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.
