Half Term Year 3

It's amazing to think that half a term has already gone by. All the children (nearly) have now had three lessons out in Forest School, enjoying the games and being amazingly creative whilst learning about life in the forest and linking ideas back to their class based learning.

Year 3 have made some super Roman Forts to link with their visit to Lunt Fort and it has been really interesting to see how each group has interpreted the activity and some of the great teamwork as they move logs and branches about the site and discuss, share and develop ideas.

Year 3 also had a super sunny day out in Forest School re enacting the story of Boudicca and her battles with the Roman.

Next half term they will be looking forward to exploring other aspects of the invaders including making Gods and building shelters using ideas borrowed from the Vikings.

Leaf Sewing

Lots of children have been interested to try their hand at leaf sewing this week. They have made their ideas into fairy dresses, bed linen, decorations for thrones, patterns and even a fairy boot. Here is a selection of their ideas.

Bug Hunting

Without a doubt the favourite activity over these two weeks has been bug hunting. Although a series of activities were planned for each group coming out, most of the children wanted to search for and identify the different mini creatures living on the site. As this was right in the middle of the warm spell at the end of September, many creatures kept themselves well hidden but this didn't dampen the enthusiasm and excellent searching skills of some children.

Here are some of the finds and finders.

Second Week

The whole school has now completed a first lesson in Forest School, learning about the plants and trees on the site, making maps, beginning whittling skills with vegetable peelers, making fairy plates and invaders searching for evidence of the inhabitants of the site.

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Shelter

Progress is being made with the shelter as the roof goes on.

First Week

Over half the school have taken part in Forest School as all group a's and 10M have had their first experience.
Next week we start all the group b's with 6W, and 4C on Tuesday.

Each year group is following a different theme linked to their curriculum studies. Today Year 5 who will be learning about mapping, tracking and survival skills started by making maps of things that could be included in Forest School. Great ideas were for a balance log, bird feeders but probably most popular climbing trees and a camp fire. Here are some pictures of their maps.

Changes to the site

As we begin our year of Forest School we are already starting to make changes to the site. A shelter is being constructed to provide some cover when it rains. Here is a picture of the first stage.

Seats have now been added so all we need is the roof. Hopefully the rain will keep off in the meantime!

We are also planning to make some further additions. If any parent are having trees cut down or know of any being cut down could you please let us know via the school office as we are looking for stumps to make an all weather circle and a stepping stone run. We also need logs and leaved branches for making a woodland see-saw and shelter building.