The weather was fine and dry today, perfect for our third visit to the forest School. The children were really excited about this session after the Easter break. The first thing we did was to sit and look from the outdoor classroom to see if we could notice any changes from our last session. There were many! The children noticed that the area looked tidier – the hard work in the Easter break had paid off – thank you Mrs Denning for your gardening help. We also noticed that the compost bin had been moved closer to the “digging area”. Most importantly the children were really aware of the changes in the plants around the site. Many had obviously grown, lots were in flower. We discovered forget me knots and bluebells had appeared – we appreciated this awe and wonder moment – isn’t nature amazing!
I pointed out to the group that some of the trees in the school grounds had been cut back during the holiday – this resulted in a selection of logs we could use in our forest School area. They were quite heavy but the children enjoyed carrying them and stacking them….the children had a variety of different “carrying techniques”.
Today some of the children chose to make a “forest friend” using the clay and any natural materials they could responsibly find. We had a few birds, an insect and even a hedgehog who we named Harriet. Most children wanted to help finish off the bug hotel. This was going to be a 5* establishment I could tell. We used the kindly donated items from Mrs Denning which included broken pottery, slate tiles, straw, grass cuttings, twigs and even lavender – the smell reminded Archie of a spray he has on his pillow to help him sleep. When the bug hotel was finished I attached the Bug hotel sign which had been kindly made by Mrs Shenton – it was a lovely finishing touch. The bug hotel was open for business and the children cheered!
Free play time – some chose to play with the tyres and planks, others played with a sticky plant we found – Keira kept it on her T shirt as a badge and of course the digging area had a good level of attention – the discovery of the mystery paving slabs created a huge cheer – I thought they had found gold !
I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
J Perks