This week the children were all extremely excited to visit forest school as they had concluded last weeks session with a plan to return to the stream. The only difference was this time they planned on taking all of their clothing and shoes ready for a great day splashing. All week we have kept our fingers crossed for the lovely spring sunshine to still be with us however today it was a rather cloudy and dull day with the odd spring shower. Although it was dull, we did not let the weather deter us and the plan remained the same, we would be visiting the stream.
On the way to forest school, there was lots of chatter and excitement as to what the day ahead would bring. Once at the forest we were immediately aware of the peaceful aura around us. As we headed down the hill and into the forest we noticed two things, firstly there were no other people around and secondly although it was lovely and peaceful, the forest was filled with noises and movements.
The children decided to follow the path, using their senses to explore the nature around us. We spotted lots of different types of birds, all singing their beautiful songs from up high in the trees as well as several grey squirrels who were running up and down the trees then jumping from tree to tree. We also heard lots of unusual sounds and the cracking of sticks breaking underfoot. This sparked the children to share their creative and imaginative ideas. Could this crunching simply be a deer or could it be the cracks of a tiger looming ever closer. Maybe a bear could be stumbling around searching for a cool cave to sleep in. Who knows but let’s keep our eyes peeled!
Lunch time was growing closer so the children voted on where to make our site for lunch. With the majority voting to head to the orange river over the bridge we set off. The children with support from Kirsten, Lisa, and Tara decided to sit on the big sloping steps opposite the orange river for lunch. This was a great spot as it was very tranquil listening to the river flowing, however there was a very strong smell coming from the river! During lunch, the excited chatter continued regarding splashing in the stream and thankfully after lunch the sunshine came out ready for us to get wet!
We headed down to the stream and the children wasted no time getting their swimming things on and waded into the chilly water. There was lots of laughter to be heard as the children had fun splashing each other, chasing each other around the stream and even sitting down and ‘swimming’.
We have all had such a lovely day and were really pleased the sunshine came to play too.
