Group B
Finding the Fox 10/07/24
I was convinced that today was to be a dry, if overcast one. Mrs. Heslop thought different. I was pleased that I listened to Mrs. Heslop and put up the tarpaulin shelter otherwise we would have been even more wet than we were.
We started our day looking for the fox set that is hidden in the school grounds. We found it and had a look to see if Mr. Fox was at home. (He Was not.) A good job really as we had already seen quite a few rabbits running around.
We then decided to make some paths to follow through the woods. We got some ribbon and threaded it through the trees to make a kind of trail to follow. I made a blue path which joined onto the children’s paths. There was a green one which went onto the field and back in again and a red one which I think went around every single tree. It was my plan to use these paths to do some running around the Forest School area but it started to rain really hard so we decided to go to the camp under the tarp.
We played with the puppets a bit then split into two groups; one to play on the climbing trees, whilst the other group got the hammers and wood to do some making. We were using a lot of tools and sometimes the nails would not go in all the way but there were some lovely models made.
Of course, there was time for a hot drink and a snack before we had to go in for our lunch.
Adventures and Dens 26/06/24
When I came to school this morning I thought we were in for cooler weather so I made some lovely hot chocolate to keep us going through the day. By the time we came to drink it all the cloud had burnt away and it was hot again. Never mind, the children still wanted the hot chocolate although they could have had some water if they wanted.
Whilst we were walking to the Forest School area we noticed that some of the plugs on the trim trail had come lose. We used he mallets to make sure they were all in and then double checked to fix it up properly. We then took the bucket of hammers and mallets to some pallets. The children helped fix these up and turned them into a cool den. It would have been good to leave it up until next time but Forest school is missing a week while I go to Edinburgh with year 6. I thought 2 weeks might be a bit too long to leave it up.
Whilst one group was working away with Mrs. Heslop the other group came on an adventure with me. We found a mysterious rope which we followed down a slope into an overgrown part of the Forest School area. There was a path but it took an adventurous spirit to find out where it went. We had to make a bridge to get over some mud. It was so much fun that Mrs. Heslop wondered if we had got lost. We hadn’t and were able to swap over groups. This time we knew where we were going so we took a tarpaulin and made a slide. It was great fun.
There was just enough time to have a go on the trim trail but it was now so hot that we took off our mud suits as there are no stingers next to the trail. It felt good to be out of the suits so we also took off our wellies and socks to have some bare foot time on the grass. We just made it back for lunch.
Flag Making 19/06/24
I was so confident it was going to be a lovely day I did not bring a coat! I was regretting this when I looked up at all the dark clouds but I need not have worried as the weather forecast was correct. We did, however all put on mud suits. This was more to do with the stinging nettles than the damp ground. It is difficult to get the balance right with the stingers and so children do come into contact with them, this is why we all wear coveralls. I have thought about removing them all but they do provide an additional habitat for the creatures we want to encourage so they stay and I try and manage the ones around where we sit.
We have over 10 different species of tree in our Forest School area, each tree has very different shaped leaves so we tried to find as many different types as we could. We made a good collection of different leaves. If you bash the leaf through some cloth you can make patterns. We did this and then used the cloth to make some very good flags. They looked especially good when you held them up to the light as you could see all of the leaf pattern then.
Whilst some children were making flags, others were having fun climbing trees and using the hammocks. Time seems to go faster at Forest School and lickety spit it was over and we had to start to come in for lunch. We did have just enough time to fit in a drinks break and snack, listening to the bee tree, lying down to look up at the leaf canopy and play on the trim trail.
