellow one”.

Some great perseverance on the walk from Maple Class as it is quite a way to go for small legs. Once in the woods we explored the site, talked about where it was safe to play and how to be safe around the fire circle.

By the bridge the class found a ditch full of running water. They were very keen to climb down and play in the water. Once down in the ditch they explored under the bridge, then started splashing and walking the length of the stream.

They discovered that it was deep enough in one place that the water went over the top of their wellies. We finished our session today by saying one word to describe what we enjoyed about our first adventure to the forest school site:

“water”

“leaves”

“stream”

As soon as Maple Class were ready for Forest School they headed out on a hunt for some dry fallen leaves. They were amazing! It had been raining and they headed straight to the tarpaulin den saying: “the leaves will be dry in there”. They were right and soon we had a bucket full of leaves!

They spent some time talking about Hedgehogs: what they look like, how they would feel and if anyone has seen one in their garden.

With the leaves that they collected they then created their own Hedgehogs, using the leaves as the spikes. With all the different shapes and colours this was really effective.

Using green leaves and crayons some children created beautiful leaf rubbing pictures, placing the leaf under the paper then rubbing the crayon over the top leaving the leaf shape on the paper.

With so many conkers around Maple Class took the opportunity to create two more conker caterpillars, reinforcing the skills they had learnt earlier in the term. They remembered how to be safe when using the palm drill which can be tricky as they have to push and twist at the same time. The effort they put in to make sure the palm drill went all the way through the conker was impressive!

Following a class vote, the new caterpillars have the fabulous names of Robin and Sparkles.

The children then went onto the playground with more conkers to see how far they could roll them, taking it in turns to roll one up the playground and running after it to mark how far they had managed to get it.

It was an amazing effort with some conkers almost making it to the fence!

Lilac Class were very keen to head to Forest School for their first session back after the summer, and during the walk to the wood, stopped on The Croft for a game of ‘Keeper of the Key’. The children took it in turns to sit in the middle protecting the keys and when another classmate stole them, they needed to run round and back to their seat before getting caught. They really enjoyed this game, with quite a few of the key thieves being caught!

Once in the woods the y sat round the fire circle and went through a few of the Forest School rules; the number they remembered was very impressive!

Some children chose to help with the building of the fire ready for lighting, big sticks at the bottom working up to smaller ones at the top.

Then they used a striker to light some cotton wool to add get the fire started.

Coring some apples, sprinkling them with cinnamon and sugar and wrapping them in foil was next, ready to place on the fire to cook.

There was lots of free play, with some great turn taking while balancing on the slack line, lots of digging and clearing in the ditch so that it is ready for the water to return, and the hammock was up so they took turns to swing one another.

The session ended with cinnamon apple tasting which was a big success, the plate was emptied “so yummy”!

Willow Class stayed on the school site for their Forest School this week. They worked really well getting the vegetable bed cleared of this year’s old plants, filling up the compost and making space for next year.

They hung all of the sun flower heads on the fence to help feed the birds that visit the school and they also cleared the flower boarder ready to be filled with bulbs for the spring.

In groups they did some bark and leaf rubbings and we talked about what trees the leaves that they were using had come from. As a class they have very impressive tree knowledge!

The children tried different leaves to see which ones worked best, discovering that the thicker leaves were most effective and some beautiful, colourful pictures were created.

The class also tried out some other surfaces to see if they could get a good rubbing, the playground, a bench and a drain cover. The drain cover worked really well with the words on it appearing on the paper as they rubbed.

The children were amazed at how well the rubbings worked, commenting: “Wow, it’s beautiful” “It worked” ”I’m doing this at home”

The class found lots of conkers, so we decided to have a conker rolling race to see how far they could make them travel along the playground. One child managed to roll it so far that it went under the gate and into the hedge the other side of the path!

Willow Class finished Forest School with a story called “Stanley’s Stick” under the Horse Chestnut tree and were joined by a Harvestmen spider!

Maple Class were very excited to get outside and start exploring. Each were given a stick ready to go on a hunt for some autumn leaves. They then threaded as many leaves onto their sticks as they could, sharing what colours the leaves were as they picked them up “a yellow one” “a green leaf”. They were really good at making sure to be gentle so that the leaves did not tear.

They went up onto the playground to see if they could find any conkers, searching through the leaves on the ground. They found 11 conkers, just enough for one each! They spotted loads more up in the tree that had not fallen yet and we talked about how we would have to wait for the wind to blow them down!

Having explored the leaves and trees on the playground, the children headed back to the classroom where they made Ladybirds. We talked about all the different colours that a ladybird could be.

Once finished these were popped onto the end of the sticks so they could fly them around the classroom.

They also took it in turns to use a palm drill to make a hole through the conkers, threading them onto a pipe cleaner. With all 11 conkers on the pipe cleaner it created their conker caterpillar. The children came up with some names for the caterpillar, but when put to the vote, Tilly was the most popular.

Maple Class finished their session with a story ‘Goldilocks and the Three Crocodiles’.

This were our first session back of the term and Cherry Class were keen to get going and explore forest school, including to show our new Forest School supporter how to get there.

We set off on our walk to the wood, the children pointing out each thing to look for to make sure that we were going the right way.

They spotted some sheep in the field; the class had a go at making a sheep sound to see if we could get their attention but they were too busy eating.

As we got to the bridge half the class went under to see if they could hear us stomping, they said we were really loud.

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 undertaken, the, 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 helped to move some pallets, stacking them on top of each other ready for our bug hotel. Once stacked a spider was spotted having already moved in, “look a spider”, someone called.

Cherry Class chose the top layers for the hotel, using straw, leaves and sticks, filling in all of the gaps to make a great home for insect.

We talked about what may move into the hotel and why it was important to build one. A sign was created to add to the hotel with some great pictures of bugs!

There was lots of time for free play, with some great turn taking while balancing on the slack line and lots of digging and clearing in the ditch so that it is ready for the water to return.

The last session of Forest School of the year brings a time of reflection and the whole of Willow Class thought about their Forest School experience and its IMPACT on them this year.

We broke the reflections down into different areas.

What Impact has Forest School had on:

YOU – Has forest school affected how you feel about yourself and your well-being? If so, how?

“I feel happy and calm”

NATURE – Has forest school affected how you feel about nature? If so, how?

“Have learned there are so many plants of most of the colours of the rainbow”

LEARNING – What skills did you learn or develop this year at Forest School?

“I learned how to balance on the slack line”
“I have learned about plants and flowers and which ones are ok to touch and eat and which ones are not”
“I have learned how to catch crickets”
“I have learned how to make a fire”
What activities did you enjoy most or would like to do more of?
“I like the slack line and the hammock”
“I like the games we play- especially the one where we hide in the grass- Owl Eyes”
“I like making dams in the stream”
“I like tapping sticks and singing the song”
What did you like about the woodland space and Forest School environments?
“I love the stream…playing in it, climbing over it and damming it with wood and clay”

On the croft, the children climbed on the low hung branches of the Wellingtonia- ‘Welly’ tree and saw the lines being painted for the track for tomorrow’s sports day.

Willow Class played a game of ‘Owl eyes’, where they had to hide in the reeds in the meadow without being seen. Whilst hiding, the children noticed that there were many crickets in the meadow. They had a go at catching some and were surprised to see how many of them were jumping all over their bags when they put them down to play their games.

With double sided tape on card, the children collected samples of wildflowers and plants, they tried to find the full spectrum of the colours of the rainbow. They talked about the fact they found lots of yellows, greens and whites, but not as many blue and purple coloured plants as they had seen in the springtime.

We took a jar of cream to try to create butter with today. The children talked about the different states of matter- liquid turning to solid and then took it in turns to shake the jar furiously throughout the afternoon and in the end it changed to make butter, which they tasted with crackers. Delicious!

Lilac set off for the woods for their last session of the year on the day after midsummer’s day. On the walk to the woods the children collected samples of wildflowers and plants on sticky tape, they tried to create the colours of the rainbow. They talked about the fact they found lots of yellows, greens and whites, but not as many blue and purple coloured pants as they had found in the springtime.

As part of celebrating their transition to secondary school, the Year 6 children built a final fire. They showed independence and perseverance with lighting it with fire strikers and cotton wool. Then they each thought of something they had enjoyed or gained from Forest School and what skills they had gained. They shared their reflections as they jumped the fire.

The whole class thought about the IMPACT of Forest School and recorded their experiences together on an evaluation sheet. 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.

Other independent activities the children chose this week were: digging, exploring in the stream, hammock swinging and tapping rhythms with sticks. There was some fantastic team work evident with the children’s dam building. They worked together to carefully and skilfully engineer a bridge dam with logs and clay. One group built a beautiful fairy house with sticks and reinforced it with clay.

There was much enjoyment and hilarity at the hammock today.

A massive thanks to our volunteers for your support and engagement in Forest School, we couldn’t do it without you!

The last session of Forest School of the year brings a time of reflection. The whole class thought about their Forest School experience and its IMPACT on them this year. In small groups they chatted and recorded some of their ideas. 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.

Cherry Class then set off for the woods together on a sunny afternoon. On the walk to the woods the children collected samples of wildflowers and plants on sticky tape, they tried to create the colours of the rainbow. They talked about, buttercups, herb Robert, foxgloves, bracken, birds foot trefoil, clover, blue coloured speedwell and many, many more. They used some wild flower ID cards to help them to identify and learn new plants. Some of the plants in the meadows had grown so much since the last time we visited, and was taller than the children, but perfect to hide in and play a game of ‘Owl Eyes’ in. The class were excellent at disappearing into the long grasses and buttercups. Some children found some butterflies amongst the plants.

We took a jar of cream along the way to try to create butter, inspired by the buttercups. The children took it in turns to shake the jar furiously throughout the afternoon, noticing the change from liquid to solid and in the end it changed to make butter, which they tasted with crackers in the woods! It turns out the buttercups were correct- they do like butter!

The class all found 2 sticks and tapped out patterns and then sang a song together to start the woodland session. It was lovely to see how some of the children then used the sticks to create patterns on the floor and clear the leaf litter to draw with charcoal onto. There was time to create butterflies with paper and pastels. There was great care and consideration of detail in Cherry class’s drawings, with them taking care to try to make beautifully patterned symmetrical butterflies.

There was lots of time for independent play this week, with the children digging in the mud of the very dry stream, moving logs and sticks to make bridges and arrangements with sticks along the tree bank, looking out for dead or falling trees, swinging and spinning on the swing, looking for bugs on and under logs. They finished their afternoon with a ‘woodland whisper’- passing a word along the length of the class line through a whisper- This week they succeeded- Buttercups! Well done Cherry class and many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who enable our forest School sessions to run week after week.

On the way to Forest School Maple Class each collected a rainbow selection of flowers and plants, inspired by the story of ‘Noah’s Ark’ they had learned in RE this morning. They collected buttercups, cow parsley, speedwell, oak leaves, herb robert, clover, daisies, grasses, holly, garlic mustard and many, many more. It was great to see the children working together and looking out for missing colours or flowers, so they could all collect a full rainbow.

We took a jar of cream along the way to try to create butter, inspired by the buttercups. The children took it in turns to shake the jar furiously throughout the afternoon and in the end, they tasted their butter with crackers and rice cakes on the bench where they sit to rest and climb the fence to look at the sheep and lambs! It turns out the buttercups were correct – they do all like butter!

On the way to the woods, Maple Class played a game of ‘Owl eyes’, where they had to hide in the buttercups in the meadow. They were excellent at hiding amongst the great swathes of buttercups.

Maple Class spent lots of time swinging on the tree swings and exploring in the stream, getting their feet very muddy, despite the dry weather, and moving lots of logs from the stream together. They acted out stories on the bridge, telling the story of the ‘Billy goats gruff’ in their own way and acting it out with great teamwork and expression!

 

On the way to the woods, Maple Class played a game of ‘Owl eyes’, where they had to hide in the buttercups in the meadow. The children noticed the canopy full of leaves on the trees and the ‘may flower’ hawthorn blossom.

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.

This week the children had a go at ‘leaf wapping’; printing with leaves and flowers. They collected different leaves and flowers in the woodland and learned to identify them by their shapes. They found buttercups, speedwell and bluebells. They took hammers and fabric and folded the flowers into the fabric and hit the sap and juice out of them with hammers, creating symmetrical patterns on the fabric.

Maple Class spent lots of time swinging on the hammock and spinning on the swing. They acted out stories on the bridge over the stream, pretending to be the ‘Billy goats gruff’ and taking turns in playing the troll under the bridge. The children saw a vehicle in the woods and went to investigate. They found out about how to fell a tree and spilt it with wedges and axes. They had a quick climb onto the ‘gator’ vehicle which was carrying all of the tools and equipment and taking the cut wood away to be made into furniture.

AT the end of the session Maple class managed to pass 2 ‘woodland whispers’ all the way along the line of them, listening brilliantly to each other. They also shared some of the things they had enjoyed about their afternoon.

“I liked swinging on the swing and spinning around.”

“I like bashing the flowers to make a print…it looks beautiful!”

“I like hearing the story of the ‘Billy goats gruff’ at the stream.”

“I love the walk to Forest School and playing ‘Owl eyes’ in the meadow.”

Lilac set off for the woods after a busy week of SATS and bikability. They collected some sticky week and made crowns adorned with dandelions, buttercups and cow parsley.

On the way to the woods the class played ‘owl eyes’, where they all had to hide in the meadow without being spotted. As a class they were surprisingly good at disappearing, from 27 children to 3 in sight! We then learned how to play a game of ‘greatest fan’ (similar to rock, paper, scissors), and Leila was the winner today!

The tools Lilac class used were secateurs and folding saws to cut up hazel to use for carving, whittling and creating with. It is fantastic to see the development of the children’s confidence, skill, accuracy and focus with their use of tools in the wood. Some lovely ‘wands’ were made and some children are developing onto carving patterns in their wood.

Other independent activities the children chose this week were: digging, exploring in the stream, hammock swinging, tapping rhythms with sticks, transporting handwashing water and following the paths through the bluebells.

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.

Many thanks to our volunteers for your support and engagement in Forest School, we couldn’t do it without you!

On the way to the woods, Willow Class played a game of ‘Owl eyes’, where they had to hide in the reeds in the meadow without being seen. Whist hiding, the children noticed that there were many spiders on the ground scurrying around. The children talked about different flowers and trees along the route to the woods. They spotted bluebells, dandelions and wood anemones. They noticed the new leaf growth and some had a go at tasting dome wild food; dandelion petals and the new leaf tips from hawthorn trees. “It tastes a bit like spinach” .The children had a challenge of finding the tallest dandelion flower and had a good time comparing their lengths and measuring them against 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 seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School games.

This week Willow class went to our ‘Children’s Forest’ site, and planted and tended the trees that they have been involved in planting over the past 3 years. There was lots of time spent digging and exploring the mud, worms and woodlice. It was good to see the children turn taking with the tools for digging and also the mallets to hammer in the supporting tree steaks. This week Willow class planted horse chestnut trees grown from the conkers from the tree in the playground, and an oak tree and a hawthorn.  They talked about the importance of trees to the environment and the benefit of nature for the world.

The children had a go at creating textured metal labels for the trees to be able to identify them in the future. They used pens to draw in reverse to create writing, illustrations and textured patterns and threaded the tags and tied them to trees. They pulled grasses out from under tree guards and replaced any broken rabbit guards around the hedgerow plants. It is great to see such involvement and energy from the children with the emerging woodland. At the end of their session each of the class imagined an animal which they thought would live in the woodland in the future. They then shouted out the animal names, filling their forest with creatures as we left for the end of the day. Well done Willow class!

On the way to the woods, Maple Class played a game of ‘Owl eyes’, where they had to hide in the reeds in the meadow. The children talked about different flowers and trees along the route to the woods. 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.

This term Maple Class’ topic is all about growing, so the children had a go at learning to identify some trees around the School site in the morning. The children had a go at making some bark rubbings with paper and wax crayons. They each created a beautiful tree identification label, which they took with them to the woods.

They planted some trees in our Children’s Forest site, tended the trees we have already planted and talked about what the trees need to grow. At the end of their session each of the class thought about a wish for the trees that they have planted and tended.

Maple Class went to the woods with their buddies this week. They showed their buddies what they had learned about spotting the signs of spring during their last session. The class had a sheet as reference and shared their careful observations as they walked along the path to the woods.

There was time for a game of ‘Owl eyes’ in the meadow. All of the children had to hide in the reeds without being seen. It is amazing how good they are and how quickly a whole class of children can hide and disappear!

In the woods the group learned the name of holly ‘ilex aquafolium’ and each used their own holly wand and learned it’s magic fire making spell!

There was popcorn to cook on the magic fire to share together.

Some of the children followed clues in a woodland treasure hunt and found some Easter treasure at the end of it!

There was time to play in the stream, swing on the swings and the hammock also. The children added fresh seeds to their bird feeders which they had made during their last session.

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.

Well done Maple and Buddies and a massive thanks to our lovely volunteers who make our sessions possible by supporting the children in the woods.

The class were great at spotting interesting signs of spring on the walk to the woods. They were very good at using the identification sheets to support their identification: finding hazel catkins, cuckoo pint, daffodils, crocuses, oak trees, silver birch trees, lichen pink acorns and alder cones.

Once the class had reached the woods they each took a moment to find a quiet ‘sit spot’ to observe and listen.

Some children played with the large ‘nest’, which is on the woodland floor and started to learn a bit about recognising birds. They talked about what materials birds might use to build nest and had a go themselves with hay, leaves, sticks and clay which they dug from the woodland floor. The children played with toy birds and learned to identify them by their colours and bird call.

The children had a go at making their own birds with card and sticks and then flew them around the Forest School area.

Some of the class discovered that the bluebells sprouting under the leaves on the woodland floor had grown up taller since their last session. We tried our hardest to stick to the paths, so as to protect them as they grow.

Some children took to the stream, where there was much excitement trying to move logs from the water to help the flow of the stream.

The class discovered that a tree had fallen, which had stopped the swing working. We got out the bow saw to remove the fallen hazel and there was enjoyment on the swing and taking it in turns to push and wait for each other to have a go. The children worked out a strategy for taking turns on the hammock fairly, by queuing, pushing and counting.

It was World book day, so there was some reading in the woods!

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.

A huge thank you to the volunteers who came and supported the children so brilliantly, we can’t do it without you!

On the way to the woods Maple Class started to spot the signs of spring. The children all played a game of ‘You are only safe’ to help them start to identify some of the signs of spring emerging. We saw crocuses, snowdrops, daffodils and had a go at learning to identify the cuckoo pint plant.

The class had a sheet as reference-spotting for the signs of spring and shared their careful observations as they walked along the path to the woods.

At the bridge the children acted out the story of ‘The Billy Goats Gruff’. They were very good at explaining the story and the repeated refrains of:

“Who’s that trip-trapping over my bridge?”!

Maple Class then continued their session by talking about the story they have been reading in class this week, ‘The Three Little Pigs’, including the different materials the houses were made of and how, why and if they were good materials for house building. The children thought about the vocabulary they had used in their science lesson to describe materials and shared some more words to describe the woods.

“… crunchy leaves, colourful, beautiful flowers, spiky brambles, scratchy hay, squishy mud, hard wood, bumpy, elephant oak trees, orangey water, silvery tree…”

The children then had a go at using straw, sticks and clay to explore with, many of them making nests for birds with the hay and taking the spades and forks to the stream to dig up the mud. There was also time to play in the stream, swing on the swings and the hammock. The children added fresh seeds to their bird feeders which they had made during their last session.

This week the children shared what they had enjoyed about the session as we left the woods.

“I liked digging…I like swinging high in the hammock…I liked playing with the birds…I like being the billy goat gruff”

Well done Maple Class, and a massive thanks to our lovely volunteers who make our sessions possible by supporting the children in the woods.

The class set off to the woods, across the meadow and over the bridge. They had fun siding down the slope to the railway line. On the way the class were looking out for any birds which they could see- supporting the RSPB’s ‘Big Garden Bird Watch’ last weekend. They each had a soft toy bird to hold and fly with along the way to the woods. They looked into the trees and spotted some nests and talked about how some birds nest on the ground and some nest in trees.

We found a tree which had a hole in it and thought that a bird might make a nest in there in the Spring. The children had a go at balancing their birds in the tree.

Once in the woods, the children worked together to make a large nest from sticks and twigs. It was big enough for the whole class to sit in! We played some bird games and had a go at identifying birds from their calls and the colours of their feathers.

This week the children continued to use their hands to make ‘deer ears’ to listen closely to the woodland environment. The children each added fresh seeds to their bird feeders which they had made during their last session.

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.

There was time to explore the woodland, play in the stream, swing on the swings and the hammock. It was great to hear the children talking about the tops of the trees moving and how

Well done Maple class and a massive thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our sessions possible by supporting the children in the woods.

Lilac set of for their Forest School session in the week of the Lunar new year. The class have been learning about the story of ‘The Great Race’ in which the order of the animals of the Chinese Lunar New Year are determined. This year of the year of the rabbit. They started the session with a game of ‘fox and rabbit’.

The class learned about how to identify animals by their tracks and used flour, sieves and stencils to create some tracks on the woodland floor. They also had a go at moving like rabbits, to try to create their distinctive track marks and learn about how rabbits move.

The children also explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site. They particularly enjoyed using the hammock.

Some children had a go at sculpting with clay and created small worlds with other natural materials.

Lilac Class continued their use of tools this week in the woods. They used peelers and penknives to peel and start to carve some hazel sticks. The children showed great engagement and awareness of safety measures to use the tools safely and with increasing skill.

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.

During the rest of the session Lilac class followed their own ideas and intersts. They chose to swing on the swing, make up running, catching and stalking games, dug in the stream, discussed how and where the water flowed, climbed over the stream and under the bridge, used the ipad to cpture each others learning and play, balanced on the slack line and discovered bluebells emerging under the leaves on the woodland floor.

Many thanks to our volunteers.

It was another cold and frosty afternoon as Willow walked to the woods. They shared details of the ‘Welly Walk’ they had been on yesterday. The children were particularly excited by the ice; noticing icicles, frozen puddles and ice crystals on lots of the grass, plants and trees. There was lots of enjoyment and satisfaction with treading on frozen patches and listening to the sounds of the frozen ground and ice breaking.

This term Willow Class’ learning journey is all about Roald Dahl, so we started the afternoon with a story; ‘Billy and the Minpins’. It is about Billy exploring the deep dark woods and discovering creatures living in the trees. The children looked and listened to the woodland environment around them as they listened to the story, to enrich their imagination.

Then the children then used the story as inspiration for creative play and had a go at creating characters with small hazel sticks. They went off around the woodland to create houses and villages for their characters to live. The children used natural materials they had found; bark, lichen, fungi, logs, moss, leaves and sticks. Some even made some signs for their houses.

In the woods the children explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site, the rope swings, digging in the stream and seeing how the flow of water could be diverted and how and where it disappeared into the woodland floor. There was great interest in exploring what they could find in the stream, mud, clay, leaves, stones and tree roots were uncovered today.

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.

On the way to the woods the class spent time observing which animals had made footprints in the mud along the track. They spotted some holes, which they thought could be badgers dens and some smaller ones which they speculated could be mice or rabbit homes.

Then the class had a go at learning how to identify different animals from their footprints by counting their toes. Badgers – 5, foxes -4, deer- 2. They used flour, sieves and stencils to create their own animal foot prints on the woodland floor.

The class were great at spotting interesting features of their environment on the walk to the woods. They found lots of nature treasure- oak wasp galls, a birds egg, lichen, moss, crab apples, acorns which were pink and sprouting and lots of mud!

Cherry Class are thinking about the ‘Great Fire of London’ as their learning journey this term, so today they watched how a real fire spreads. In the woods today they watched as some sparks made a fire and observed it spread quickly on cardboard boxes, as it did in London in 1666. They talked about fire safety and what a fire needs to burn; fuel, spark, air.

They discussed the materials and their properties that the houses were built with, how they were so close together and how this led to the spread of the fire. They watched as we used some water to extinguish the fire completely at the end.

Some of the children then had a go at using the fire strikers to try to create sparks independently. It took a lot of determination and perseverance to succeed, so it was great to see such dedication from the children.

After their great fire Cherry Class set off exploring the woods in the drizzle.

Some children took to the stream, where there was much excitement at the flow of the river due to the recent rain. They looked at where the water flowed and how it had blocked up a hole in the floor of the stream. They talked about how deep it was and used sticks to measure how deep it was before stepping in.

There was enjoyment on the swing and taking it in turns to push and wait for each other to have a go.

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.

Cherry Class shared some of what they had enjoyed about their afternoon.

“… fire lighting… I made 2 sparks!, digging in the stream, crossing the stream, the flour footprints, swinging on the swing- that is my absolute favourite…”

A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who came and supported the children so brilliantly despite the awful January weather!

Maple Class started their session by discussing the story of ‘The Gruffalo’s Child’. We talked about how the different animals had made tracks in the snow as they moved about the woodland. The children also shared that they had made tracks in the snow when it fell in December.

The class set off to the woods, looking out for any animal or foot prints along the way. They found some boot prints in the mud on the track and looked at the information sign on the Forest Way, which gave them clues about what animals might be living here.

The children commented on some of the features which might be animal habitats, noticing piles of earth dug out from badger sets and looking in the ponds and ditches for signs of life. They walked a different way to the woods, as the meadows are currently very muddy due to all of the rain over the winter.

Once in the woods, the children each found two sticks to tap out a rhythm song with. Then they learned how to identify different animals from their footprints by counting their toes. Badgers have 5, foxes have 4, and deer 2. They used flour, sieves and stencils to create their own animal foot prints on the woodland floor.

This week the children used their hands to make ‘deer ears’ to listen closely to the woodland environment. They hear some birds, “That was a crow!” As a result the children each created their own bird feeders with pine cones. They covered the cones with lard and dipped them in seeds, before choosing which tree branches they wanted to hang them from.

“I want it up there, on that thin branch”

“I would like to hang it from the holly tree”

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.

There was time to explore the woodland, play in the stream, swing on the swings and the hammock and have a go at climbing the fallen trees and wooden ladders. It was great to hear the discussions about safety as they used the hammock. They noticed that the top of the tree moved as they swung and talked about how to check it was safe.

I was great to see growing independence, curiosity and creative ideas emerging in the woodland session. Well done Maple class and a massive thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our sessions possible by supporting the children in the woods.

This week Cherry Class and Maple Class went to the woods together. They walked a different way to the woods, as the meadows are currently very muddy due to all of the rain in November. They followed different paths and had great fun running and sliding down hills in turn.

There was still frost on the ground and it was fun making shadows in the low winter sunlight. We had some water bottles to warm ourselves in the cold of the afternoon. Some children collected some of the ‘golden’ maple leaves they had spotted on the track and all of the children tried catching the leaves as they fell from the trees.

The children had all listened to the story of ‘Stick Man’ and how he managed to get home to his family tree for Christmas. They each had the chance to use peelers to peel the bark form hazel sticks and designed their own stick men faces. They then went off to explore and play in the woods with their stick men.

The slack line was fun and Cherry Class has an extra challenge of having to move along it by using sticks to balance with.

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.

The children explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site, swinging on the hammock or the rope swings and going to see if there was any water in the stream and digging with tools on the clay rich mud.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring, play and learning.

The rain has made the journey through the meadow too muddy, so the children took the route along the Forest Way via the old station.

There was lots of challenge and enjoyment, working out how fast they could run down the slope by the bridge and thinking about other ways to travel down the slope, such as rolling and sliding.

Lilac Class continued their use of tools this week in the woods. They used secateurs, saws and loppers to cut some hazel lengths. The wood they collected will be used for making Christmas decorations for their ‘BAGS OF HOPE’, which they are making for the village community. The children will finish these when they are back in school.

The class collected ever green foliage from the woodland, identifying holly and ivy and weaving and wrapping their wreaths to decorate them.

The children used long sticks to help themselves balance along the slack line.

The children also explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site, swinging on the swing. The group showed good problem solving, working out how to make the swing high enough to swing properly, as it had been used for much younger, smaller children prior to them being there.

There was lots of interest in where the water flowed at the end of the stream. Lilac spent a long time working out how to successfully dam the stream and noticing what effect it would have on children building a dam downstream.  They thought about different materials such as wood, logs, planks and mud, to create a structure that could hold the water back effectively; even creating their own hammers to bang pieces of wood into the bottom of the stream to hold the water effectively.

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.

Many thanks to our volunteers who got fantastically involved with creating wreaths with the children!

This week at Forest School we focussed on history, geography and science curriculum links during our walk to the woods. The class talked about the railway line and went to show Mrs Surtees where the old station was in Hartfield.

The Scientific Skills Willow have been gaining this term are to:

• Recognise that living things can be grouped in a variety of ways
• Explore and use classification keys to help group, identify and name a variety of living things in their local and wider environment
• Recognise that environments can change and that this can sometimes pose dangers to living things.

The Forest School experience supports the acquisition of their scientific skills each and every session and the recent weather and the season helped support these skills today.

Each child had a stick for the journey and tried to collect as many different leaves, both shape, type and colour, to learn how to identify leaves and trees as they went. They found some ‘oak galls’ created by gall wasps laying eggs. We had a look inside one gall and found a grub and then collected lots of oak galls, to dry out and try to make ink from them as they did in the middle ages.

The recent rain had made the meadows extremely muddy, making it potentially unsafe and too slippery underfoot, so Willow took another path to the woods and talked about the history of the railway line and the animals that might live along the Forest Way, after looking at the information sign on the track.

They had a look at the height of the river Medway to see the effect of the recent rains and how rivers and flood plains react to weather.

In the woods the children explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site, the rope swings, digging in the wet ground and seeing how the flow of water could be diverted by them in the stream.

They balanced brilliantly on the slack line with sticks, build a den shelter with pegs and tarps and made some fantastic ‘beezum’ brushes from silver birch branches, as people did in the past..

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.

The children listened to the story of ‘Leaf Man’ who goes where the wind blows. They each had a stick to take on their walk to the woods, onto which they pushed lots of different fallen autumn leaves. It was great to hear all of their maths vocabulary as they collected and walked. Counting leaves, comparing whether they had more than or less than each other and describing the sizes of the leaves.

Maple Class found oak leaves, birch, hawthorn, hazel, alder, beech and some mystery leaves, so they looked in our tree id book to try to discover more.

Once in the woods the children had a go at using palm drills to try to drill holes in chestnuts and pumpkins. The children showed good perseverance with drilling and then hammering natural found objects onto the pumpkins to make faces.

There was some great swinging, balancing on the slack line and puddle jumping this week!

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning.

Maple Class talked about how to be safe when walking to the woods and that we shouldn’t ever put anything we pick in our mouths, because it might make us ill, or poison us, especially fungi. They were so brilliantly observant and curious and managed to spot a huge variety of fungi along the way along with acorns and hawthorn berries.

The children pretended to be the goats in the Billy Goats Gruff story ‘trip, trapping over the bridge’ and even heard a troll!

The children learned that the ‘Wellingtonia’ Tree showed us the way to go. They learned that they could identify it by looking at the skyline and finding the triangle shaped tree.

There was great excitement watching two tractors cross the railway line! And there was some great puddle jumping.

The children learned how to think of their safety and that of others when we were on the old railway line.

The children learned to shout ‘Pedal Power’ to others to warn each other of oncoming cyclists, so they can be safely to the side as the cyclists pass.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge they gain from the overall experience.

This impact can be seen through the skills developed, 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.

The children had a go at painting and mark making with blackberry elderflower and charcoal paint, made from the mushed up fruit.

The equipment we used today was the handwashing canister. We learned to wash our hands in the woods after playing in the woods.

As they explored the woodland, Maple Class found the slack line and challenged themselves with being brave, climbing and taking turns with their friends.

The children explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site and going to see if there was any water in the stream.

It was great to see the perseverance of the children getting themselves ready, walking all the way to the woods with such enthusiasm and interest in their Autumn environment and their curiosity and teamwork in the woods.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until next time!

On the way to the woods Willow Class got completely engrossed in the grass flower meadow and spent lots of time catching grasshoppers.

They then took a different route to the woods through fields of linseed flax, which is currently flowering. The children loved the look of the footpath as it cut through the field and the way the effect of the wind on the field of plants.

“It looks bluetiful!”

The footpath ended up at the site of an ancient Roman road. The class showed their gross motor skills and confidence by climbing over stiles and gates to return to the Forest Way and the bridleway to the woods.

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.

Once in the woods the children tapped out some rhythms with their sticks and had a go at sharing their knowledge of Roman numerals by creating them with sticks on the woodland floor. They learned a mnemonic to help remember them;

“I Value Xylophones Like Cows Do Milk”

Willow Class then set off to follow their own individual interests. Lots of them had a go at creating pens out of whittled hazel and making ink from charcoal: by crushing it with sticks and adding water.  They then used the pens to draw roman numerals on the woodland table.

They were also inspired to use the peelers to remove the bark from the bridge which the after school club had built.

“We like it better without the bark”

“Look at all the shaving we have made!”

They then collected and saved the shavings to use when we next have a go at fire lighting. Some children pretended to be trolls underneath the bridge!

There was also time for some swinging and bouncing on the slackline and digging and constructing with the clay in the bottom of the stream.

As we left the woods some of the class spotted a tiny dormouse and managed to successfully whisper it along the whole line of children as a ‘woodland whisper’.

Thanks again to our brilliant volunteers who support the children to enable us to visit the woods!

On the way to the woods, some of the class found some grasshoppers in the flower meadows.

To start the final session of the year Lilac class discussed what they had enjoyed about the sessions throughout the year and filled in some group evaluation sheets.

IMPACTS:

YOU – Has forest school affected how you feel about yourself and your well-being- If so how?

“It’s affected us by being calm outdoors…It has given me confidence…It makes me calm… It makes us feel relaxed to learn outside…”

NATURE – Has forest school affected how you feel about nature – if so how?

“Forest school makes you notice nature more…we feel more confident and comfortable in nature…It has made me be in nature more and learn about more animals

…we like nature already, so it is great to do Forest School…it is relaxing and peaceful in nature”

LEARNING – What skills did you learn or develop this year at Forest School?

“How to put up a hammock…how to make a make shift stretcher for first aid…Learning to make stretchers…fire lighting”

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.

Some of Lilac Class built and lit a small fire as it was their last session in the woods. They independently used fire strikers and transferred their burning cotton wool onto the fire. They then wrote a wish for their future on some paper and put it on the fire. There was some torch making and then the year 6 children jumped over the fire as their final Forest School activity.

The rest of the class spent time on the swings, hammocks and by the stream. Some created some small sculptures on the woodland floor and some made pictures with dried flower petals.

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School experiences possible for all of the children at St Mary’s.

Year 6 Fire Jumping!

 

This week Lilac Class started their session by collecting dandelion flowers. They challenged each other to pick the longest stemmed flower and some were incredible!

Once they were in the woods, Lilac class were great at creating and following rhythms, created by tapping sticks!

They collected woods and built and lit a fire with confidence. They explained what kind of wood they needed to collect, that is should be dry, dead and snap with a clean sound. They sorted the wood by thickness and prepared their own tinder in shells ready to light. Some children used fire gloves to place their lit tinder on top of the fire. It was great to see the progression of the knowledge and skills involved in fire lighting.

Once the fire was burning, the children dipped their dandelions in pancake batter and we cooked them on the fire. They turned out as mini dandelion pancake lollipops, which were really tasty.

The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring and playing by the stream, swings and dens. Some of the class challenged each other to a game they made up on the slack line. They had to count and try to bounce the line and hold on for as long as they could!Some children found some spring flowers and leaves and created some lovely designs by printing them onto fabric with hammers.

Some of Lilac Class tried a sip of birch sap, which we gathered by ‘tapping’ the tree and gathering the rising sap.

The stream was a draw for the children, exploring how to dam it and change the flow of the water. They put up the hammock and took turns independently.

Well done to Lilac class and many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make the experience possible for all of the children.

Maple Class joined Cherry Class at Forest School this week as part of their transition into year 1. They got to walk, talk, play and explore with their new peer group on the way to and in the woods.

The children started their afternoon by looking at some of the plants along the way. The children were very interested in stinging nettles, dock leaves, or ‘doctor leaves’ as they called htem and they learned to identify the plantain, which is also brilliant as a skin healing plant if you can’t find any dock leaves. They also played with sticky weeds and made crowns to link to Cerry’s Castles learning journey.

The next step was the river Medway, where Maple Class floated their boats away downstream to the sea!  They noticed the flow of the river and how the current swirls and creates waves and eddies, which took the boats away.

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.

There was lots of creativity in the woods, making up singing and rhythmic patterns with the sticks they had found and making shapes, letters and patterns with the sticks on the woodland floor.

There was climbing and swinging and playing on the hammock together, along with digging and excavating and getting really muddy in the stream!

The children then talked about their favourite part of Forest School to each other to reflect on their afternoon together.

“I like the stream, I digged it with a fork”

“I like the hammock and swinging in it with my friends…oh and the nature”

On the way to the woods, Willow Class learned all about dandelions. They learned they are used as tea, their roots make a coffee and since ancient Roman times their leaves and flowers have been used as medicine. We learned their seeds are very special and prolific at reproducing and a dandelion clock can tell you if it is going to rain.  The class learned their other names such as: ‘loin’s tooth and wet the bed’ and some old folklore such as when you blow the seed heads, it will tell you what the time is!

The class then played a running game to practise their knowledge of telling the time and where the numbers and hands on a clock are.

They then all played a game of ‘Owl Eyes’, hiding very effectively in the reeds in the meadow.

The children found some of the longest dandelion flowers ever found!

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.

Once in the woods the children had a go at printing with all of the spring flowers and plants they had found on the way to the woods. They made some beautiful, considered and symmetrical prints onto fabric with hammers.

The bluebells are in full carpet of the woodland and smelled wonderful!

Some children headed to the stream and their dens to continue their digging and constructing independently.

There was also time for some swinging and bouncing on the slackline in the glorious spring sunshine.

This week the children started their afternoon by talking about being explorers.

Cherry Class managed to survive the mud left behind from all of the recent rain and had a great time playing ‘Owl Eyes’. They had a few seconds to hide amongst the reeds in the meadow before the owl opened their eyes to spot them. They were surprisingly brilliant at this game! The children then played a game of ‘Spirit of the Forest’, where they became woodland animals and dodged the trees to run safely to the other side. Well done Cherry Class for such enthusiasm for playing these games so well!

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, 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.

Once they had reached the woods, Cherry Class set off to explore the stream and the swings in the trees.

“I liked swinging in the hammock”

“I liked using the hammers to do printing”

A huge thanks you to our dedicated volunteers who support the children every week with our Forest School programme. It is fantastic for them to have this immersive experience with nature and it wouldn’t be possible without your quiet enthusiasm, engagement and support for all of the children.

Maple Class set off to the farm where the woods are, in search of signs of Spring and Spring animals. They found lots of dandelions and spotted the leaves emerging on all of the trees along the Forest Way.

The children stopped at the bottom of the sandy track and got involved in making foot prints and mark making in the sandy soil in the field for a while.

We came to visit the chicks that we had hatched in the incubator last term and to see how much they had grown. The children were brilliantly confident when being around the chickens and were interested to investigate their hen house.

The sheep on the farm have just lambed and the class spent a while looking at them bouncing and baaing around the field.

“They have numbers on their back, they are blue numbers”
The children looked at the ducks on the farm pond.
“Do the chickens learn to fly?”
“They are a lot bigger, they have grown a lot”
“The brown ducks are female and the other ones are not”

Maple Class took clipboards and pencils to record signs of spring. Thy palyed a hiding game of ‘Owl Eyes’ in the reeds in the meadow, trying to be still and hide, without being spotted by the owl.

The children showed how much progress they have made with their gross motor skills, each climbing the styles independently

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.

The children rested on the fallen tree bench, then spent a long time exploring the sandy mud in the field. They worked together to explore the soil and made some volcanoes!

They measured themselves against some newly planting saplings and looked at the tops of the trees to notice how they are changing.

Maple Class explored the stream, the swings and made rhythms by tapping sticks together in the woods.

This week Lilac Class started their session by trying the rose hip syrup they had made in the Autumn. The spring sun shone down on us as we walked an alternative (less muddy way) to the woods.

The class investigated fallen trees, frogspawn and frogs and badgers dens along the route and enjoyed running down hills!

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.

This week the class had some challenges to link to their topic of ‘SURVIVAL’.

One group made a stretcher to carry an injured person from the woods. They sawed wood to the right length, using charcoal as a measure mark. They then learned to tie a clove hitch and square lash to sticks together securely. They wove a rope over and under, to create the base of the stretcher and tested it by carrying each other around the woodland. Brilliant achievement, teamwork, problem solving and persistence.

Another challenge was to create a glowing ember, from which to start a fire. This time the children used char cloth and King Alfred’s cakes, which is a fungi which grows on dried ash. They were great at creating sparks with flint and steels and have showed how their fire lighting skills have developed.

Some of Lilac Class tried a sip of birch sap, which we gathered by ‘tapping’ the tree and gathering the rising sap.

The stream was a draw for the children, exploring how to dam it and change the flow of the water. They put up the hammock and took turns independently.

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School experiences possible for all of the children at St Mary’s.

On the way to the woods, Willow Class learned a song about spring and joined in with the actions.

‘Spring is here’ said the bumblebee,

‘How do you know?’ said the old oak tree,

‘Because I saw a daffodil,

Dancing with the fairies on the windy hill’.

They saw a bumblebee and a butterfly in the spring sunshine as they had finished singing!

They then all played a game of ‘Owl Eyes’, hiding very effectively in the reeds in the meadow.

The class also played a game of ‘Spirit of the Forest’. They transformed into animals of the forest and had to run through the ‘trees’ without getting caught. It is great to notice their growing knowledge of woodland trees and animals and hearing them talk about how they live in the woods. 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.

All the class held a twig of willow with its soft catkins, which we cut from a tree which had fallen in the recent storm.

The stream was a draw as some children set about adapting digging a dam they had made previously.

There was some under log exploring, and the children tried to identify what they had found by looking in reference books.

Some children continued their skills with using tools, and carefully made some spears out of freshly cur hazel, using peelers.

There was also time for some swinging and hanging out in the hammock in the glorious spring sunshine.

This week the children started their afternoon by spotting signs of spring and playing ‘You are only safe when you are… next to a crocus, touching a tree, pointing at a celandine, standing on a stick….’ Games.

Cherry Class managed to survive the mud left behind from all of the recent rain and had a great time playing ‘Owl Eyes’. They had a few seconds to hide amongst the reeds in the meadow before the owl opened their eyes to spot them. They were surprisingly brilliant at this game! The children then played a game of ‘Spirit of the Forest’, where they became woodland animals and dodged the trees to run safely to the other side. Well done Cherry Class for such enthusiasm for playing these games so well!

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, 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.

Once they had reached the woods, Cherry Class set off to explore the stream and the swings in the trees.

Some of the children spent time making bird feeders with pinecones, lard and bird seeds. They very carefully went and placed them in different trees for the birds to eat.

A huge thanks you to our dedicated volunteers who support the children every week with our Forest School programme. It is fantastic for them to have this immersive experience with nature and it wouldn’t be possible without your quiet enthusiasm, engagement and support for all of the children.

Maple Class set off to the woods, insearch of signs of Spring. They found crocuses and daffosils and then some small yellow celandines along the Forest Way. Along with some huge and excitingly splashable puddles!

We stopped for a rest and tried some of the rosehip syrup we had made during the Autumn term. The children took it from a spoon as if it were medicine, like during WW2. The children talked about how it was healthy and unhealthy “it is made from plants, but not healthy for your teeth as it is really sugary, it tastes like honey”

The recent storm had blown down some trres and the children investigated the sawn up logs and fallen limbs.

“It smells fresh”

“The rings in a tree tell you how old it is”

“This log pile looks like a bench, it is perfect for a rest!”

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.

The children found some alder cones by the stream and had a go at making bumblebees.

“they like the flowers that are out, they drink them and make honey”

They learned a song:

Spring is here said the bumble bee, ‘how do you know’? Said the old Oak tree

‘Because I saw a daffodil, dancing with the fairies on the windy hill.’

Like the ‘Wildlife Explorers’ last week, Maple Class took part in ‘The Big Schools Bird Watch’. They played listening games and bird identification games and set off around the school, church and woods to spot and record as many birds as they could. There was much excitement about talking about the different calls and colours and sizes of the birds.

Our topic of ‘Once Upon a Time’ has lead us to learn all about castles this week. We have talked about past and present and the children were very interested in the shapes of windows and that they are used to fire and protect from arrows. So they had a go at using tools to create their own bows and arrows. They even found some pheasant feathers to add to their arrows!

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.

The children loved playing in the stream and balancing on the bridge. They met imaginary dinosaurs and crocodiles and made potions in buckets with stream water.

They climbed the ropes and swung on the swing and had time for a woodland hand wash and snack.

The children shared what they enjoyed about the session

I like the birds

I liked paying in the stream with my friends

I liked making my bow and arrow and shooting my bow and arrow

All of KS2 set off for the woods together for a fantastic afternoon at Forest School.

We talked about and looked at difference animal tracks we might be able to spot in the woods and how to identify the creatures that left them, establishing that by looking closely at the details they can give much information about what the animal eats or where they live.

Some of the children used a sieve, flour and stencils to create animal tracks on the woodland floor and framed them with sticks for all to see.

They then learned about how to put up and take down a hammock with the help of some brilliant volunteers! We talked about what the circumference of a tree was and that they needed to check this to think whether a tree would be strong enough to hold them in a hammock.

The stream was a draw as a group of children set about adapting and rebuilding the bridge over it. Working together they created a series of dams in the stream and learnt how to use the tools to help them support the mud walls. With other children making a small pond there was much engineering and problem solving at work.

Others worked together to make a fantastic den. They moved and secured lots of different pieces of wood and made a lovely carpeted floor, complete with log seating! Fantastic collaborative work!

Lots of fun was had on the swings, making leaf nests, creating leaf angels and bury each other underneath!

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School possible and for their enthusiasm and skills in supporting the children with their independent ideas.

The children talked about which animals were native in the wild in England. They then spotted some animal tracks and looked closely at the shapes and number of marks there were, before identifying each print. Some children then used stencils to create their own tracks with flour and a sieve. Some used the stencils to create clay prints of the woodland animals.

There were some animal skulls, bones and feathers to investigate and the children responded by asking lots of questions.

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.

The rest of the afternoon saw Maples following their own ideas. They really wanted to continue with their work on the bug hotel, so searched for sticks and moss and other items in the Forest School site.  They also made a sign independently, including some lovely illustrations of the resident worms and insects!

There was lots of independent creating with clay, from clay animals prints, to sculpture, pots and beautiful creations with pine cones.

Maples really enjoyed their den building and used secateurs independently to cut back brambles from their den area. The other tools they used were peelers to peel some. Old Christmas tree branches to make deer antlers and a handsaw to cut pieces of wood to support their independent play.

There was also lots of climbing and swinging and running around!

It is great to see the confidence in self-chosen activities at Forest School developing in all of the children.

 

On the way to the woods, Willow Class made some silhouettes of animals and creatures in their shadows created by the low winter sun.

Some children had a go at lighting the fire, as it was a really chilly day! They were great at listening to instructions, taking turns and being safe around the fire, using the fire gloves to transfer their lit cotton wool onto the top of the fire carefully.

Some children spent their time using the bow saw in pairs, to cut a piece of wood. They then used the palm drills to drill holes to create seasonal decorations taken from their own creative ideas.

The stream was a draw as some children set about adapting and rebuilding the bridge over it as a group. They moved lots of wood and measured it to see if it would be suitable to use for the bridge.

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.

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School possible and for their patience and skills in supporting the children with fire lighting and bridge building.

 

This week Lilac Class had to wrap up warm, as the cold has finally come. They created some shadow puppets with their hands in the low winter afternoon sunshine in the meadows.

The leaves have fallen and there was lots of kicking of leaves along the Forest Way and then they all had a go at making a leaf angel in the piles of leaves on the woodland floor.

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.

We found some birch polypore fungi and explored its texture and weight. They learned it is a non-toxic fungus with antiseptic and anti-fungal properties. They learned that its spongy, porous texture made it good to use as a natural plaster if they ever need it.

Then Lilac class spent most of their time running around the woodland, swinging on the swings and hammock and digging, damming and constructing by the stream.

There was time for a game of ‘1,2,3, change tree’. They had to run as fast as they could to find another tree to be ‘safe’ on, without running each other out and identifying hazel, oak, silver birch and hawthorn trees by their trunks and bark.

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School experiences possible.

This week the children talked about the changes they had seen in the environment.

“Some of the trees look golden!”

“They are so many colours, re and brown and greeny yellow, and the tree trunks look black over there”

Cherry Class are learning about what happens where they live, so have been thinking about the Ashdown Forest, Winnie the Pooh and the village of Hartfield. They spent time looking at maps of the village before they went to the woods and learned how to identify some features of the maps.

We took maps out with us and learned about the directions of North, South, East and West.

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, 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.

The children used some of the natural resources in the woods to create their own maps. Some aligned them with North pointing the correct way and added features such as trees to their 3D creations.

There was also time to explore the ropes and bridges, hammocks and swings, before Cherry Class help act out a story ‘Hike’ with actions. They were great at pretending to leek at maps, walk up hills and climb mountains! Well done Cherry Class.

The morning started with our intrepid breakfast clubbers arriving at 7:40am ready for breakfast, hot chocolate and a relax in the hammock!

To celebrate Bonfire Night, the whole school met in the woods, joining breakfast club who started their day there. After warming up around the Bonfire, the children immersed themselves amongst the trees, in a variety of activities. Enjoying familiar activities such as the Slack Line, the stream, the hammock and swings; the children also engaged in activities that helped us to think about Bonfire and Autumn. These included making Bonfire pictures, using sticks and printing with cow parsley, having a go at making fire using fire steels, and making woodland Art inspired by Autumn. As well as all this, the children were encouraged to make a guy out of hazel. We then gathered back around the fire and listened to the story of Guy Fawkes. We reminded ourselves of the famous rhyme and said it together before we took it in turns to put our Guy Fawkes onto the fire!

It was so special to all be together in the woods; the children were fantastic and showed so much enthusiasm throughout the morning.
The impact for the children is encouraging independence to choose their learning in an outdoor setting, being with their peers across different year groups and working to learn collaboratively.

Today Maple Class spent time kicking leaves and noticing the changes that had been occurring around them as Autumn develops.

The children remember the walk to the woods really well, recalling which landmarks and features of the landscape to notice and remember.

“There are hawthorn berries here, they are still growing”

“There is a ‘W’ on the post, it is ‘W’ for waiting and walking”

“The bridge is next…but look, the sheep have gone from the field”

Once in the woods Maple Class worked brilliantly to go and collect wood to prepare for our whole school day in the woods today to celebrate bonfire night.

They talked about different sizes and lengths of sticks and sorted them into sizes. The children shared their knowledge of what wood was good for burning.

“ It should be dead”

“ If it is fallen on the ground it will be good”

“It might be rotten”

“if it had leaves on it, it is still alive, so is not good for burning”

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.

The children are developing their skills of following and understanding rhythms as they tapped sticks when they got to the woods.
They then helped to build the bonfire for the whole school session tomorrow.

The children enjoyed the mud which had been created by the recent rain in the stream and were very good at independent hand washing afterwards!

They spent a long time at the stream climbing up and down and sorting out how to make the bridge more stable.

We played a game of 1,2,3 change tree again, where everyone had to spot a new tree to run to in the woods and get there before the countdown ended!

It was great to notice the development of their early mathematics skills, as they counted down how long they had to run and counted how many children were left in the game as it continued.

There was time for a blindfold listening game of ‘Drum stalking’, using their sense of hearing to follow the sounds around the woodland.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until tomorrow for the bonfire!

Today the class all had a stick and collected the fallen leaves on it to create a multi coloured ‘leaf kebab’.

“The wind is making the leaves fall down”

They also spotted lots of emerging fungi on the ground and talked about how they all looked so different, and never to pick or eat any.

“I think it looks like a magic Kingdom”

“That mushroom on the tree looks like a seat for a squirrel”

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.

The children joined in with telling the story of the Billy Goats Gruff as they crossed the bridge over the tunnel on the old railway line.

“Who is that trip trapping over my bridge?”

Some children collected some crab apples along the way and they had a go at tasting them, once they had given them a wash.

The children took turns with balancing along the slack line and ropes.

They spent a long time at the stream climbing up and down and sorting out how to make the bridge more stable.

“The bridge has gone all wobbly”

“We did teamwork, dream work to fix it”

We played a game of 1,2,3 change tree, where everyone had to spot a new tree to run to in the woods and get there before the countdown ended!

There was time for some to create some leaf and flower collages with the collected and previously collected leaves.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until next time!

This week Lilac Class went on an outdoor adventure with their Buddies! Lilac’s topic this term is ‘World War Two’. They had learned about rationing and how people had to grow as much of their own food as possible. So with this in mind, we found out that rosehip syrup was full of vitamin C and was made during WW2 from foraged rose hips. They learned how to identify rose hips and picked them carefully in amongst their thorns.

The children were given some small leather pouches (made by last year’s Lilac Class) and cotton bags to collect their autumn hedgerow finds. They were brilliant at working together with their younger buddies to support the picking identifying and helped them supportively over the stiles along the way.

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.

This week the sale of the original Pooh Bridge was on the news, so taking advantage of the connection Hartfield has to Pooh Bridge, the group made it to the river and with their collected fir cones and sticks had some games of ‘Pooh Sticks’.

They then listened to a story about apples and how they have a star in their centre, looking inside lots of the crab apples they had found.

There was time for a game of ‘fox and rabbit’ before heading home with a whole pot of rosehips, which are now covered in sugar. Lilac will have to wait and observe the process of how they turn to syrup.

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School possible.

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.

On the way to the woods, Willow Class took some litter pickers and collected as much rubbish from the hedgerows and edges of the public footpaths and bridleways they used.

After sharing some of the topic learning about the ‘Stone Age’, we discussed how in those times people would use natural resources to live. So we tried to think of any links to their topic learning as we walked to the woods. The children were given some small leather pouches (made by the Yr 5/6 children) and cotton bags to collect their Autumn hedgerow finds.

The children picked some blackberries, hawthorn berries, sloes, chestnuts and acorns after identifying them correctly with the adults. They have previously learned they shouldn’t ever eat anything they pick, unless their supporting adults have discussed it with them, because it might make them ill. They managed to collect a huge range of berries, creating a plentiful supply to make and paint with in the woods.

Some children had a go at using a modern version of ‘Flint and Steel’ to light a fire. They talked about how they had to persevere with it and how people in the Stone Age would use fires for warmth, light  and cooking with.

Some children spent their time following the step by step written instructions they had done at school about how to make tools. They collected some flint from the Forest Way track and had a go at learning some knots to bind the flint onto sticks.

There were some pots available to plant some of the conkers and acorns and hawthorn berries which the children had collected. They carefully filled pots with some soil from the forest floor and watered them with the handwashing tippy taps. They will come back to them and nurture them throughout the year to monitor their growth.

The stream was a draw as some children set about adapting and rebuilding the bridge over it as a group.

Many thanks to our brilliant volunteers who make our Forest School possible and for their patience and skills in supporting the children with fire lighting, knot tying and paint making.

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, 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.

This week the plants we saw were blackberries. The children collected as many as they could find and had fun noticing the different types of berries, hawthorn and rose hips. Once they got to the woods, some children made paint with the berries and painted some lovely pictures! The whole class were great British Citizens, using litter pickers to collect any rubbish from the hedges and edges as they walked to the woods. Well done Cherry Class!

They played a game of ‘Spirit of the Forest’, where they first pretended to be small wild foxes, blackbirds and owls. They had to run from one side to the other without getting caught and turned into a tree! Some children were excellent at this!

Mrs Fry brought her lovely puppy Rupert to the woods this week. Cherry Class were really good a taking it in turns in holding his lead and playing with him on the walk to the woods.

Some children caught a glimpse of some deer crossing the track!

Once we were in the woods, the children were great at tapping sticks in time and following rhythm and movement patterns.

Their creative sides emerged during their free exploration time, exploring the ropes and bridges, hammocks and swings.

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.

We all learned how to climb a stile safely. The children carried buckets to collect things that they had found and talked about Autumn and what they could see around them. We looked closely at acorns, blackthorn, blackberries and the falling leaves. We talked about how to be safe and that we shouldn’t ever put anything we pick in our mouths, because it might make us ill, or poison us.

The children learned that the ‘Wellingtonia’ Tree showed us the way to go. They learned that they could identify it by looking at the skyline and finding the triangle shaped tree.

The children have started learning the skills involved in independently climbing the stiles on the way to the woods.

The children learned how to think of their safety and that of others when we were on the old railway line.

The children learned to shout ‘Pedal Power’ to others to warn each other of oncoming cyclists, so they can be safely to the side as the cyclists pass.

In the week of midsummers day, we have had rain, cold and now summer sunshine!

Lilac Class took along the litter pickers to collect rubbish on their way to the woods again today. It is great to see that it is an innate part of their journey and expectations of citizens of their community, that they want to care for it each week.

The impact of Forest School 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.

This week the class used tools to develop their creative design and technology skills. They started by using peelers to demonstrate their skill and control, and then moved onto using knives to carve, sharpen and create with. There were tridents, pears and a bow and arrow.
A group of children had decided to collect natural resources on the way to the woods and set about creating their own ‘small world’ in the woods. They used secateurs and palm drills to make holes in wooden bases and fitted cut wood into them, before creating sculpted clay animals to sit in their mini world.

The hammock was as ever popular with the children, as was the slack line. The children challenging themselves to balance along its length with the help of sticks. The perseverance seen was fantastic!

The children also spent time collecting logs for East Hoathly School, of our Pioneer School Federation, to improve their Forest School Fire circle. Armed with gloves and a trolley the children selected, lifted and transported logs, which were then driven to East Hoathly School. Brilliant strength and teamwork Lilac Class!

We would like to send a huge thank you to all of our volunteers for all of their support with Forest School throughout the year!

After the searing heat of earlier in the week, Willow Class Forest School started in the drizzling rain!

They collected lots of plants and flowers along the journey, looking closely at the shapes of leaves and number of petals each plant had. Once in the woods, some children used their plants to create a print, by banging them with hammers to release the juice and create some lovely symmetrical patterns.

The impact of Forest School 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.

Willow Class had been learning the Greek Myth story of Arachne, who was turned into a weaving spider, so they enjoyed doing their own weaving with some of the plants they had found.

Some of the class collected rabbit droppings along the way. They had schemed on planting some of the fruit they had brought. Once in the woods they found a Willow sapling and moved it to their ‘farm’ and planted it with the fruit seeds, rabbit droppings to fertilise it and then watered it in well.

Along the way, some of the children collected rubbish, armed with gloves, bags and a litter picker. They were so committed and enthusiastic about it. They showed great care and concern for their environment, along with great organisational skills, to organise themselves with turn taking and ensuring they were aware of litter on both sides of the track.

It was a warm summer’s day, so along the way to the woods, the children spotted summer plants and trees and looked closely at the growth of the plants from last session.

Some found moths, ladybirds and spiders on the plants.

In the Meadow the children learned to play ‘Spirit of the Forest’ by becoming woodland animals. They had to run through the forest without being touched by the ‘spirit’. If they were, they turned into trees and were able to use their arms as branches to capture more animals. Some children were excellent runners and others were brilliant at becoming animals and trees.

This term Cherry’s learning journey is ‘Famous Faces’. So they had a go at creating some of their own once they had got to the woods. Some created ‘Green Man’ faces on trees with some clay they had dug from the ground and some followed their imaginations to create some brilliant, individual clay sculptures.

The impact of Forest School 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.

Cherry class had identified and collected some wild flowers and plants along the way, so some had a go at weaving them into the loom.

They balanced on the slack line, swung on the hammock and had a good explore of the stream, noticing how it had dried up in the hot weather.

Maple Class made ‘log dogs’ this week, by drawing faces on logs and creating a lead. They took them out on their walk to the woods. There was long grass to hide in in the meadow and puddles for the dogs to jump and roll in along the way! The impact of Forest School 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. The children were very busy in the stream. There was lots of discussion between Wilf, Rocco, Reece and Jax about the lengths and weights of the logs and sticks which they were moving to adapt the bridges across the stream. Liv, Oliver, Charlie and Dylan were really interested in how deep the mud was and where the water flowed to at the end of the stream. They worked out there was not enough water to make the wood float today. There was some excellent taking turns on the swing and some good balancing on tree stumps and the slack line. The children used sticks as ‘lines to draw with’ and had a go at making shapes and their names out of them on the woodland floor. “Look a square, it has 4 sides” “ I wrote my name in sticks” “I made a tent….like a triangle”

Year 5 have been taking part on ‘Bikeability ‘sessions this week, so Lilac Class decided to all ride to the woods and back.

At St Mary’s we recognise the importance of supporting our mental health.

This week is Mental Health Awareness Week , which this year has a focus on nature. Research has shown that spending time in nature is good for us for lots of reasons.

Nature is so central to our psychological and emotional health, that it’s almost impossible to realise good mental health for all without a greater connection to the natural world.

Some of the ways Lilac Class have connected with nature this week are:

• Spending 3 minutes on their own ‘sit spots’ in the woods to have a quiet time to be quiet and just ‘be’
• Use penknives to peel sticks and create arrows
• Creating a bird and nest out of clay and found natural resources
• finding insects and small bugs in the new leaves

The impact of Forest School 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.

‘Fresh air and exercise’ has long been recommended as a way for many to feel better, physically and mentally.

Now evidence shows us that the quality of our relationship with nature is part of the reason for its positive impact on our wellbeing. Researchers use the term “connectedness” to describe the ideal relationship. Connectedness refers to the way we relate to nature and experience nature. A strong connection with nature means feeling a close relationship or an emotional attachment to our natural surroundings.

So today Lilac Class have building a sense of wonder in recognition of their connection to the woods they know and love to explore. And they are ensuring that they are connecting with nature in a way that protects and preserves their mental health.

This term Cherry’s learning journey is ‘Plants and Growing’, so the children had a go at spotting as many of the spring flowers as they could and recording them in pairs on their ‘plant identification’ along the way to the woods.

They found bluebells, violets, celandines, primroses, wood anemones and many more!

The impact of Forest School 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.

In the woods, Cherry class made some beautifully creative flowers of their own, inspired by what they had spotted.

Some had a go at creating ‘Green Man’ faces on trees with some clay they had dug from the ground.

They balanced on the slack line, swung on the hammock and had a good explore in the mud of the stream. And were great at making up their own rhythm patterns with sticks together!

Willow class were full of energy, so we started our sessions by playing some games we knew and learning some new ones.

They played a game of ‘Scissors, paper stone’ on the bridge in teams and ‘Giants, Wizards, Elves’ in the bluebells in the woods.

The impact of Forest School 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.

Willow Class had a challenge to find something in the woods to classify. They talked about different animals, birds, plants and other features and objects they could find in the woodland. Then they went off to collect things which they could classify. They drew and wrote about them as they classified them on the table.

Then it was onto drawing, stream play, and tree climbing and also challenging themselves to walk the slack line without a guide rope.

Many thanks to our fantastic volunteers who support the children so brilliantly in the woods. We couldn’t do it without you!

This term our learning journey is ‘Turrets and Tiaras’. The children all had a willow horse or dragon to name and ride on to the woods, as Knights, Kings and Princesses. It was a sunny afternoon and the children started by spotting spring flowers and looking at shadows created by the oak tree along the school drive.

Along the way the children found different parts of their environment to climb and sing ‘I’m the King of the castle….’. The muddy mound, the
bridge, and an overturned bath were all great exploring, sliding and chanting places. The impact of Forest School 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. Using sticks, charcoal and paper bags, the children had a go at making shields for themselves by designing, then weaving sticks through their paper. Some children extended their ideas by using wood, wire and palm drills to create a shield.

There was some great collaborative tree climbing, balancing on the slack line without a support line, swinging in the hammock and some stream
jumping!

The plants we saw today were bluebells and we heard lots of birds singing and even spotted some fluttering butterflies on the way out of the woods!

As the Spring Equinox has just passed, the children talked about the advent of spring and played some games in our newly planted tree circle; familiarising themselves with the North, South, East and West. They talked about where the sun rose and set.

Then they played a game of ‘Fox and Rabbit’ as a whole class; the fox trying to catch the rabbit, as they darted to safety in their burrows.

The impact of Forest School 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.

Willow Class reflected on their recent learning about the layers of the rainforests and related their knowledge to the woodland they were in. They looked at forest floor plants; delicate celandines, violets and wavering wood anemones and then they looked up into the lower canopy at the willow tree blossom.

Then it was onto drawing, stream play, and tree climbing and also challenging themselves to walk the slack line without a guide rope.

Some children got out the tools to try to adapt a piece of wood into a tool with a flint ending. They ended up creating a wooden instrument! Others used the chalks they have been engaged in drawing with at school, to draw and create on pieces of wood under the shelter.

The impact of the Forest School experience can be seen through the skills, 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

The weather has made the meadow walk to the woods too muddy and wet, so we took a different path. The children explained about how the water in the ditches looks orange because of the iron in the stones and rocks in the ground.

“it makes the water orange”

“Look, even the leaves and plants around the water are orange”

They spotted some frogspawn in the ditches of water.

“The eggs turn to tadpole…look, there is lots more over there!”

“I’ve got some at home, but we keep it in a big tank and keep it outside, so the tadpoles don’t die”

The children carefully followed a path through the woods to preserve as many bluebells as necessary.

“They have no flowers, they are just leaves now”

Then they had the chance to follow their own ideas and fascinations, climbing trees, balancing, swinging, investigating the stream and working together collaboratively sharing ideas and taking turns with each other.

This week Cherry Class also brought in their Tudor buildings which they had made at home during Term 3, linked to their topic of the ‘Great Fire of London’

They spent time sharing their knowledge of how the fire started and spread in 1666 in Pudding Lane. Then they used fire strikers to start a small fire, which we put next to the ‘Bakery’ and watched the fire spread as it would have done in London.

It was so BRILLIANT to see their persistence in fore lighting and their joy and enthusiasm at watching their houses burn!

Thanks to the brilliant volunteers who make going to Forest School possible. The children are lucky to have access to the woods to develop their independence, resilience and well-being, along with important immersive curriculum linked experiences.

The Forest School association are calling for all children nationally to have access to nature like we do. “We are calling for a Nature Premium to fund regular nature experiences for every child.”

Have a look at why here: www.naturepremium.org

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience.

Today the wind blew up a storm, so we stayed in the village croft to avoid any possible falling branches. We have been thinking about SPRING in class and learning songs about SPRING and drawing pictures on the school grounds. So the children set off in search of some more signs of SPRING in the village.

The children explored the old oak tree and used fallen sticks to tap our rhythms and patterns on its trunk.

The IMPACT of Forest School can be seen through the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School games, physical challenges, tools used, art and craft activities, observations and the knowledge of the fruit, plants trees in relation to the seasons.

The children instantly found a slope and explored many ways of climbing, jumping, scrambling and rolling up and down it, developing their gross motor skills with thorough enjoyment. And them jumping in muddy puddles!

The flowers we identified today were daffodils, celandines, primroses, crocuses, and cherry blossom on the tree.

Some of the trees had little pools of water in them, which the children thought would be great bird baths and bird drinking places.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until next time!

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. #naturepremium

Today was pouring with rain, but having worked so hard during the week, lilac class set off with enthusiasm and positivity into the down pour. Once in the woods, we made a fire to warm ourselves and dry off and to use to make some charcoal.

The hammock was fun! As was the chance to walk the dogs Poppy and Indy to the woods.

The stream was fantastically engaging today, due to the downpour. Despite the cold, Lilac class got stuck in with damming the stream and generally getting fully immersed in water!

The tools the children used today were an axe and mallet, to make kindling for the PTFA Christmas sale, charcoal tins and a fire to make charcoal from fresh cut hazel, penknives and screwdrivers to create and carve elder pens for the PTFA Christmas sale. They have showed not only great confidence in using tools and processes, but fantastic skills development. Really well done to all.

At the end of the afternoon Lilac Class thought of one word each to describe their afternoon in the woods….

“ Wet, muddy, soggy, fun, cold,  elder, pen, axing, stream, water, brilliant, fire”

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge they gain 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 and trees in relation to the seasons and the skills involved in learning how to play Forest School games.

Having learned about maps and using compasses to determine directions at The Ashdown Forest on the previous day, Willow Class set out with maps of the village and compasses.

At points along the route, the class stopped and checked which orientation they were heading in. They played a game with directions, jumping to turn to face North, South, East and West.

We walked a different direction to the woods, to plant a section of new hedge. The children each planted a blackthorn sapling, and protected it from rabbits and deer grazing with a stick and tree guard.

They learned to identify the blackthorn by its thorns, blueberries in the autumn and white blossom in the spring. They will be back throughout the year and years to check on their success and see the year round cycle of its growth.

Once in the woods, the children set out to explore their individual interests. At the end of the session, they shared what they had enjoyed and engaged in.

“I liked weaving”
“I liked building dens with my friends”
“I made a bag rack from a branch and a root”
“I liked climbing and balancing on the ropes”
“I was unblocking the stream and digging out mud and leaves, it was fun”
“I like using the maps and compass”
“I loved the hedge planting”
“I liked making a clay sculpture of a rabbit”
“I liked reading my book at Forest School”

A massive thanks to the Woodland Trust for the hedge plants and to our brilliant volunteers who support the children to allow them to go to Forest School every week!

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, 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.

This week Cherry Class all made their own birds. They identified one each from a sheet of British birds and coloured in the feathers and cut them out. Before we left school we looked at a map of Europe and the world to talk about where the birds might fly to when they migrate.

Each child had to find a suitable stick along their journey, to tape to their bird to make it fly along the route.

They listened to birdsong and looked out for birds and nests in trees along the ‘Forest Way’.

They are taking advantage of the ‘Cultural Capital’ of their local environment.

The children identified holly berries, rose hips and sloe berries for their birds to feed on, along with flies and spiders they had spotted in the meadows.

Once we were in the woods, the children were great at tapping sticks in time and following rhythm and movement patterns.

They played a game, listening out for different bird calls and using their bird identification sheets to learn the names of the birds they had made.

The children followed their own ideas and imaginations. There was lots of exploring and finding leaves and sticks. Some children created lovely nests for their birds to rest in after their long flight.

The recent rain has made the woodland stream flow, so the children set about creating bridges of sticks across the water.

There was time to explore and climb and fly their birds in and around the woodland.

The birds even queued for the hammock, where they played games and sang songs as they took turns with swinging, relaxing and pushing.

At the end of the afternoon the children were silent for a woodland whisper, which started as ‘robin’ and ended up completely as ‘robin’! excellent teamwork and listening skills Cherry Class!

The children discussed and reflected on what they had enjoyed about Forest School on their walk up the hill.

“I loved swinging”

“I liked making my bird and making a nest with colourful leaves”

“I liked going on the balancing rope”

Thanks to the brilliant volunteers who make going to Forest School possible. The children are lucky to have access to the woods to develop their independence, resilience and well-being. The Forest School association are calling for all children nationally to have access to nature like we do. “We are calling for a Nature Premium to fund regular nature experiences for every child.” Have a look at why here:

#naturepremium

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.

We played a game of ‘Sparrow hawk’ on our way to the woods. The children were all small animals that had to freeze to evade being caught by the sparrow hawk. The children enjoyed a bit of Autumn sunshine and faced the sun to ‘recharge’ their batteries.

This week in school we have been thinking about fireworks, so today in the woods the children learned how to stay safe around a fire. They practised moving around the fire by being a ‘green dragon’ safely round the outside of the log circle. They reminded each other by saying ‘red dragon’ if they moved inside the circle.

The tools the children learned to use today were fire strikers. They practised trying to make sparks, to then start a fire.

They learned fire needs a spark, fuel and air, so blew on the small fires they had made to get them going.

There was time to perfect swinging and pushing our friends. They explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site and finding a swing to practise their independence at using it

The equipment we used today was the handwashing equipment. Maple were impressed that some of it was made by their Buddies in Lilac class. The children all washed their hands after being in the stream, before we left the woods.

It was great to see how the children had developed their photography skills and photographed each other on the class ipad playing and exploring in the woods. They also showed fantastic interest in their Autumn environment and curiosity and teamwork in the woods.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until next time!

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. #naturepremium

Today was Global hand wash day and Lilac Class watched a video on about how a young boy in Kenya had designed and built a handwashing system: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-52898797. This inspired them to create their own in the woods.

They collected a milk bottle from school to use and were amazing in their wood collecting and resourcing, problem solving, construction, knot tying, sawing and completion of a functioning handwashing system in the woods. It won some of them a ‘Head teacher’s Award’!

Others worked out how to tie up a hammock and tighten the slack line and had a great time swinging and balancing with each other.

Inspired by many of the fallen leaves, some children designed their own picture frames. Some other children used clay to sculpt with and decorate trees. When they ran out of clay, they went off in search of more, by digging it out of the floor and mixing it with water.

Lilac Class shared some of the reasons they are grateful for Forest School

“I like being in nature”

“Having the freedom to explore the woods with my friends”

“I like it that you are learning, but you don’t feel like you are learning”

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 it was onto creating, making, building and exploring with their friends. The children’s confidence in their own ideas has grown and they all independently set about choosing activities independently.

Some learned to use palm drills to drill holes in conkers and to thread and tie knots with string. Some sculpted some brilliant creations with clay. There was excellent team work with transporting logs and branches to develop their dens and there was swinging and climbing.

The children learned that fungi can be extremely poisonous, but also vital to the health of the woodland. They identified fungi and learned to recognise a fly aragic, which stood out boldly against the woodland floor.

It is National Forest School Day on 9th October, so the children reflected on; Why am I grateful for Forest School?

 

 

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, 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.

This week, the plants we saw were oak trees and we spent a long time comparing the sizes, widths and lengths of the acorns we found.

The children had been on a trip to Pooh Corner shop the day before. So they talked about the characters in the story along the way to the woods.
They are taking advantage of the ‘Cultural Capital’ of our local environment.

They played a game of ‘Sparrowhawk’, where they first pretended to be small wild creatures (some pretended to be Kanga and Roo!). Then had to be as still as could be, so the ‘Sparrowhawk’ couldn’t spot them. Some children were excellent at this!

The children recreated some of the illustrations from ‘The House at Pooh Corner’ by climbing on the gate like Pooh and Piglet.

Once we were in the woods, the children were great at tapping sticks in time and following rhythm and movement patterns.

Their creative sides emerged during their free exploration time. Some children showed how their tool confidence and skill had developed. They used palm drills independently to make holes on the giant marrows: “These are going to be a bug hotel, the holes are where the bugs go in”

Inspired by Pooh and Piglet’s house for Eeyore, the children used the saw horse as a frame and created a fantastic mixed media shelter, using logs, sticks and straw.

There was time to explore where the rain drained to as it fell from the shelter and how to scoop it up and pour it away.

Then there was time for the children to follow their own ideas and imaginations – lots of climbing and sense of challenge and achievement from the children. Some of them shared how proud they felt of themselves at the end of the session, when they reflected on what they have done at Forest School and how it made them feel.
The children were silent for a woodland whisper, which started as ‘Autumn Time’ and ended up completely as ‘water’! We learned how words can be changed as they are passed along! We will keep practising next time!

Thanks to the brilliant volunteers who make going to Forest School possible. The children are lucky to have access to the woods. The Forest School association are calling for all children nationally to have access to nature like we do. “We are calling for a Nature Premium to fund regular nature experiences for every child.” Have a look at why here: www.naturepremium.org

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.

We all learned how to climb a stile safely. We looked closely at acorns, blackthorn and the falling leaves. We talked about how to be safe and that we shouldn’t ever put anything we pick in our mouths, because it might make us ill, or poison us.

The children learned that the ‘Wellingtonia’ Tree showed us the way to go. They learned that they could identify it by looking at the skyline and finding the triangle shaped tree.

The children have started learning the skills involved in independently climbing the stiles on the way to the woods.

The children learned how to think of their safety and that of others when we were on the old railway line. We met Benny and Miss Hare on their lunchtime walk and talked about how we mustn’t approach dogs we don’t know. We met a man who was out looking for his missing dog. The amazing Miss Bews managed to find the dog and re-unite it with its owner- what a winner!

The children learned to shout ‘Pedal Power’ to others to warn each other of oncoming cyclists, so they can be safely to the side as the cyclists pass.

The puddles were fun!

At the bridge the children threw leaves over the edge and watched them float down.

The equipment we used today was the handwashing canister. We learned to wash our hands in the woods ready for a snack after our long walk!

The children explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site and finding a swing to practise their independence at using it.

They also showed how they are learning to work together to take it in turns to have a go in the hammock.

It was great to see the perseverance of the children getting themselves ready, walking all the way to the woods with such enthusiasm and interest in their Autumn environment and their curiosity and teamwork in the woods.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until next time!

The rain fell harder than it has all winter. We decided that we needed to brave it and go and have a look at the effects of the flooding.

The rain had made huge puddles under the railway bridge. The children had a great time splashing in them and discussing their depth.

We took a look at the river Medway. The river had swollen so much that it was only a couple of centimetres under the bridge. Some water had flooded onto the field. The children talked about how the river may rise overnight as it flow down off the fields.

By the time we had returned to the bridge 20 minutes later the water had risen loads!

The children showed the IMPACT of Forest School on their scientific questioning and use of maths language to describe the depth of the water and the length of the puddles.

They also showed the impact of the Art curriculum lessons, by noticing the amazing patterns the flowing water and raindrops made as they fell in puddles.

We returned to school and talked about what we had noticed this week. Then everyone had a go at writing

At Forest School I…..

What an amazing afternoon! Well done Cherry class for a wet weather adventure.

This term our topic is ‘Turrets and Tiaras’. We learned about castles in the morning and played with knights and horses. So with handmade willow horses, we mounted our steeds and set off for a gallop to the woods.

This week we learned that all the storms that have been recently made lots of mud and puddles, so we had to choose a different route to the woods (and passed Benny the school dog returning from his lunchtime walk).

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience.

The impact of the children’s learning about safety was great to see as they walked carefully and sensibly along the pavement down to the access to the old railway line.

Lots of the children spoke about how they used to go to the playschool there before coming to school and explained to others that the Playschool building is in the old Hartfield station. They demonstrated the impact of how much they had developed their understanding of changes over time and their personal connections to the village.

The impact of Forest School 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.

The children showed the impact of learning about how to stay healthy by stopping at nearly every puddle, so their horses could have a drink.

In one of the ditches along the track we spotted some frogs spawn and talked about how it will develop. The children also noticed catkins on the hazel trees and showed the development of their plant recognition skills by pointing more of them out and gleefully collecting fallen catkins, which they thought looked like caterpillars. We looked out for other signs of spring and spotted some primroses and daffodils.

The children learned a song and actions about spring.

”Spring is here”, said the bumblebee,

“How do you know?” said the old oak tree,

“Because I saw a daffodil,

Dancing with the fairies on the windy hill”.

At the railway bridge we sat down to have a drink ourselves and we listened to a story. Logan had written a story of ‘The three Billy Goat’s Gruff’ in Cherry class and he narrated the story whilst others acted it out for the class. The bridge was great for the ‘trip-trap’ sounds in the story.

The children found a new bench along the route and talked about who had put it there. They used their reading skills to sound out and blend the letters which were written on the bench. They all agreed that it is really important to take their rubbish home with them.

Once in the woods the children had time for a snack and some more exploring. The impact of the children’s progress in physical challenge. Being independent on the slack line, by just using the rope and ladder to climb. They also explored the fallen oak tree and made up imaginary castle stories about being ‘…the King of the castle…’

The children talked about what they had noticed, learned and enjoyed this week before finding a less muddy route out of the woods and the hill! Thanks to our volunteers for supporting the children and allowing them to directly show the impact of their learning and connection to their local environment at Forest School.

After the wet and cold weather we have been so used to, it was gorgeous in the sunshine today.

Miss Banks brought her dog Poppy this week and she enjoyed playing with sticks as much as the children. Many of the class added to their 10 minute school running challenge by running stretches of the railway line on the way to the woods.

The impact of Forest School can be seen through their observations of their environment. This week we walked along a badger path and looked at evidence of them looking for food and at the entrance holes of their sets.

In preparation for their topic next term ‘survival’, the whole class learned some knots. They will hopefully use these skills to make shelters with next term.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience. Today they learned how to tie a ‘clove hitch’. They had a go at teaching and supporting each other with the steps involved.

They started with making a joined up ‘ee’ digraph out of string. They then put the right loop behind the left loop and put it around the stick they had collected.

The children then learned how to square lash their stick to another one and how to tie it off at the end.

Some children carried on exploring knot tying and practised and developed their new skills.

Some went and explored the fallen tree and decided it would make a great adventure playground, with a trampoline, balance beam and slide. A group of children fetched digging tools and explored what animals they could find below the surface of the woodland floor.

The children played some stealth games which they had learned previously and made up imaginative role play stories. There was time for some more physical challenge with the slack line.

The children are learning about Maps as part of their Geography curriculum this term. They all had a look at maps of the village before we left. We looked at features of a map, the key, roads, a church, bridges, footpaths, bridleways, rivers and woodlands. The Impact of the knowledge of maps they had was evident on our walk to the woods.

Using a compass and the map, the class worked out our first direction to take was West, under 2 bridges.

We looked at badgers sets along the way and learned how to identify signs that badgers were living in sets below the track we took.

“Where we walked was like walking on the roof of a whole badger city!”

We talked about how to use a compass and magnetism in the centre of the earth. They used their scientific enquiry skills by looking at the ditches and puddles along the old railway line and learned that iron in the soil, colours the water orange.

Once in the woods the children all created their own compass bearing maps out of sticks and other found resources. They worked in pairs or small groups, making their own creative decisions about how to note North, East, South, West and shared their  mnemonics on how to remember it.

Some groups went on to add features to their maps, like trees and the fire circle in the woods.

Willow Class call the bridge we cross “The noisy bridge”, as they can tap and stamp on it to make rhythms. They had a go at learning the song “Three little birds” and tapping sticks along to the rhythm of the song.

After making their own maps, Willow class had all showed the impact of the skills of working with natural resources to create with. They set off into different spaces in the woods. Climbing the fallen tree, the slack line and playing in the dens they have made and making up their own imaginary play stories in groups.

The impact of Forest School 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. This week they played 1,2,3,change tree and had great fun in the process!

We ended the session, by being so quiet we could hear a great tit call and have a go at repeating it’s sound. The children successfully passed a woodland whisper along the whole class line and were great at sharing what they had enjoyed during the session.

“ I loved the game 1,2,3,change tree”.

“I loved playing with my friends in the dens”.

“ I liked the walk and talking to people along the way”.

“ I liked climbing on the fallen Oak tree…it was like my castle!”

“ I loved the slack line, it was more of a challenge to go around and in the trees”.

“ I saw a badgers set, the hole”.

The day was warmer than we expected, but we set off another way to the woods, because last week it was incredibly muddy.

We looked at a map which showed us what wild animals we might see and at some of the other features of the map.

We talked about animal tracks and the children all had a sheet to help them identify and spot different wild animals’ tracks along our route.

The children used stencils to create the tracks of badgers, deer and foxes.

We took a different route along the ‘badger track’ and found lots of evidence of them digging in the earth for food such as worms and saw lots of holes which were the entrances to the badger sets in the side of the bank.

The children showed the IMPACT of Forest School on their scientific questioning. They learned that iron in the soil and rock turns the water orange. They then asked why some water was orange and some was clear? They then used their knowledge to answer their own questions.

Once in the woods, the children showed the IMPACT of Forest School by exploring the fallen oak tree.

They used their increased confidence in climbing to explore the tree from all sides and enjoyed the view of the woods from a higher viewpoint.

It was brilliant to see just how much learning can come out of a fallen tree and the children’s questions, ideas and imagination.

We played woodland whispers at the end of the session and managed to be silent enough when passing on our whisper to hear the birds singing whilst we listened.

The children shared what they had enjoyed and showed the IMPACT of Forest School in today’s session.

“I liked climbing on the ropes”

“I liked playing shops in the woods”

“I loved exploring the fallen tree”

“I liked talking about iron and elements”

“I liked using the flour to make animal prints”

“I liked EVERYTHING!”

Thanks again for our brilliant volunteers who support, listen, question, engage and encourage the children with all of their Forest School experience.

It looked like rain at lunchtime, but as we headed out the wind picked up and blew it all away.

This week we learned that dandelions and daisies sometimes flower in January, even though it is the middle of winter!

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience.

The impact of Forest School 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.

The children showed the impact of learning to use maths across the curriculum. They counted the amount of fallen trees we had seen. ‘They fell down because of the wind’

We climbed over one, saw a distant birch across the old railway line, saw an oak which had been sawn up ‘I think it was sawed by a chainsaw’ and one on a slant, ‘like a triangle shape’ in the middle of a wood. ‘That makes 4 altogether!’

The impact of the observing and experiencing the environment was evident on the children’s risk taking. They showed great personal challenge skills as they navigated styles and chose a safe path through the mud.

The children talked about how the ground felt underfoot…muddy, slippy, squelchy, soft, squidgy…negotiated who liked getting splashed with mud and who didn’t.

The children recognised that there was a new gate on our journey. They wanted to know what it said, so they showed the impact of their phonic knowledge to blend the sounds and read the sign. ‘f  oo- that is the sound this week t, that is foot’.

Using sticks the children found emerging bluebell, just peeping out under the leaf litter.

They found catkins and thought they looked like caterpillars. They used their observation skills to find as many as possible on the ground.

The impact of the children’s progress in physical challenge. Being independent on the slack line, by just using the rope and ladder to climb.

This week our topic has led us to learn about fire. We discussed fire safety before we left and the children remembered our games of ‘red dragon, green dragon’ to remind themselves how to stay safe around the fire circle.

The children showed their persevering parrot learning powers as they used the flint and steels to start the fire.

The children talked about what they had noticed, learned and enjoyed this week before heading home up a muddy track up the hill! Thanks to our volunteers for supporting the children and allowing them to directly show the impact of their learning and connection to their local environment at Forest School.

The Impact of Forest School for the children is the knowledge the children have gained from the Forest School experience.

It poured with rain this afternoon, so we started our session inside. The children showed the impact of their learning when they recalled how they had made rosehip syrup during their last session and all had a bit as ‘medicine’, as children would have done during WW2.

The impact of Forest School can be seen through their observations of plants and trees.

Today they all saw how much lichen was growing on the tree at the start of the railway line, showing the purity of the air.

The children were challenged to collect as much water that the rain had deposited on hedgerows and plants along the way to the woods.

They showed how they could utilise their learning powers by showing great perseverance and ingenuity with how and where they collected the water from. This included jumping in puddles and collecting the slashes, to using an upturned umbrella and catching the fallen rain from the tarpaulin over the fire!

There was time to have a hot chocolate in the woods when we arrived- fairly wet, but cheerful.

The children collated all of their caught rainwater into a bucket. It turned out that they had collected a surprising amount. (Although there was rather a lot of ‘puddle water collected’!)

The slack line was moved to a different spot and the children had a go at showing the impact of the development of their risk taking and personal challenge skills. They had to climb around and through trees and were very successful in showing their developed skills.

Well done to the children for braving the wet weather of the British Winter so well and embracing the learning and challenge opportunities of being out in it.

A cold fog had arrived by the time we were wrapped up warm and prepared for the woods, the children showed how they had gained the skills to be increasingly independent with their self care and organisation of their belongings.

This week we spent along time engaging in activities with all of the fallen leaves. We talked about adjectives as they chatted and how they can be used to described the experience of their environment.

“ Kicking through piles of leaves is really satisfying”…….”the grass is really squidgy because of all the water…I think it is because it has rained so much”

Along the way the children demonstrated their child led imagination and creative skills as they all created something with piles of leaves. Some made nests, and some groups of children worked together to make a soft pile to jump in, or as a bed. “It isn’t really very comfy!”

The class topic is ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ this term. The children remembered the song they had all learned last session when we got to the bridge and joined in with the action song ‘Tony Chestnut’. They showed their skill at playing creatively with music as they sped the song up whist singing!

They then used their imagination to create rain, snow and leaf fall, throwing handfuls of leaves off the bridge and describing what they observed as the leaves fell down to the track below.

The children had a go at using string and tarps independently to create shelters and used their  skills at using equipment as they tied and pegged out the shelters and  came up with ideas such as selecting the right sized sticks to sweep  the leaves out of the floor of their dens and collecting moss….” To make it all nice and soft and cosy.”

The collaborative skills the children developed this week were team work in creating dens.

They demonstrated their knowledge of estimation with measurements as they selected sticks to be poles to prop up the roof of one of their dens.

We explored a fallen tree and the children were really engaged in looking at how many growth rings of the Oak tree they could count….they got to 79 and then estimated that it was over 200 years old!

Their imaginative skills came into play soon after, as they used the timber which had been chain sawed to create their own tools…saws, axes

The impact of Forest School can be seen through the skills, 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.

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.

The parents came to school to join the class for lunchtime. It was great for the children to have them there to share their lunchtime and see them in their classroom and help them to get ready and prepare to go to Forest School.

The sun shone and it was a chilly but gorgeously bright autumn day.

The children showed the impact of learning mathematical vocabulary by measuring the Wellingtonia tree. They circled it by holding hands, and looked at how high it was. They then compared the size and height of the tree to others on the journey to the woods.

It has rained so much in recent weeks, so the children had a fantastic time exploring and discussing the muddy and water sodden ground. Their enjoyment of the sensory experience of being in squidgy ground and small streams was evident in the goggles and laughing and joking about getting stuck. They talked at length to each other about how deep the water was and how there was lots of little streams that hadn’t been there last time they went to the woods.

A little robin came to watch the children as we paused for a rest along the way. The children also saw a squirrel as it scampered up a tree on one side of the railway line. They talked about how in the past, the path was a real railway line and how some of the children had been at playschool in the old station building before they came to school.

The impact of the environment was evident on the children’s risk taking and personal challenge skills as they navigated styles and clambered onto a large tree stump and gates.

The children looked at a 200 year old fallen tree at the Forest School site and noticed all of the fallen branches and sticks. They explained to their parents that they needed to collect 2 sticks to start our Forest School circle and sang them a song.

We played a game of ‘duck, duck, dragon’ to learn how to stay safe around the fire circle, before learning how to use flint and steels to light a fire to stay warm on such a cold day.

Once the fire was going the children set off to explore the woods, challenging themselves to have a go at climbing trees, swinging, taking turns and trying out the slack line.

They worked together to lift and move a log, to make a mark on the woodland floor to stay safe and wait behind as they waited for their turn on the swing.

We then went off to search out the stream and had a look at the bridges across the stream.

There was time to warm ourselves round the fire and have a little snack, learning to wash our hands in cold water outside beforehand. We thought how lucky we were with the weather, as homeward bound, the rain started to fall on us.

A massive thank you to our parents for coming to support the children during their session.

 

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.

The children learned how to use palm drills to drill holes in conkers. They learned that they needed to wear protective gloves on their bracing hands.

The children then cut and threaded their conkers with string and practised their knot tying skills.

Then they played conkers with their own made conkers on strings. Some of the children used their new learned skill and came up with their own creative ideas of what to make with conkers, acorns and string.

Some children helped put the slack line up, following practical instructions and helping to use the ratchet strap to fix and tension the slack line.

They learned to play ‘Owl Eyes’ game in which they had to creep up to an ‘owl’s nest’ without being heard and Harrison taught all of the players a new game, which involved hiding and stalking skills.

Many thanks to our volunteers for supporting the children.

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.

The children learned that acorns come from oak trees. We listened to an acrostic poem about an acorn and children in the class explained to each other what an acrostic poem is.

The children used the maths vocabulary of shape and size and comparison to compare the numerous acorns they had collected.
Once in the woods the children made their collections of leaves, acorn sand apples into a ‘mandala pattern’, based on the five petals of a Tudor Rose. They thought about the colours and textures of their resources as they created.

The children learned that they should not eat anything at Forest School which they have foraged. They learned what crab apples were and collected many of them.

They identified fungi and learned to recognise a fly aragic, which stood out boldly against the woodland floor. Some children showed their imaginations and imagined they were fairy villages.

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, 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.

This week the plants we saw were hazel trees, oak trees and bramble bushes.

Today we listened to a story from a book called ‘Lost Words’. We learned how an acorn is from an oak tree and how to identify an oak tree from it’s leaves and whole tree.

The children were challenged to look for, collect and learn the name of a fruit and a nut.

The class topic is ‘Heads, shoulders, knees and toes’ this term. The children all learned and joined in with the action song ‘Tony Chestnut’

When we got to the woods the children used their collections of nuts and fruit to create their own natural collage of a person.

Then the children made frames around their artwork, to really show it off in our woodland gallery.

Then there was time for the children to follow their own ideas and imaginations. Here is a den part way through it’s construction. They have grand plans to make it better next time!

The children were silent for a woodland whisper, which started as hazel nut and ended up completely different! We learned how words can be changed as they are passed along! We will keep practising next time!

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.

We all learned how to identify brambles by collecting blackberries to make into paint, inspired by the ‘Elmer the Elephant’ story. We took them back to the classroom to experiment with tomorrow.

The children learned that the ‘Wellingtonia’ Tree showed us the way to go. They learned that they could identify it by looking at the skyline and finding the triangle shaped tree.

The children learned to identify acorns and find the oak trees which they came from. They proudly collected a whole bag

full, which we have brought back to school to explore, create and play with further tomorrow and next week.

The children have started learning the skills involved in independently climbing the stiles on the way to the woods.

The children learned how to think of their safety and that of others when we were on the old railway line. They know to shout ‘Pedal Power’ to others to warn each other of oncoming cyclists, so they can be safely to the side as the cyclists pass.
The puddles were fun!
This week the plants the children could all name were stinging nettles and they pointed out that they needed to stay back and not touch them.

At the bridge the children listed out and heard a troll or a dinosaur underneath the bridge! They used their imaginative story telling skills to imagine what it might be and inspire them on their adventure!

The children learned not to touch fungi in the woods. This Fly agaric was easy to spot.

They also were curious cats by asking noticing and asking questions about other fungi.

The equipment we used today was the handwashing canister. We learned to wash our hands in the woods ready for a snack after our long walk!

The children explored their own interests in the woods, exploring the site and finding a swing to practise their independence at using it.

They also showed how they are learning to work together to take it in turns to have a go at climbing the fallen tree. What a brilliant first week in the woods Maple Class!

It was great to see the perseverance of the children getting themselves ready, walking all the way to the woods with such enthusiasm and interest in their Autumn environment and their curiosity and teamwork in the woods.

A massive thanks to our volunteers who supported the children with all of their exploring and learning. We can’t wait until next time!

It was a gorgeous summers day as we set off as a whole school and parents to the woods.

The children were fantastically independent in their walk and we spent time listening to and spotting crickets and grasshoppers in the meadow as we waited to climb the stiles. Some children were even quick enough to catch them!

The children showed their parents how they start their forest school session by finding two sticks and tapping rhythms with them.

And then they were off into the woods! They put up the slack line first of all.

There was lots of creative den making throughout the day.

Then the children taught their parents to print with foraged leaves. They then cut up some elder branches and made some necklaces from them.

They also got creative making all sorts of things out of wood throughout the morning.

The year 6 children showed what they had learned about resilience and strength and jumped the fire as part of their transition from the end of their primary experience.