As it was their last session in the forest, the children were feeling sad as they did not want it to end. They decided they would like to visit as many places as possible as it is all soooo… exciting!! Our first stop was our forest school site, where we continued to explore the woodland. We were looking for signs of the birds, at the bird houses and the feeders and then continuing with the painting from the previous week. After lunch, we wanted to visit some of the sights, so the children chose to see the windmill and St John's Castle.
As the children prepared to leave the site to venture to the windmill, they decided they would like to leave a present for the forest as it was almost Christmas. A group of children collected a ball of string from the trolley and began weaving the string amongst the twigs of a small bush. They decided this would be their Christmas tree, as the string looked like decorations they had on their own trees at home. Once the tree was decorated, they began to sing songs around the tree; a favourite was ‘Oh Christmas Tree’.
Happy that we had left our site clear and ready for Christmas, we made our way towards the windmill. This was an exciting time, as the children could look inside the windmill and discovered there were bats living at the very top. We then ventured to St John's Castle.
Upon arrival at St John's Castle we began looking at the ruin and discussing why it no longer looked like a castle. There were many interesting questions, such as "Where have the windows gone?", "Did the castle have stairs?" We used the information board as a point of reference to gain information about the site. The children also enjoyed capturing photographs, so that they could show the children back at nursery the amazing sites at forest school.
