Forest School Blog

 Today’s forest school had an international focus as the school celebrated International Day. The children chose to make necklaces and decorations inspired by Guna designs, exploring patterns and creativity from another culture while developing fine motor skills and design ideas. We also carried out our usual outdoor activities, including wood chopping, den building, and bug hunting, which encouraged teamwork, resilience, and confidence. For the first time, we introduced the hammock, which quickly became a popular space for rest, reflection, and shared enjoyment of the outdoors. The main learning focus of the session was fire and the fire triangle. The children explored the three elements needed for fire to exist and thought carefully about how each one can be controlled in a safe setting. To support this learning, we went on a collection task to find different types of sticks, sorting them into “spaghetti-sized” and “pencil-sized” pieces to understand how fuel needs to be prepar...

  This morning, Year 3 children from Apple class enjoyed another exciting Forest School session. On our walk down to the site we used our colour charts and challenged ourselves to find one natural and man made thing of the same colour. We began by checking in with our Forest School names before Mrs. Sunderland introduced us to elderflower. We looked closely at the flowers, enjoyed their scent, and explored what elder wood looks like. The children then had the opportunity to create their own elder beads by carefully pushing the pith from the centre of a small piece of elder wood and stripping away the bark. Many children chose to continue this activity, turning their beads into necklaces and keyrings. Den building was very popular today, especially with Buster’s group, who created an impressive waterproof shelter. We also enjoyed using some of our new bug hunting resources, which inspired lots of awe and wonder. We found 5 butterflies, 10 ants, 22 woodlice, 5 spides, 2 grubs, 1 moth...

Despite the very windy weather last Wednesday, Ash Class fully embraced the British summer! With the canopy safely taken down, we all pulled on our waterproofs and headed outside for another Forest School adventure. We started by gathering around the fire circle to learn our Forest School rules and think about the nature names we would like to use over the next six weeks. The children then got busy creating beautiful flags using the Japanese art of Hapa Zome, hammering summer flowers and greenery onto fabric to make colourful natural prints. Some children learnt how to safely use palm drills to make holes in wooden cookies ready to turn into necklaces, while others enjoyed making God’s Eyes and practising different knots to thread and secure their creations. One of the highlights of the session was making our first Forest School hot chocolate. The children learnt the steps carefully and agreed it tasted delicious! We also had some very helpful wood choppers, enthusiastic den builders a...

Today was the final Forest School session for Year 3 Aspen Class, and what a lovely way to finish our six-week adventure together!   On our way down to the site, the children took part in a fun matching activity where they had to find their partner by pairing animals with their habitats. We had otters with floating nests, bats in caves and lots more. The children did a fantastic job identifying different habitats and explaining why animals live there. Once gathered around the fire circle, we checked in together and wished Finley a very happy birthday before getting busy with today’s activities. One of the most popular activities was our Hapa Zome style flag making. The children used masking tape to section off pieces of cotton fabric before decorating them using pens and natural materials, hammering flowers and leaves onto the material to create beautiful natural prints. Once finished, they carefully removed the tape and attached their creations to sticks to make their own woodland...

 Yesterday morning, Apple Class Year 3 enjoyed another wonderful Forest School session — with some very interesting weather! 🌦️ We experienced everything from bright sunshine to heavy downpours, making it the perfect opportunity to explore the changing weather around us. We began by using cloud viewers to identify different types of clouds and talked about wind direction and where our weather was coming from. The children also discussed how the weather conditions would affect whether we could safely have a fire later in the session. Once we arrived at the Forest School site, we checked in using our Nature Names before learning all about hedgehogs 🦔. The children shared lots of fantastic facts they already knew and then took part in a fun game of “Fact or Fiction?”, deciding whether different hedgehog statements were true or false. The children then got busy being creative and adventurous — constructing tools from bamboo, playing with clay, and practising different rope knots to m...

T his morning Aspen Class enjoyed another busy Forest School session! We started by exploring the weather, using our cloud viewers to identify different cloud types and talking about wind direction, the weather we might expect and how this could affect our fire. On the walk down, there was lots of excited discussion about the activities the children hoped to do today. At the fire circle we checked in with our nature names — the children continue to amaze us with how well they remember each other’s names! We also learnt about hedgehogs following Hedgehog Awareness Week. The children shared lots of impressive facts before playing a fun fact or fiction game to decide whether statements about hedgehogs were true or false. Activities today included woodwork with bamboo, puppet shows using our Forest School friends, stone decorating, making paint from cornflour and chalk, building swings and learning knots to secure them safely in the woodland. We also enjoyed fire striking, toasted brioche ...