Mud Day June 29th

June 29th is Mud Day. Ideas can be found here and here.



But before we even got started we lost one of ours in the mud!

Here is some of the fun we had on our Mud Day.....

But best of all was the water slide.....

Then of course you need to get cleaned up again ....

FSLI Embracing Outdoor Learning Conference 2012

I can't believe that just over a year ago I attended my first EOLC still to complete my Forest School leader training. A year has passed and for every two weeks of term 370 children have had the opportunity to experience learning in the outdoors. 

So it was off to Gloucestershire full of enthusiasm and eager to learn and unusually this year some early morning sunshine.

Welcome

The conference is all outdoors at the Redwood Education Centre near Slimbridge. A series of workshops were available three of which needed to be pre chosen.

• Danish Basket Making and Willow Sculptures

• Natural Musicians

• Cooking Outdoors with Children

• Learning through Flora and Fauna

• Forest School Skills Update

• Story Telling in the Outdoors

• Creating in Nature

The first workshop for me was Cooking Outdoors, having tried marshmallows and popcorn this year I was looking for something a little more exciting to introduce next year.

Orange Baked Muffins

These were great fun to make.


Each smaller group looked at cooking in different ways, on the fire, in the fire and on a griddle. The area was set out with a whole range of tools and equipment for cooking and the whole session was very informative. I certainly have some ideas for the future, especially as all the recipes are being emailed out to us.


Next up was willow weaving, the thing that gets me is that this looks easy but never is. We had a go at wands, fish and hurdle making. The information about types of willow was useful. As we've already started growing our own I'm hoping we will be able to self source this product in the near future.



Rain had punctuated the morning so it was good to see some sunshine over lunchtime.




















The afternoon was a great surprise to me. Music I must admit is not my strong point but the way Chris Holland delivered the session meant that even someone with my hopeless ability could envisage leading sessions encouraging children outdoors.

You can see some results here.

Looking forward to the next time.

Pharaoh's Throne

Year 4 have been learning all about Ancient Egypt as part of their Cornerstones curriculum topic.
During the engage week we organised an archeological dig linked to the history of the site. (You can read about this here)

After the dig each group came out for their usual seesions over the next two weeks and were involved in designing thrones for Pharaoh.

Over the past months I had been collecting pallets from deliveries to school, usually they were left out in the service yard for disposal, but after reading an article on http://creativestarlearning.blogspot.co.uk/ I decided to start keeping them. Poor quality ones are used for firewood and out of the others I have constructed a wood store and in this activity the children saw an opportunity to use them for thier project.

Earlier groups kept their thrones to quite a low level but with some experimenting we found that it was possible to keep things quite stable and from their on groups became a little more daring with their designs.

Here are some of the results:-

Acocks Green Primary Forest School

Yesterday I had the opportunity to visit the Forest School at Acocks Green Primary School. At first you as you cross the tarmac playground to the main building sandwiched between two main roads, you wonder where a Forest School site could be.

However, a short walk through a narrow gap open out to an outdoor classroom. Here there are tables, storage sheds and a wild boarder. The rain water is harvested from the shed roofs and for use in the mini raised gardens that each year group have.

Just past here are a couple of small wild areas and the nursery school site. This then opens out again onto a small playing field and beyond is the Forest School site.

It is amazing to think that just a couple of years ago this was an open space with some mature trees.

Now the site has a range of seating, a fire circle, a large wood shelter, wood store, mud pit, sand pit and an amazing treehouse.

Tina and Tina hosted the afternoon, sharing photos of how they had developed the site and how they ran the Forest School sessions. Children have the opportunity from Reception to Y6 to go to out for Forest School lessons. Groups are organised on a weekly basis for a series of at least 3 afternoons, and then after a rotation get another chance later in the year.

In addition to this it was interesting to see how they integrated the Y6 children into the younger children's sessions to provide additional support and learning opportunities.

Thank you to both Tina's for an interesting and informative afternoon.

 

Lost Gardens Project

We finally came up with six designs to create Lost Gardens of Helligan sculptures on our Forest School site.

Here they are:

 

 

Three tons of top soil arrived ready for the children to start moving and creating their large sized models of the creatures.

Lots of muddy hands later and the basic form is beginning to take place as you can see in the pictures below.

 

After creating the basic mud shapes the children will be choosing seeds and other materials to make the completed sculpture.

 

So what will they look like in the end? We'll just have to wait and see.



 

Winter Returns for Easter Hunt

One of the most popular activities in Forest School last year was the Easter Hunt. So this year saw its return but can you spot the difference?

That's right last years Easter hunt and this years had slightly different weather conditions. But it was still great fun.

Children's Forest School Blogs

Here are some links to children's blogs about Forest School.

Click on photo to see Amna's Blog

Click on photo to see Niamh's Blog

Click on photo to see Molly's Blog