Forest School Blog

Beach Class had a fantastic afternoon at Forest School today! On our walk down to the site, we became stick hunters, searching carefully for spaghetti-sized and pencil-sized sticks ready to use for our very first fire. We shared a story about an acorn and learnt about the life cycle of an oak tree , from a tiny acorn to a huge, mature tree. The children then got busy exploring and creating. There was lots of wood chopping, building and imaginative play with long pieces of bamboo . Some children chose to plant their own acorn and make a label for it, while others enjoyed painting acorns. The highlight of the afternoon was lighting our first Forest School fire! We talked carefully about fire safety before enjoying some delicious toasted brioche , followed by hot chocolate. The children are becoming really independent at making their own hot chocolate now and are getting better each week. A lovely afternoon full of practical skills, exploration, teamwork and plenty of Forest School fun...

  Year 1 had another busy Forest School session today, with lots of opportunities to practise practical skills, problem-solving and teamwork. Our challenge began before we had even reached the Forest School site! The children were told that their “entrance fee” was two dry sticks – one about the thickness of spaghetti and one about the thickness of a pencil. They had to search carefully on the ground, compare the sizes of different sticks and check that they were dry enough to snap. This was a great way to develop observation, comparing and estimating skills , as well as beginning to understand how we select suitable fuel for a fire. Once at Forest School, we sorted our sticks by thickness and talked about how we build a fire using different sizes of fuel. We also looked at flint and steel and learnt how striking them creates a spark that can be used to help start a fire. We then turned our attention to oak trees and acorns . We looked at the life cycle of an oak tree and carrie...

  Year 1 enjoyed another gorgeous morning outdoors today. We began with colour charts and challenged the children to spot as many different colours in nature as they could on our walk. This prompted lots of lovely conversations and encouraged everyone to look a little more closely at the world around them. Once at the Forest School site, we played Dragons and Knights and Swap Places If… to practise our fire-circle rules. The children are becoming really confident with these, so we think we might be ready for our first fire next week! 🔥 There was then lots to choose from. Some children tried Hapa Zome , carefully arranging flowers and leaves onto fabric before hammering them to release their natural colours and create beautiful patterns. Conkers were a huge hit again! The children used a conker clamp and palm drill to make a hole before threading through ribbon to create their own conker comets . We took them onto the field to test them out and discovered they could fly an im...

What a beautiful morning for Forest School! With blue skies above us, the children were very excited to head down to the Forest School site for a morning of autumn fun.  We had great fun experimenting with blackberry tie-dye and were really impressed with the results! We were also bonkers about conkers , using them to create some fantastic conker snails. Some children chose to make beautiful autumnal creations using different coloured wool, leaves and autumn tape, while others were busy den building, bug hunting and enjoying playing with the soft toys in the sunshine. A group of children even helped fill up the wildlife pond after noticing it had run dry.  After such a busy morning, we finished by making our own hot chocolate and enjoying a biscuit together.  A wonderful morning of creativity, exploring, making and playing outside.