Games - Mission Explore

Mission Explore is a great web site with loads of ideas of things to do outside.

There is also an app for the iphone which is free to download. 

So this week one group decided to take a random approach and see what the first challenge was on the app.

It turned out to be, 'Design a game that can only be played in this place'.

The group discussed some of the games they had already played in Forest School and the type of elements each game had. They wanted to design a lively active game (this seemed a good idea as it was pouring down with rain at  the time) using element of tag, team work and hiding.

This was the game - Steal the Treasure

There are two teams. One team takes an item of treasure and hides it somewhere on the site. Each player is then given a life (in our case we used soft wool tied round the arm but equally if you have them tag rugby belts could be used). The hunting team then goes off to decide their strategy while the hiding team deploy themselves to lead the other team away from he treasure.
Then the game begins. If a member of the opposing team is tagged they have to give up their life and return to the leader to collect a new one. The game finishes when the treasure is captured or time runs out.

An Ugly Bug Hotel

As part of their activities year 3 are building a special home for mini beasts on the site. They have started by clearing the ground and scavenging around the school site for materials to use in the construction of the hotel. (It's amazing what you can find when you start looking)

In clearing the area lots of creatures were spotted and a sycamore tree trying to grow on a slab of concrete was carefully moved.

The site is cleared and in goes the first layer. Plenty of leaves and water to keep it damp and dark.

Easter Egg Hunt

As part of their persuasive writing class 3M invited everyone to an Easter Egg hunt in Forest School. Wooden eggs with clues linked to their learning in Forest School were hidden all over the site. At the start of each session the letters they had written were read out to each of the groups (the children had decided which classes each child was going to write to). The children split in to team and with their clue sheet had to go and hunt for each of the ten eggs copy the pattern from the front and answer the clue on the back.

Here are some pictures of the fun.

There are of course prizes which will be given out at the start of the new term. Thank you to all the children of class 3M for their great idea.

Storyboards

Year 4 have been making clay animation films as part of their curriculum work and linked to this they have had to create storyboards to plan their films (see later on our school blog http://lgjsblog.blogspot.co.uk/ ). So in Forest School it provided a good opportunity to make woodland storyboards and have a competition to see if they could guess each others well known books.

The children had to create two pictures which could either be clues to the book, fairytale or nursery rhyme title or two scenes to help guess the story.

How many can you spot? (Answers will appear below the pictures at a later date but if you want to know before get in touch)

Climbing Trees

With a group on Friday morning we have been exploring the safest way for children to climb trees as part of their Forest School activities. With this small group it was much easier to explore and discuss the issues with the children so that they could feel safe and give their own feedback about how to keep the activity both manageable and safe. The children in the group all varied in confidence in this activity from those who were happy being a metre or so off the ground to those who wanted to get to the top of the tree. 

The children were clear about which trees were the best to climb and and why, also about what was a reasonable height for a confident climber to go to. As well they helped to decide the number of children allowed to climb at any one time and the number of adults that should supervise.

We also explored safety in terms of routes up and down the tree and how it was important to test and feel confident in the next step and what to do if they hear a branch crack.

All these ideas will be put into our tree climbing policy so that other children will be able to benefit from the opportunity of climbing trees.

The Egypt Project part 4

After the timeline had been completed the children returned to their dig sites and filled all the holes back in and replaced turf so everything was put back to how they found it.

Putting the turf back

During the afternoon session the children used all the pictures and video from the morning to write up a report about the dig ready to share in the final session round the camp fire with hot chocolate and popcorn.

Round the camp fire

Egyptian Project part 3

After a while one of the carefully planned sites noticed part of a box in the corner of their hole. Getting permission they extended their dig square.

The Discovery

After a while of digging the whole box was revealed and ready for the opening.

What could be inside?

Eager to open the box a mummy was found with many burial items. The police (the school office) were called to get permission to continue and remove the box from the ground.

Getting inside was not so easy.

The mummy and grave items.

During the morning many other finds had been made too. Pupils had been conducting interviews and sharing what they found.

Cleaning an artefact

Interviews

To draw the morning together all the children brought their finds to the timeline and tried to work out where they would go.  

More to follow in next post.