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”
