Learning about Lunar New Year

 Lunar New Year

We had fun this week learning about the celebration of Lunar New Year.    We learnt how children around the world celebrate this festival.  We learnt that children will help clean the house, decorate the house with decorations, wear new clothes, cook and eat special foods with family, receive red envelopes of money and might even watch a new year parade with a lion or dragon dance.  We dressed up in special clothes and we even had our own lion parade.

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.

Forest School Session 1 for Morning and All day Nursery

 

Forest School Session 1
Morning and All Day Nursery 

It was lovely to welcome the morning Nursery children to Forest School for the first time this week. We started by taking a long way around the site to the log circle, introducing the children to the different areas and activities of Forest School, the tools available and the rules which keep us safe. Once the children had chosen a space to sit we introduced them to the routines of our song, our counting and our name game. Each week, we hope that the children will get more confident in sharing their name and an action.

For the rest of the session the children explored the mud kitchen, engaged in imaginative play in the Forest Friends' den and splashed on the puddle tarp. We thought about the different seasons and how birds find it hard to get food at this time of the year. The children were provided with blocks of ice containing berries and were challenged to imagine they had beaks (sticks) and use them to get the food out of the ice. It took a lot of perseverance with a tiny beak. We thought about what the ice felt like and what happens to it when it gets warm.  

To conclude the session we gathered back at the log circle and learnt the Makaton sign for happy. The children shared with a friend something that made them feel happy at Forest School today.