Ash class Week 3

 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 prepared for effective fire building. The children showed good observation skills and followed instructions carefully during the activity.

We then built a small supervised fire and discussed safety throughout, including clear expectations and boundaries. The session also included practising correct procedures for extinguishing a fire safely, reinforcing responsible behaviour and awareness when working with heat and flame.