Forest School Morning and All Day Nursery

Forest School

Session 5

Morning and All Day Nursery 

This half term seems to have really flown by. The children have done so well, adapting to quite a range of different weathers but we finished today with some sunshine after the chill of the early morning.

We began our sessions with our usual welcome song, count and name game. The children have grown so much in confidence this half term as they joined in repeating the names and actions of their friends as well as saying their own names. 

Next we met our need for movement by returning to our 123 Where are you? game. This week the children showed a greater understanding of the game, stopping to listen for the return call when they were part of the seeker's team and deciding together which direction to follow. After the game we gathered together and calmed our bodies down with some deep breaths before introducing the children to a number of different winter twigs. We asked them if they knew what the small bumps were on the sticks.  We learnt that they were called buds and that they will be getting bigger over the next few weeks until new leaves burst out of them. We looked closely at the buds and thought about their similarities and differences. 

For the rest of the session the children followed their own interests. Some explored the clay, rolling it into balls before squashing it flat between the palms of their hands. They really enjoyed adding the winter twigs to the clay and seeing the impression left behind as well as showing their imaginative sides, turning their clay balls into lollipops, people and other inventions. Some children had a go at some winter twig weaving in a Y stick frame, weaving in sticks and ivy as well as having a go at threading a needle with wool and weaving some colour in too. Others enjoyed weaving on the larger square frame using long winter sticks and willow branches. Each week there are activities that encourage the children to come out of their comfort zones and that they deem to be too difficult or tricky. We encourage them with the acknowledgement that it is tricky but we can do tricky things. This week before the children went to choose, we used our big voices to share the affirmation 'I can do difficult things!' and 'I can do tricky things!" Adding affirmations to our inner voice can support and encourage us to persevere independently when things are difficult.

Some children explored the bubbles today, using imaginative materials such as ivy vines, the hole of a needle and their thumb and forefinger in a circle to make wands to dip into the mixture and create their bubbles. Others found large ivy leaves which they drew pictures and patterns on before threading a string through it to make a nature necklace.

We ended the session gathered together again in our circle. Some children were finding it tricky to transition from exploring and so we ended with a regulating technique called Welly Boot Stomp. We stomped our feet on the ground, first the right foot, then the left, counting three stomps for each foot. We noticed how different it felt when we stomped quickly compared to our slow mo stomps before rocking back and forth in our wellies to feel the ground beneath our feet.