Forest School Week 4 (Morning and All Day Nursery)

                                                                     Forest School

Week 4

Morning and All Day Nursery

Today we started the session with a new game called Forest Fire. The children had to pretend to be woodland animals. They all immediately thought about being safari animals, so we had to think hard about our British woodland animals like badger, fox, squirrel, and rabbit. In the game the animals must run across the woodland over to safe space without being caught by the fire. If they do get caught, they join the fire and make a long chain. This begins to teach the children that small fires can easily become big fires and how wildlife can be impacted by that.

This week we introduced a new tool, the peeler, which we use to whittle wood. In the week the children had read the story Stick Man by Julia Donaldson, so we showed the children how to make their own stick person. We used the skill of whitling to create the head which they could later draw a face onto. The children also learned how to hold and twist pipe cleaners effectively to attach the arms, which in turn strengthens their handwriting muscles. They used wool, leaves and other natural materials to make clothes and decorate their stick person.

We set up a puppet theatre space where they could use their stick people, or the woodland animals, to put on a show. This supports their language development and imagination skills as they take on the role of the characters.

We closed the session by reflecting on one thing that made them happy in Forest school. This is the start of talking about their feelings. Some said that making their Stick Person made the happy whilst others told us that it was the bubbles, running or their friends. Lots of children said that “everything” made them happy which made me very happy.