Father Christmas has sent a video call, here is his message:-
He was so pleased with the Elf houses made last week by 3S and said he will be round after Christmas to sprinkle so magic fairy dust so the elves can take up residence in the Spring.
Here are just a few of them.
Here is the letter from Father Christmas to Year 3.
Hope you can help Father Christmas. Send your photos via Twitter if you can, drawings of your ideas would be great too.
Yesterday we were back in Forest School and as the topic for the week revolved around the Rainforest we decided to use this for our inspiration.
We all collected together bits and pieces to make an imaginary rainforest creature. There was lots of discussion about what they could do from shape shifting, which eventually became colour changing, to poisonous spider eyes.
Here are each of our creatures.
After this we returned indoors. Some of the children wanted to draw their creatures so we did this and agreed a layout of facts Top Trumps style to write for each creature. Here is our work.
Later in the afternoon we were sharing some poetry from The Poetry Store compiled by Paul Cookson.
We found a poem called Ten One-line Poems about Sport by Ian McMillan. We decided to use this format to create our own version of the poem using our rainforest creatures. Each of us wrote a line for our creature and here is the compiled result.
So on to today and another random act of wildness. It looks like it's going to rain all day so you could look back at the Develop a Wild Memory post which has an ideal activity for a wet day or why not Google some wild facts and discover some secrets about your favourite animal or something that is just really weirdly wild.
Today for your random act of wildness put away all those pencils, paper and glue and get outside to make a rainforest creature.
This is the schools focus for the week. So why not have a go outside?
Collect together materials from your garden or on a walk and make your own creature. Why not photo it and make a poem or fact file to go with it.your creature could be real or imaginary.
Here are some creatures made earlier in the year in Forest School.
Have fun 😀
Down by the pond: Our little amphibious friend is back cooling down on a warm evening. First time for a week or so. Thankfully the local cats haven't found him yet.
The Trusts have a variety of sites to visit and explore the outdoors, perhaps nearest is Elmdom Manor next to Elmdom Park which has woodland, a meadow, ponds and an old walled garden.
(please note at time of writing many Trust sites and carparks are not open. Where a site is open they would ask you to only visit if you are able to walk to the site from your home. Please follow government guidance to Stay Safe and Stay at Home.)
Their websites have a wide range of information about habitats and the plants and animals that live on their reserves. So how can you get involved?
Each year they run an initiative 30 Days Wild during June. Forest School is usually involved with this and activities are based around the challenges they have. See pictures below.
Individuals and families can also sign up and keep a diary of their random acts of wildness.
I've usually taken part too and perhaps most successful has been the wildlife pond and trail camera installed in the garden.
The pond was simple just a plastic box sunk into the ground with some soil in the bottom with gravel over the top and some pond weed and a stick so anything that falls in usable to get out. In Forest School we've done a very similar thing with buckets. It's amazing what comes to live there, tiny creatures, hoverfly larvae, newts, frogs and more. The children always love going to see what is in the pond. But if you can't go to this why not try just a jar of water outside. After a few weeks you'll find something living in it.
The trail cam has been amazing. I'm really surprised at what manages to find its way to our garden.
Here are just a few of our highlights.
Hopefully this will inspire you to have some random acts of wildness and don't worry too much about the whole 30 days just have fun😀
Spending time outdoors is fun. We all appreciate a little bit of sunshine, a warm breeze, hearing birdsong or a refreshing summer rain. But learning a little about nature also helps to connect us to our surroundings and to feel a part of our wider world.
Research is also revealing to us the health benefits of being out in nature through things like a simple walk, forest bathing or quiet moments of mindfulness.
Whatever your motivation for spending time outdoors there are plenty of places to find encouragement and ideas.
Here is the first organisation and links to their materials to help you along your way.
The Wild Network website has many ideas including a weekly set of challenges which can be done either in or outdoors. I particularly like their animal clothes challenge. What animal can you make your clothes into? Here's an idea:-
They also have walking bingo cards, a different one each week and a free film which introduces how the wild network was started.
The challenge I've taken is to build an obstacle course for a wild animal.
Over time quite a few creatures have visited our garden, i'll share them in future posts, but a the moment we have a couple of squirrels that come each morning.
Now these squirrels aren't very bright. To stop them taking the bird food I put up a nut feeder just for them with a lid.
What did they do? They ate it! Don't believe me? Here's the evidence or what's left of it.
So without any high hopes I decided to build a squirrel run. The plan was for them to run along the top of the fence, along a rope to the first tray of nuts. Then along the rope and onto the arch to a basket with more nuts suspended from the arch.
Needless to say it didn't work out like this so the run was adapted and here is a short video to show you how it all went.
An adaptation of the run is under construction. The magpie ate all the nuts in the tray and then the squirrel discovered running up the stick.
If you feel inspired it would be great to hear how you got on. Have fun😃
When Year 3 take part in their Scrumdiddlyumptious topic Forest School has a massive Mud Pie Bake Off.
A bake off always makes me think of chocolate cake, my favourite!
This poem must be the one most often requested over the years.
This year we saw some amazing creations which you can see in the pictures below.
Remember Gnorman and now his friends are always hiding in Forest School. Look out for a troll, a fairy and a doorway to the Fairy World. (Click on the picture to make it large)
So can you design and make the most spectacular showstopper of a mud pie ever? No time limits now, be creative. If you are very lucky and have a sand pit in your garden why not make one out of sand. whatever you choose all you need is a bucket, flower pots or just your hands for moulding, things you can find in the garden (don't go and pick all the flowers that have just started to grow - you might make someone annoyed!) and of course a good dose of imagination.
Have fun😀
Here is some inspiration to get you thinking about gymnastics.
The poem is called Gymnastics by Michael Rosen and can be found in his book
Quick, Let's Get Out Of Here.
In Forest School we do a gymnastics based activity with Year 3 called Theseus and the Minotaur linked to their Greek project.
In small groups the children make a gymnastic type obstacle to either go over, under or to balance upon. We also focus on Health and Safety to ensure these are safe to use. Each obstacle is then added together to make a labryinth for the children to escape the Minotaur.
Here are some example pictures of the work they completed earlier in the year.
So your challenge is simple. Can you make a gymnastics course either indoors or outdoors?
You could use things like popup tunnels or large cardboard boxes if you have them. Why not balance on a brick? Put down two sticks to represent the banks of a stream and see if you can jump across. I'm sure you have lots of ideas and we'd love to see your photos.
Remember to stay safe and get things checked out by an adult.
By the way Gnorman has gone missing again. Can you find him in the pictures above. He appears four times. Remember to click on the photo to see a larger image.
The challenge is to make a chair that you can sit on. You will need to use your knotting skills, design skills and creativity. Of course you can only use materials that you find on the site. So what will you come up with?
This activity was aimed at using and applying skills gained over a series of Forest School lessons.
The lesson had quite a tight time constraint on it and given that the children worked remarkably well.
Some children wanted to stabilize their chairs by pushing their chair legs into the ground. All the recent rain made this a fairly easy task. But making the structure stable was still quite a challenge and while some opted for the easier solution of using logs when all else failed many persisted to achieve a stable structure.
One clever design used the Tepee design made when in Year 4 and added three seats to it.
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