Winter Term - Tuesday 28th February

What an amazing forest school visit we have had. Our day began with the discovery of some animal prints on the woodland path. We wondered if they had been made by reindeer or possibly an elephant. We followed the prints until we arrived onto our site but unfortunately there was no sign of reindeer or elephants. We chatted about the day ahead and what we would like to do. We began to set up our camp as usual and made plans. Some children wanted to continue den building whilst others wanted to climb trees so off we went to start our morning.

Whilst adding to our den, we heard the sound of running water. Felix thought it may be a waterfall so we decided to investigate. We stooped down low to crawl under a branch and stamped down some brambles to find the source of the water. There was a stream running close by but it was quite deep so we talked about keeping ourselves and our friends safe. We wondered if we should take the safer route or the more adventurous route. The children obviously chose the more adventurous route and wow it really was! We meandered our way along the stream, dodging swamps, balancing along the streams edge and moving over and under the branches which stuck out across our path. We are true explorers!

We then headed to our site where we ate a delicious lunch. As we ate we talked about our morning and what we would like to do that afternoon. Some children wanted to climb the trees whilst others wanted to explore the ‘adventurous trail’ once again. We headed back to the gap behind our den, under the branch and past the brambles to the stream. The route was now a little wetter and a lot muddier but still we persevered and made our way upstream. We had walked a little further than the morning route and needed to get back to our camp. We thought about crossing the river but it was quite a wide stream at this point. Tara jumped down onto a small piece of earth at the side of the stream and helped support the children to jump across to the other side. They all thought this was great fun and luckily no one got wet! We walked up the hill, through the trees and back to our site and ended our day playing in our den and pretending to be grumpy old owls and ladybirds!

Winter Term - Tuesday 21st February

This week the children have enjoyed spending time cooking on our camp fire. We started the day by discussing fire safety and how we would work in the fire circle. We then talked about how we would light our fire. The children knew we needed some kind of fuel and thought some logs would be a great start. We then experimented with lighting different materials to see which would start our fire. We tried cotton wool, tumble dryer fluff and kindling but unfortunately none of these worked alone. We then tried to put all the materials together and we were so pleased to see it worked!

As it was Pancake day, we had some yummy pancakes with a little chocolate and bananas melted on top. They were delicious! After our lunch we talked about how to put the fire out safely which we did. As we had lots of time left, we decided to plant some bulbs in our allotment and clear a little of the old plants.

Everyone worked hard to pull out the weeds and clear the old leaves before putting them all into the compost bins. We planted lots of dahlias, gladioli, and daffodils to make our allotment look beautiful! What a productive day!

Winter Term - Tuesday 14th February

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.

Winter Term - Tuesday 7th February

A new group of forest schoolers enjoyed stepping out into the woodland today. The weather was a little warmer, the sun was a little brighter and the birds enjoyed singing to us as we entered our site. We stood and listened to the beautiful bird song before preparing our camp for the day. As we set up, we heard a strange sound. Sara thought it was the sound of a deer who was stuck. Another child thought the deer may need rescued. We immediately planned a rescue mission to help the deer. We left all of our kit at our camp and headed towards the swamp on the far side of our site. The previous group of children had constructed a bridge across the swamp but it was quite a muddy day so we added more branches to it in order to cross.

The children worked in pairs and groups to transport some of the larger branches to add to the bridge. Once our bridge was secure, it was time to cross and find the deer who was stuck!

As we crossed, we listened again for the sound of the deer so we could work out which direction we should head in. We were unable to hear anything so we decided to use our 1,2,3, Where are you? game to see if the deer could hear us. One child said he could hear the deer so we headed off again towards the larger part of the swamp. We came to a small waterfall which we needed to cross. We supported one another to cross, carefully remembering how to move across water and down hills. Knee bending is the way!

As we walked along, we began to look for clues as to the deers whereabouts. We spotted something on the ground, a pile of deer poo! We must be on the right track. We continued up the hill where Zack found some reindeer food. If the deer were anywhere, they must be nearby!

After lunch, the children decided they would like to explore their site. Some children wanted to climb trees whilst others wanted to explore the pond. Some children found an amazing tree which provided some low overhanging branches to turn into a house. We began by clearing it out and then using the fallen branches to create a roof. We are really looking forward to continuing our roof building and tree climbing next week.

Winter Term - Thursday 2nd February

Enjoying our delicious pizzas. Yummy!

Hooray for fire week! The children love nothing better than cooking on our open fire. This week we made some delicious pizzas, chocolate orange cake, sausages and bananas with custard. The children enjoyed choosing their own toppings and creating their own pizza which was then cooked on the fire. We were all very excited about the chocolate orange cake and after scooping out the insides of oranges and placing our cake mixture inside we waited patiently. We didn’t have to wait long until they were ready. They were amazing! To keep us ‘toasty and warm’ we had hot chocolate with cream. What a fabulous end to our groups forest school adventures!

Winter Term - Thursday 26th January

This week the children had great fun at forest school. We set up our camp quickly this week so we could make the most of our time in the forest. The children made a plan of the day and decided their morning would be spent on building dens, a tree house and nests for the birds and the afternoon would be spent going on an adventure!

We got to work collecting all different sized branches and sticks to add to our den. The den became bigger and bigger as the branches were added. Nye and Kai enjoyed sitting inside and overseeing work before challenging themselves to climb to the top. After lunch, it was adventure time! We wanted to cross the swamp and explore a part of the woodland we had never visited before but we wondered how we could get past the swamp monsters and swamp crocodiles safely. The children thought a bridge was a great idea and so work began on the best swamp bridge the world has ever seen! Working together the children collected more branches and laid them out across the swamp. Once we had enough we tested out the bridge and to our amazement it worked! We all crossed safely onto the other side ready for an adventure. The ground was surprisingly hard but this helped us negotiate the huge mountain we needed to scale. We climbed all the way to the top where we discovered some fallen trees. These were perfect to explore and use our imagination. They soon became pirate ships and we all climbed on. “Look out there’s a huge wave coming”, pointed out one of the children. We all held on tightly to the ships rigging. We were then met by another wave and another and another! We were so lucky to be such amazing pirates! Rubin spotted a tree higher up the hill and along with Sky, they pulled themselves up onto it. They were so high that they could see all of our forest school.

It was time to head back to camp but which way should we go? Luckily Alfie knew the way and guided us back to our camp and then the minibus safely. It was time for these pirates to head back to nursery for a yummy dinner.

Winter Term - Thursday 19th January

This week we headed straight to our forest site. As we walked along the path, Tara heard a rustling sound. We stopped and listened….. what was making the sound? Jen quietly tiptoed closer to the sound. She spotted something moving, something with four legs and a tail! To our amazement a large deer walked across the path and disappeared into the bushes. We could not believe our eyes. We had only just started to walk along the path to our site and already we had spotted one of the deers we share our beautiful woodland with. We headed further into the forest and quickly arrived onsite. We talked about how we could make our camp for the day. The children began by clearing away the sticks which were lying on the ground and then we placed an insulated tarpaulin onto the ground. This was where we would keep our kit, food and water bottles. Now, it was time to explore!

Once our camp was ready, Imogen decided she wanted to go on an adventure to find a Gruffalo. We headed off climbing over fallen logs, navigating holes in the ground and scrambling up the mountain. We sat at the top of the mountain and observed the vast space we have to explore. The children wanted to find a way back to camp without heading back the way we had come. We walked further along the path but the path stopped! We tried to go down the hill but it was too muddy! Imogen thought about how we could solve the problem and decided that the safest thing to do was to head back the way we had come. We all walked safely back to our camp and had a tasty lunch.

After lunch, Sky expressed she would like to create a ‘big house’. We looked for branches and logs to add to an existing house which children had previously made. The children worked together to move the branches to the desired place. Nye stayed with the house to take care of it. Some of the branches were extremely heavy but with our motto ‘team work makes the dream work’, we managed to get the job done in no time!

Winter Term - Thursday 12th January

This week a brand new group of forest schoolers headed off to the woods. We talked about the things we might see and we had lots of suggestions. Top of our list were tigers, monkeys and dinosaurs. After dressing for the weather we headed down to the meadow which is just on the outskirts of our forest. We found two climbing trees which provided hours of fun. Sky found a huge puddle which we decided was a pond full of fish and mysterious creatures. We collected the longest branches we could find so we could create fishing rods in order to see what lurked below the water. Yunus, Sky, Imogen, Kai and Sebastian enjoyed dipping their rods into the water. We caught lots of fish and even a shark!

After a spot of lunch we decided to continue fishing and climbing the trees. It was hard work climbing but Rubin was a pro. He attempted to climb the lower branches and with a little encouragement climbed higher and higher. He was so proud of himself! Kai and Imogen decided to head off and see what animals they could find. Kai spotted a hole in the grass, which looked like a tunnel. Kai and Imogen chatted about what sort of animal might have made the tunnel. Imogen suggested a rabbit but Kai thought the hole was a little too small and was perhaps made by a mouse. Another child suggested a squirrel may have created the tunnel. Imogen decided to take a closer look and attempted to climb through the tunnel but a big bramble was in her way. She peeked over the top of the tunnel and spotted a beautiful area which would make a perfect home for an animal. We would investigate this further next week!

Winter Term - Tuesday 6th December

This week the children were keen to get onto our forest school site as quickly as possible to check if their den was still there. Some children were adamant the den would be gone but others were excited to continue working on it. Emilia had planned to decorate the den with leaves and make it look very pretty. We walked into our site and to our amazement, the den was still there exactly as we had left it! Emilia, Lottie and Iona got straight to work decorating their den with leaves. They carefully pushed the leaves onto the edge of the sticks and branches they had used to create their den. The varying Autumn coloured leaves made the den look truly beautiful!

Some of the other children had chosen to add to the den by balancing sticks vertically and horizontally. It was quite tricky as the ground was very uneven but with a little perseverance the children managed to make a rather exceptional den! Eventually the children all clambered inside for a group photo. Not only have the children worked really hard creating their den, they have also developed their communication skills through team work and compromise but also their physical skills in balancing, negotiating the woodland terrain and climbing skills to name a few.

Winter Term - Tuesday 29th November

This week the children took their time to head into the forest and helped to point out some of their forest school rules to one another. The children discussed how to walk down hills safely and then chose which route they would like to take. Some children bent their knees and walked straight down the hill, others side stepped whilst the remainder of the children shuffled down the hill on their bottom.

As we approached the ‘spooky steps’, the children remembered how to stay safe and decided to walk on the inside of the path. Well remembered safety rules by the forest schoolers! We then headed into our forest school site where the children sat on the hill for lunch. As we enjoyed our food, Tara spotted something moving in the bushes below us. What could it have been? We all sat quietly, waiting to see what it could be and to our surprise we spotted a small deer closely followed by a larger deer. They happily skipped past us and up onto the hill. The children and our grown up Hannah were so excited to see a deer so closely.

After lunch we decided to explore the space a little further and discovered a den. The children then decided they wanted to create their own den. Ted led the way and the den quickly began to take shape. The children worked together to move the sticks around to create the structure. Some sticks were even too heavy for the grown ups but with a little team work, we were able to move everything into the correct place.

Winter Term - Thursday 10th November

The children have been very busy learning all about their forest and the animals and plants which live there. We spotted oak and silver birch trees, squirrels, birds nests and mole hills. We walked along to the brown river where we discussed what sort of animals may live around us. We then talked about creating a dam to create a home for a beaver. The children immediately began to collect sticks, initially these were small, short sticks but very quickly the children realised that these sticks would not hold back the water to create a dam. What we needed was some huge branches!. The children set to work collecting some of the biggest branches they could find but they were very heavy and difficult to manoeuvre. The children needed help from one another. Team work makes the dream work! Working together, everyone helped to move the branches into position and our dam was built. We stood back and admired our skills. It truly was the most magnificent dam!

Winter Term - Thursday 3rd November 2022

Today the children enjoyed another trip to forest school. As a group we discussed the weather and what we would need for our day. We ensured we had a warm coat, gloves and hat as we prepared for a chilly day. As we headed to our site the children talked about what they might see. We spotted a birds nest and this discussion led us to think about the different types of animals who live in our forest. We spotted squirrels and learned about their homes and we even visited a badger sett!

We had heard a lot of rumours about a magical river so after listening very carefully for the sound of water, we followed our listening ears until we found a small stone bridge. To our amazement, an orangery brown river ran alongside it which was very smelly! We then headed up the wooden stairs before navigating the jungle area of our forest school. The children were amazed by the space and thought they might spot elephants or tigers. Sadly we didn’t but we did stand on the top of the biggest mountain we had ever seen and looked out where we could see just how big our forest school site is. We really wanted to spot some of the deer we share our site with but instead we spotted many squirrels. They enjoyed demonstrating their acrobatic skills, jumping from one branch to another and hanging upside down.

We enjoyed eating our lunch at the top of the mountain before heading back. On our way back we met flossy, a beautiful dog who loves treats (and children). She gave the children her paw and we fed her dog biscuits. We wanted to stay a little longer but it was time to head back. We are looking forward to reindeer spotting next week!

Spring Term - Tuesday 7th June 2022

Today the children have been very busy exploring the park. We were all amazed by how long the grass was and at how many flowers had grown. We spotted lots of buttercups, daisies and cow parsley. One child found a very tall buttercup. It was even tall enough for him to smell it standing up!

The other children continued to add to the fairy house they had created the week previously. They were amazed it hadn’t blown down. “Let’s see if we can blow it down” suggested one child. The children huffed and puffed but they couldn’t blow down the little house of sticks. We decided to hold an experiment to work out why the house would not blow down. We pushed a stick firmly into the ground and tried to blow it down. Jenny pointed out that we couldn’t blow it down because it was to far down into the ground. We tried it again but this time didn’t push the stick as far into the ground. Again, we attempted to blow down the stick but it would not budge. Jenny picked up the stick and pushed it down into a softer part of the ground and explained “its because the soil is too hard there and you need softer soil and not too deep and then it will blow down”. Sure enough, the children blew and down blew the stick! What an experiment!

A big interest today was fire! The children decided to build their own fires using lots of broken sticks lying around park. They sprinkled yellowing leaves across the top of the sticks which acted as flames. Toby pointed out that they needed to rub two sticks together to create a spark for their fire. He got to work collecting two large sticks which he began rubbing together. “There you go!” declared Toby once he had lit the fire with his sticks.

Spring Term - 31st May 2022 (afternoon session)

Our afternoon session was definitely going to be an interesting one! We all dressed ready for the weather in welly boots and waterproofs and braved the rain. On entering the park, the children were immediately drawn to several different small puddles which they enjoyed plodging in.

We decided to venture further into the park to look for bigger puddles. On approaching a corner of the park we were confronted by the largest puddle any of us had ever seen. We stood around the puddle, poised ready to jump. After a “1, 2, 3” we all jumped into the puddle. Everyone smiled and giggled as the water shot up and splashed us all in the face. Smiles and shrieks of delight all round.

The children then decided to experiment with different ways of moving through the puddle. Can we roll? Can we roly poly? Can we run? There was only one way to find out. We needed to try and try we did. We explored different ways off moving through the puddle but at the end, we decided that splashing was simply the most fun! The rain and the cold were not going to make us stop but soon it was time to return to nursery and get warmed up with a delicious tea. What a fun day we had all had! We are hopeful it will rain next week too!

Spring Term - Tuesday 31st May 2022 (morning session)

As we arrived in the park, the children were very excited and immediately wanted to explore. We spotted something on the ground, it was a small green plant but Tara pointed out that this was something even more special! It was a sapling! But what type of sapling could it be? We looked at the characteristics of the sapling and we thought it looked like long green fingers. Immediately the children recognised what is was… it was a horse chestnut tree! The children looked around and found several more growing below a huge conker tree.

As we walked around looking for more saplings, the children found an abundance of broken branches and sticks. Where had they all come from? One of the children decided she wanted to build a small house for a squirrel and alongside several of her friends, they began to lie sticks against a tree to create the structure. Another child found brightly coloured leaves and flowers which would act as the carpet and decorations. The squirrel home soon changed and became a home for tree fairies who no longer had a branch to sit on. The girls decorated the whole house with flowers and it really did look fit for a fairy!

“We need to use a leaf for the mat so the fairies can wipe their feet” - Jenny

“But fairies fly so they don’t have dirty feet’’ - Alice

As one group of children built their fairy home, another group of children were attempting to place a broken branch back into the ground so it could regrow. This was a very tricky thing to do! The children initially began to place sticks into the ground and using them like a screwdriver, attempted to churn out soil to create a hole. The children soon found that this would not work for such a long branch. They decided to then attempt to pack the bottom of the branch with soil and sticks to help support it to stand. With a lot of hard work they managed to achieve this and were so proud of themselves when their tree branch stood upright independently. But how long would it last? Unfortunately we soon learned that trees require roots to stabilise them as the branch fell down. Never mind, we still had a full afternoon to enjoy and the sky was beginning to turn a dark grey colour. This could only mean one thing…we may be getting wet!

Spring Term - Tuesday 24th May 2022

Before heading into our forest, the children recapped on what they wanted to do at forest school that week. Everyone had remembered our plans to visit the river however a few of the specific details had changed. Now instead of plodging with our welly boots on we were going fishing, going for a swim and splashing in the water. Luckily, everyone had brought spare clothes and towels with them so we were ready for a wet day and a wet day is just what we got! The spring sun shone as the children leapt and ran in the meadow on the way to our site. The sun shone again when we sat for our lunch and just as we finished and headed into the river, it began to rain. Not just a little shower of rain but a huge downpour! The children (and adults) did not mind at all and we walked and splashed our feet in the river, traversed the tyre bridge, clung to tree trunks as we meandered along the outskirts of the river, crossed the muddy island (avoiding the really super squelchy mud!) and eventually splashing in the deep water of the river as the rain dripped down around us. Everyone was wet but no one cared. We headed back to the ‘big shed’ where we dried off and had some yummy scones and drinks. We then had enough time to survey our new ponds and spot some tadpoles. We checked out our poly tunnel and everyone was amazed at our plants, flowers and vegetables.

Spring Term - Tuesday 17th May 2022

We started our day by walking down the lane towards our forest school site. Freddie spotted a construction vehicle and immediately identified it as a telescopic handler. A builder spotted us looking at the vehicle and explained it’s job and confirmed it was in fact a telescopic handler (and also a forklift truck)!

We continued on our route and listened to the sound of bird song as we made our way into the forest. We spotted lots of signs of life from blossom on the trees to bluebells and some animals trails. The first trail we found was a parting in the grass and a large hole into the bushes. We talked about what kind of animal may have made this trail. We finally decided it could have been a fox. We spotted another trail but this one was larger and more like a path. Rupert identified that the path had been created by a human! Yes, it was us!

We found the sneaky staircase and followed it all the way to the path. We were surprised by the changes in the woodland. We talked about why the forest had grown so much. We thought maybe the sun, soil, air, rain and time of year had something to do with it. We then had a decision to make as we approached a fork in the path. Do we go left, right or straight ahead? The children voted and straight ahead was the decision. We had never ventured along this path before. We soon realised this path was taking us higher and higher up into the hill. We navigated steep steps, stinging nettles and fallen branches to reach the peak. We looked down at the vast wilderness below and were amazed that all of the space was ours to explore. We climbed further up the hills until we found a familiar spot. It was our hill covered in beautiful bluebells and pink flowers. We spent lots of time here climbing, scaling the hill, building a fire (a pretend one of course!), bouncing on tree branches, discovering Superworm and identifying letters which had been carved onto a piece of wood. “Look, it’s a M for Mummy!”.

After lunch we ventured down the hill and into our original forest school site. We were amazed to find a den we had built many months prior had now been swallowed up by nettles and other plants. The children felt a little sad as we were now unable to play in our den. We needed to find a new spot to build the best den ever! We began searching and found a fantastic place to explore beside the river. Unfortunately we ran out of time and needed to head back to nursery but we are very excited for next week’s adventures.

Spring Term - Thursday 17th March 2022

This week we decided to go on another adventure in our forest school. We came to a fork in the path and as a group we talked about which way we should go. Should we venture into a part of the woodland we had previously explored or head on to explore a new area? We decided to head to the new area of the forest. We discovered long sticks on the ground, a spooky den and a huge stone which was amazing for climbing. It was a little slippy but everyone worked together to support one another.

We walked up high into the mountains of our forest before discovering the orange river we know so well. From here we were able to track our way back to the minibus and nursery.

Spring Term - Thursday 10th March 2022

This week at forest school we walked along to our orange river. The children have been fascinated by the colour of this part of the river for weeks now and today we decided to engage in some scientific exploration. The children thought about what colour the water was and why. There was a lot of different theories, maybe someone had put food colouring into the river, paint was another guess and carrots another. We all guessed if we took some water out of the river, it would be orange but to our surprise it was ‘water colour’ as one child put it. This truly astounded the children. We knew we had more research to take part in.

As we walked deeper into our forest, we found a huge fallen tree which the children enjoyed navigating. We tried different ways of moving around, over and under the tree.

Spring Term - Thursday 3rd March

This week we explored a forest school a little closer to nursery. We enjoyed moving through the bushes looking for the wild animals which may be living around us. Would we spot a deer, a bear or maybe a tiger? Lucky for us we spotted lots of bird and met some very friendly dogs (one of which decided he would rather stay with us then his own grown up). We spotted some beautiful white feathers and decided to follow the trails to discover who they may belong to. We spotted a pigeon, a white duck and a swan. We wondered which one of these animals the feather may belong to.

In the woodland, we created a story circle to celebrate ‘World Book Day’. We laid out sticks in a circle shape and stood around it. We worked together to create our own story by giving one sentence each. Our story featured a grumpy crocodile which everyone thought was hilarious!