Forest School

We began with a team challenge- using only sticks, could we pass the fairy bell round the circle without dropping it?  We had to have a few goes and it made us think about the best kind of stick for the job and how our choices affect others.

There was an abundance of creativity in our chosen activities. Our clay creations ranged from nature hearts to a highly detailed gummy bear wearing a necklace and high heels!

Some of us chose to make signs about what Forest School means to us.  

One sign completed a carefully constructed bug hotel.  Great to see the children reflecting on how looking after nature can help us care for ourselves and others.

Foxes visited the school garden in their Forest School session this week to collect petals and leaves to create colourful suncatchers.  We only took what we needed, leaving plenty of colour for our pollinator friends.  Some of us chose to work together on our decorations, reusing clear plastic lids and containers from the recycling.  It was great to see the children confidently using the palm drills so they could thread string through their suncatchers to hang them up, a skill they learned when they made their name badges last term.  Not only did our summer decorations look great but they smelt amazing too!

Otters focussed on insects in their session, having noticed more minibeasts buzzing and scurrying around in the warm summer weather.  A simple song taught us the features that all insects have in common- 6 legs and 3 main body parts (head, thorax and abdomen).  A drawing game saw us designing some extraordinary insects and some of us went on to create clay models of our bugs using natural materials we found loose on the woodland floor.  We ended our session with the fable of ‘The Ant and the Grasshopper’ which led to an interesting discussion about helping others in need but also working hard so we are prepared for challenges.