This week we started forest school with a new group of children (very excitable ones at that). Some of the children had never been to forest school so were not sure what to expect. We jumped on board our minibus and of we went. We chatted about what we might see. Rupert was sure we would see deer and Lily thought we might see trees. As we arrived, we changed into our forest school suits and chatted about how we keep ourselves and our friends safe in the forest. We then headed down into the forest together. At nursery we have been exploring shapes so Tara set us a challenge as we walked along the path. Who can find five different shaped leaves? Luke found a tall thin leaf whilst Rishaan found a wavy leaf which he identified was from an oak tree. We noticed the leaves were a variety of different colours. We found yellow, brown, green and some spotted ones. Ahmad found a red leaf and Luke found one with three different colours. We discussed why the leaves were changing colour and Edward pointed out that it is because it is Autumn time and the leaves always fall from the trees in Autumn. Jenny added that they will grow back in the spring time.

We began to listen to the sounds of the forest. Rupert chatted about an orange river he had spotted in our forest. Could he be correct? Was there really an orange river? There was only one way to find out. We began to search for the river and found a stream which flowed into a tunnel but it wasn't orange. We followed the stream, listening for the trickling water sound as we went. We stopped at various points to check for an orange river and sure enough the water led us to a stream which had an orangy look to it. How had this happened?

Edward thought orange leaves may have fallen into the river and dyed it, Rupert thought someone had poured paint into it or a fox had cut his hair and thrown it in, Sam explained that his Dad had seen this sort of thing before and it had been changed by an elf. The children questioned whether the water was safe. We decided we should never drink the water and we would not climb in as the orange rocks underneath were not safe.

Even though we had found a river which was slightly orange, it still was not the river that Rupert had seen. We continued our walk and found another area which seemed interesting. It had an orange stream flowing into it. We climbed down carefully to the riverbank and observed the water was beginning to turn more of an orangy colour. We thought about how we could cross the river safely, some children decided to jump independently and others crossed holding an adults hand. Once across we were faced with a problem! We were at the foot of a huge mountain. It was either go back the way we had come or attempt to scale the mountain. After a quick discussion the children made the decision that they wanted to attempt to climb it. We worked together as a team to support and encourage one another. We used sticks to pull one another up the hill and everyone was extremely proud of themselves with their huge achievement. We tried to find the orange river once again. We crossed a small bridge before eventually spotting something orange over the hill. We had found it at last! The orange river. Rupert and Edward both smiled. Rupert shouted "Yes, there's my river!"