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.
