1st -11th Sep
It has been all action stations these past few days getting everything set up and ready for Forest School that started on 6th Sep. We have made a tippy tap and animal benches for the children and the grounds have been tidied up. We had our first session which went really well, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. From this session the children have come up with ideas for activities they would like to do. Using clay to create creatures was the idea they came up with so I have planned this onto our next session. I can’t wait and am excited by their enthusiasm and energy. I have also had to extend my course as I have had no time to complete my assignments this gives me a bit more space and time to give them the energy that they need.
12th-18th September
Session 2 was a success and the children had chosen to make clay blobsters so we read the story of Mama Africa which tells of how all animals were made from the soil. Talked about how clay comes from the earth and then the children made their own. Their designs were fantastic from recognisable creatures like butterflies to some made up imaginary ones. The children now know how to use and travel around the fire circle which will not be lit but good practice getting into the right habits. The children then went onto do some child led play and we got out some tiny doors, fairy folk creatures and they played with them in the woods while the clay was drying. To end the session we read the story “The Tree Keepers” by Gemma Koomen and discussed what we wanted to learn and develop in our next session. The children said they wanted to make wind chimes so decided that we could focus on listening to the sounds of the woods.
19th -26th September
Using the children’s ideas, I planned a session around listening and tuning into the sounds of the woods. We started the session with some running around games to burn off some of the excited energy that we had at the beginning of our first two sessions, and this helped them to then listen during our fire circle time. We had a snack and read the story “Good Night Owl” by Pat Hutchings and then listened to some different bird calls to see if we could identify them. We discussed how you can identify different birds by learning their songs and calls each is distinctively different. We then made some sound maps, and they were wonderful at sitting, stopping and just listening. We then all made some wind chimes using sticks, string and found materials. Every child produced one of these and some took them home while others wanted to hand them in the woods. They then had some independent child led learning time and came back together to discuss what they would like to learn and build on next week. The children asked if we could have a King/Queen of the woods each week (VIP) who could sit on the story telling chair, they also asked if they could build dens and create homes for animals.
27th-31st September
It has been lovely allowing the children to plan and decide what they would like to focus on each week and the journey they are taking us on is very different to one that I might have planned. They have a sense of ownership and have really got involved in thinking about what our next steps could be-some even think about it at home and have started to do craft with natural objects with their parents too which is great. I planned the session using their ideas of dens and went with animal homes as the focus for the book to be shared. The children are learning our routines and rules and come in sit in the fire circle and this week they were excited to see that I had put one of their names up to sit in our story telling throne. We started with a running around game again as this really worked in the previous session. Then had snack and story and I read ““Home, where our story begins” by Patricia Hegarty. We played a web of connections game which linked different animals to their homes in our school grounds and a Guess what I am game using a description of the animals’ homes to help us. We discussed the names of some homes eg-dray for squirrels, borrows for rabbits and a den for a fox.
I then showed them a variety of materials that they could use to build their own dens. Tarps, pegs, sticks, rope and then allowed them to go off and experiment in their own ways. Some of the constructions were wonderful and so original and when one of their dens fell over due to the wind they adjusted and changed their plans, so it was more secure. It was a lovely session being able to sit back and watch them work as small teams and follow their own imaginings. Some wanted to play with small world characters and created mini homes and dens for them.
During our reflection time we talked about what had worked and what they would like to move onto learn next and as a group they came up with the idea of making Autumn Leaf pictures with the leaves that were starting to fall.
