Forest School 2 All day and Morning Nursery

Forest School 2 All day and Morning Nursery

It was another 'challenging weather' day at Forest School and the children rose to the challenge beautifully. They enjoyed walking over the crispy, frosty ground feeling the crunch under their feet as they walked to the log circle. 

We began our session with our usual routine starting with our welcome song, counting and our name game. More and more children are joining in each week as they find their voice and build their confidence. 

In honour of Lunar New Year, the children went on a hunt for the animals from the zodiac around the site. This got us running around and warmed our bodies up before gathering together to listen to the story of The Great Race, a story that tells of the Chinese Zodiac and Lunar New Year. We acted out the actions and sounds of the animals as we told the story. We particularly enjoyed seeing our dragon breath in the cold air!

For the rest of the session, the children were excited to explore. Some children had a go at getting in and out of the hammocks today safely and enjoyed the sensation of being held by the material and relaxing. Others had a go at creating dragons using leaves threaded on to wool to create a wiggly body.

We had intended to use clay to make a head and tail but the elements had different ideas and we discovered the clay was frozen solid. We had to be creative and use our problem solving skills to think of an alternative. Some children decided their leaf bodies could be a snake instead. The children worked hard to focus and thread the leaves onto the wool. Some children had a go at tree climbing, developing their core strength and problem solving skills as they negotiated a safe way up and down. Finally, we had some keen chefs in the mud kitchen, cooking up a storm and others going on explorations with the Forest Friends.

To conclude our session we gathered back together and sang our song: If You're A Rabbit and You Know It to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit.