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
