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”
