Nursery
This morning we went outside to enjoy some lovely autumn weather. We sang hello to the trees, leaves, cars and bumblebees. Then we went to find sticks to make stick men. Some of us used pipe cleaners to wind around and make arms and legs. Morley found a dead bird outside the fence. Some of the children knew it was a pigeon. We had quite a discussion about what had happened to it. Some of us thought it might be lions! We enjoyed a lovely hot-chocolate and a biscuit. Then we planted some daffodil bulbs and played in the leaves.
KS1
We got our waterproofs on and got outside as quickly as we could. We warmed up with a game of Spiders and Flies.
Mrs Young showed us a vegetable peeler. Most of us recognised it as something we would normally find in the kitchen. Mrs Young showed us how to use it safely to remove the bark from a Willow stick to make a magic wand. We decorated our wands with felt pens. We also had lots of time to play in the leaves, using our magic wands to make leaf spells! Aliyah found a pine cone and used her wand to turn it into a musical instrument! What a great idea. Some of the children also explored the mud kitchen, using some left over water from our campfire to make some wonderful dishes.
After our hot chocolate, Year 1 went to visit their Rowan Tree, noticing that it has now lost all of its leaves and berries, but the buds for next spring are already there! Year 2 went to see a murder scene! In a corner of our field there were feathers everywhere! The children had lots of ideas about what had happened to the poor pigeon. We concluded that it was probably a cat or sparrow hawk.
Back inside, we reflected by recapping on how to use a peeler safely.
KS2
We had another lucky week with the weather today. Although it was overcast and a bit misty, it was mild with a building breeze.
We worked at the KS1 campfire circle today. We made clay figures using the natural resources around us to embellish them. Our challenge was then to build a mini shelter for our figure. We could work in groups or independently and use any natural resources we could find.
While that was going on, we came to the campfire in small groups to make a toastie. First, we washed our hands with soap. In pairs, we put together either a jam or cheese sandwich. We the cut it in half and wrapped it in tin foil. We then placed it on the grill over the fire. We turned them after a few minutes and took them off the fire when ready using tongs. We allowed them to cool before enjoying them. As our session over ran, we had an outdoor collective worship, reflecting on our Christian value of trust in relation to Forest School sessions.
Then we tidied up an went back to the classroom. We had a long discussion about our mini shelters, sharing what had worked well. Our top tips were:
- Sticking sticks into the mud helps to keep them stable.
- The shape of the stick is important. Y and V shaped sticks help to form stable structures. Two Y shaped sticks can have a ridge pole placed between. Pyramid shapes make strong structures.
- Leaves make good roofing materials and flooring. Leaf stems can be used as ropes for mini shelters.
