What a wonderful, if not slightly chilly forest school morning. The children were amazed by the differences in the appearance of the woodland. As we walked down the path we spotted beautiful autumnally coloured leaves littering the ground and beautiful branches stretching across the sky but as we got further down the path, it looked like we had walked into a winter wonderland! There was frost on the ground and it felt much colder! Why was this? Sybil and Zack thought it may be something to do with Elsa from Frozen but another child was adamant that the sun had just reached the top part of the path first.
As we headed into out site we were greeted by the most beautiful sight. A frozen spiders web! It was spectacular and we all marvelled at the intricate design and how it glistened in the sunlight.
Our first job of the day was to set up camp. We cleared a space, placed our tarpaulin on the ground and got to work. One group of children continued work on their house and the other group explored climbing. The first group finished work on their house before deciding to find a way to stand on the island on the other side of the pond. We carefully crossed our wooden bridge and headed through the swamps, around the trees and up and down the hills until we reached a seriously boggy area! We carefully manoeuvred ourselves across the dried pieces of grass and onto the dry land on the other side. We then came to a river but this river was too wide to cross so we followed it downstream to find a safer spot. We were amazed to find, what Joseph thought was a beaver home. Piles and piles of sticks had been collected and laid in the water alongside a huge claw mark in the ground. Slightly further along was shredded wood which of course could only have been made by a beaver! We found a safer route to cross the river but still we had to leap across as if we were frogs. We made it. After a quick journey through the trees we found our way back to camp. Wow! What an adventure!
After lunch the children wanted to explore more climbing. Working together as a group, they supported one another to challenge themselves. Some children were happy to attempt the taller trees whilst others explored the lower branches. We found a huge fallen tree which would allow all the children to sit on at once. We soon discovered the branch was extremely bouncy. What a fabulous afternoon we had bouncing on the bouncy branch!
We all had a wonderful time at forest school and the bouncy branch was definitely a highlight! We are looking forward to what we may find next week on our forest school site.
