Animals, Art and Alps at Forest School

Continuing the topic of ‘Amazing Animals’, the Yr R children have been learning about woodland animals at Forest School, in particular about the tracks they leave behind. We have enjoyed discussing the similarities and differences between some of our native creatures and thinking about why they have feet shaped as they do. Using native animal footprint stencils, we have created our own trail with flour shakers around our Forest School site. We have also had some messy fun using clay and a selection of stamps to make an animal footprint. This has really tested our finger and hand strength, as well as our perseverance. The children have demonstrated great listening skills and recall of our animal facts. We have enjoyed some free play around our Forest School environment, choosing items from our “Treasure Box”. It has been great to see the children enjoying being outside, cooperatively working together and showing their imagination as they draw us into their creative play. Thank you, Year R, for another lovely half-term!

Year 2 have enjoyed another fun half term of Forest School, including (thankfully) a little more sunshine than we’ve experienced for a while! We have continued developing our expertise in weaving by creating weaving squares. The children lashed together sticks to form a wooden square. Having strung these with a grid of wool, the children weaved natural materials into them, such as grasses and leaves, to create beautiful natural woven art. The children also enjoyed working in pairs to complete an Emoji trail around our school grounds. They showed great determination to work together to find all 20 emojis, which were well hidden around Forest School and the school fields. Year 2 also loved having some free play in the Forest School site. They have worked on some impressive dens together, as well as a lot of digging, potion making and even a mudcastle competition!

There has been creativity, problem-solving and team working a-plenty from Yr 5 this half-term as we have embarked on relocating the Alps to Forest School. The children have been enthusiastic Alpine explorers – working in small groups to devise a mini 3D scene complete with pine trees, mountains and even snow (flour!). The children have demonstrated their ability to be inventive using whatever natural materials they could find. They continued their cohesive teamwork when learning to weave willow as they built a shelter on another session – and the opportunity to work out how to transport “supplies” to their hut sparked some interesting discussions…or maybe it was the lure of an extra biscuit?! Our final session saw us practise a “rescue” of an injured person using strong hazel sticks and some old jumpers before making good use of our Alpine trekking poles we had whittled as we set off to test them over the local terrain. We hope the children have had as much fun as we have – thank you Year 5!

Mrs Chisholm & Mrs Tuffley