Shelter Building

Children in different year groups have been making, hopefully, waterproof shelters to keep themselves dry. Each group has had a session on knot tying and constructing a shelter frame. Then came the real test where children had to make the whole shelter using a plastic sheet and tested them out with water. Some windy days made this real fun as with the plastic sheeting on the whole shelter toppled over.
Here are some pictures of the successful and not so successful.

Comments from the children

Hello Mr Crees next time I do forest school with you I'll bring my nature book in.  FL

Hello Mr Crees! I just feel great that M found an elf on the floor and we discovered how to make a house for them! I also just feel great about Santa sent us a message! It was so much fun! GF xxxxxx

Father Christmas

Now as you are almost certainly aware elves are woodland creatures who work very hard for Father Christmas during the autumn and winter and after a short holiday in the sun at Father Christmas' expense they return home for the spring and summer seasons.

So Father Christmas has been in contact with the children at Lyndon Green Forest School asking for their help to rehouse elves after Christmas who have had their woodland homes destroyed while they have been working for him in the busy lead up to Christmas.

Here are some of the elf houses created by the children can you spot all the sky TV's they've included and the home gymnasiums? I think it will be complete luxury for any elves being rehoused here.

Father Christmas has been in contact again to thank all the children who have helped his homeless elves. He has also visited the homes to sprinkle fairy dust to make them invisible to humans ready for his elves to take up residence in the spring term.
Oh and one last request, he says that there are still a number of elves to be rehoused so if any children could make a home in their back gardens and send in a picture he would be very pleased.

Happy Christmas to you all.

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.

FAIRY PLATES

Year 6 are exploring the science and myths of woodlands. To get started this activity based around the celtic myths of faries children began to collect plants and leaves to identify species growing on the Forest School site.

Forest School

Thank you to all the parents that have returned the slips for Forest School. We start this week 12.9.11. All classes in the school have been split into two groups a + b. This week is all group (a) children and next week is all group (b) children.If children are not sure of their group they will need to ask their teacher.

Children should have their Forest School clothes available in school a reminder list can be found below.

Clothing List

For each Forest School session the following clothing items are required.

· Waterproof jacket (can be provided by the school)

· Waterproof trousers (can be provided by the school)

· Wellington boots (can be provided by the school)

· Jogging Bottoms/Tracksuit trousers (not jeans)

· T-shirt or long sleeved  t-shirt type top in summer

· Sweatshirt

· Two pairs of socks (slipper socks are great to keep    feet warm in wellies)

· Sun hat

In winter months children will also need:

· Hat

· Scarf

· Gloves

(all clothing should be named and kept in school in a named bag for the duration of the activities)

Logs

A huge thank you to Glendale Services who provided the logs to complete our fire circle. It will be much more comfortable in future.

Fire Lighting

On the 17th of June a few children in our school did a Forest School activity. Myself and a few others helped prepare for a fire lighting and in reward we got to roast marshmallows. First of all we collected firewood while our supervisor (teacher) laid a bed of newspaper. Then he put on the twigs and he started to light the fire.

Once the fire had started to die down we took it in turns to roast our marshmallows.
Thee were really yummy and mine tasted like candy floss.

Unfortunately for me and a few other people this experience will never happen again for us as it was only a one time thing.
Even though its now over I can still smell the fire burning and taste the scrummy marshmallows in my mouth.
By R.O.

You never know it may not be a one off - watch this space (Mr C)

Web Team Video of Forest School

Embracing Outdoor Learning Conference

Driving down to Gloucestershire the news was all about the drought status being declared in different parts of the country, so you just knew the moment you arrived the heavens were going to open. Waterproofs took care of that and by the time everyone had arrived the rain had moved away and the sun broke through.
Attending a conference that was outside all day sounded unusual but upon reflection was not all that different from the Forest School Leader training - it was a great idea, far better than sitting indoor taking notes. Altogether there were five workshops but only time to fit in three. A difficult choice but these are the ones I opted for.
(Links can be found in the sidebar where appropriate.)
1. Creating in Nature: Catherine Rive This workshop explored using the outdoor environment to create works of art in nature. The introduction looked at the work of Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Long. Then there was time for us to explore, create and share our work. Having time to think through your own ideas in my opinion is always appreciated. Thinking about how I might go about an activity gives plenty of time also to reflect how this can be used back at school. Andy Goldsworthy is quite well known but I hadn't heard of Richard Long and his work with circles and lines look to have lots of ideas to explore in the future.
2. Plants in Nature: Sara Bellis Improving my knowledge of flora and fauna is a target for this year so this was a great workshop. Connecting with the plants, thinking about their habitat and collecting samples rather than just looking was really helpful. So I've added a few more to my slowly expanding repertoire and collected lots of ideas to use with children. I really liked the idea for a Light Show but you'll have to wait until I've tried to see what that is all about. I will also start scrap-booking my collection.
After lunch in the beautiful sunshine it was time for the final workshop.
3: Storytelling: Chris Holland I had already heard of Chris and used some of the ideas in his book in my lessons so I was really looking forward to this workshop. It was really good to think through all the different styles of storytelling and how even the presentation of factual information could be turned in to a story. We of course all had a chance to tell stories. I think Eeyore losing his tail stole the day, can you spot him in the pics below? Each part of the workshop from the walk over to the site to the places we sat and items we collected gave ideas of how to use storytelling in the outdoors.

Gadget of the day had to be the campfire popcorn maker - sold out so I'll just have to order one later!

So what do you want from a day? Well if it is a practical experience, which gives time for reflection, ideas to use in school and an opportunity for personal development this conference ticks all the boxes.

Games

Games have played a great part in developing the children's confidence and of course they're fun too.

In this game children were split in to four groups, a leader blind folding each member of the team and then leading them off to a different part of the site. When there the children had to listen for the sound of a drum and make their way towards it, their leader making sure they didn't bump into anything or trip over. Success achieved when they'd all got back.

Lesson 2 - Making Maps

This week we needed to report back to our Viking leader and tell him what the new land was like. After having a good explore of the site the children collected materials to make their maps.