Welcome to our Forest School Page
Autumn One - Group One
This half term, the children have worked hard both as a team and individually to develop new knowledge and skills using their outdoor environment.
Over the course of the half term, children have explored using a variety of tools and skills to create new things each week!
In week one, we talked about the rules of forest school and safely used loppers to cut sticks to the right length. We used clay to create a mythical creatures which we attached to our stick. After foraging for bark, leaves, pine cones and other natural materials around our forest school, we attached them to our creatures to make faces and expressions. We called these creations Blobsters!
Our second week was all about hedgehogs and their homes! We talked about where we might find woodland creatures and the homes they live in. Using clay, we sculpted our own hedgehogs and foraged for bark and sticks to use as hedgehog spikes. In groups, we made our own hedgehog homes using the natural materials around us and placed our very own hedgehogs inside!
Due to the weather, we didn't manage to go outdoors for our third week but that didn't stop us from completing our forest school activities! This week was all about tool safety and developing our confidence using equipment such as secateurs and potato peelers.
Using freshly cut willow, we whittled our own wands by cutting the wood away from us (and wearing gloves of course!).
Mrs Dale brought in her special whittling knife and with a bit of help, we all had a go at using it, we were very brave!
For our penultimate week, we made bird feeders which we took home to hang up in our own garden! After scooping our the inside of our oranges, we mixed lard and birdseed together to make a yummy treat for the birds. We measured sticks using our forearm for reference, and pushed out sticks through the orange so our mixture inside was secure.
Finally, we attached string to the sticks by tying our own knots so that we could hang them on the tree!
Our final week at Forest School felt like the most exciting of all! With help from Mrs Dale and Miss Brunton, we talked about fire safety and the importance of fireproof protection before building a fire! We foraged for our own wood and used materials such as flint and cotton wool to start our flame. We sensibly held skewers with fireproof gloves on to toast our own marshmallows for s'mores, yummy! Mrs Dale showed us how to safely put the fire out as we reflected on our 6 weeks at Forest School this term.
Skills Developed:
- Teamwork
- Sharing
- Tool use and safety
- Tree identification
- ICT skills and photography
- Fire Safety
- Clay sculpting
- Food hygiene
- Tying knots
Whilst it rained outside, we stayed inside to use potato peelers as whittling knifes!
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We loved making our own bird feeders to hang in our garden!
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We whittled sticks of willow to create our own wands.
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We used lard and birdseed to make a yummy treat for the birds.
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We knew to stay behind the line as one of our fire safety rules!
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With some help from our teachers, we toasted marshmallows on our fire so we could make s'mores, yummy!
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Summer One - Group Two
For our first session, we explored our Forest School area and collected lots of natural resources to create our own natural picture. We used our Forest School rules, sharing our ideas and resources with one another and made frames for our beautiful pictures. We ended the session by decorating our very own stone which will mark our seat each week at Forest School.
Week two was about tool safety, Mrs Dale showed us how to use loppers safely so that we could cut sticks safely. Using clay, we created blobsters with natural materials we sources ourself from our Forest School area. Some of our ideas were super imaginative and our hard scavenging work led us to find some amazing things to add to our blobsters.
For our third week at Forest School, we focussed on habitats. Working together in groups, we searched for evidence of living things in their habitats and discussed the different ways in which forest animals live. We found a snail living in our Forest School and some of us enjoyed feeding it a juicy leaf!
Our penultimate session was a tricky one! We used super listening whilst Mrs Dale showed us how to safely use a hand drill and a hammer. With small cylinders of wood, we drilled holes to look like the eyes and nose of a hedgehog before hammering nails in to look like spikes! They were incredibly cute and all the children felt very proud of their hard work!
Our final session was spent foraging for sticks and learning how to safely and efficiently build a fire! Mrs Dale showed us how to safely walk around an open fire and we even got to toast our own marshmallows!
Skills Developed:
- Teamwork
- Listening
- Following instructions
- Scavenging for natural resources
- Creativity
- Tool safety
- Using a hand drill and hammer
- Safety with sharp objects (loppers and nails)
- Sharing
- Fire Safety