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Birchwood Nursery School

Forest School

Session 6 - Going on a Bear Hunt

Due to the cold, before going outside the children listened to, ‘We’re going on a Bear Hunt’ a story they know very well.
Once in the Forest School area, we realised ‘silly Kate’ had ‘forgotten’ to erect the fire circle tarp, so we took the opportunity to work as a team and put the large tarp up together. The children were able to see how carabiner clips work and learned how to pull up and tie off a tarp rope. We then went on a Bear Hunt! We retold and acted out the story, while wading through the long wavy grass: ‘swishy swashy,’ thick oozy mud: ‘squelch squerch,’ and the other obstacles that lay in their way. We found a very angry bear in a ‘narrow gloomy cave’ and we thought it had chased us all the way back home, but in fact he was a friendly bear. During juice and snack, the children were shown how to erect a shelter using a tarp, spring clamps, cordage, a mallet and tent pegs and were challenged to build a new home for the bear. The children built some amazing structures….what a lucky bear! We ended with a fun game of ‘What’s the time Mr Bear.’

Session 5 - Christmas

This session was our last Forest school of the term, so our theme had a festive feel. After our usual song and fire circle games, we played Hunt the Christmas Cones which were hidden all around our Forest School area. The children listened to the story of Stick Man and his adventures, as he tries to get back to his family after being mistaken for a sword, a boomerang, a bat, a flag mast and many other items. Eventually Santa helps reunite Stick Man with his family in time for Christmas. Due to the cold and wind we went back inside for our drink and snack and enjoyed a lovely treat of hot chocolate (or vegan equivalent) and gingerbread men. The children then chose a suitable stick to make their own stick man. They used pipe cleaners and twigs as arms and acrylic pens to draw faces.


Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and I’m looking forward to working with your children again in the New Year.

Session 4 - Autumn

Today's theme at Forest School was Autumn. As usual, we began with our song and played a game of Musical Logs around the fire circle to warm up. The children listened to ‘Little Acorn,’ a story about the life cycle of an oak tree, and acted it out by falling off a tree, being warm and snug underground, growing roots and shoots, pushing up into the light and growing into big tall oak trees. We searched for oak tree leaves, tried to fit our arms around our big oak tree and looked at an oak tree sapling to see where the acorn came from and how it grows. Over warm juice and snack, we looked at other things that fall off trees in autumn such as leaves, conkers, pine cones, beech nuts and ‘helicopter’ winged seeds, which we threw in to the air to see how they ‘fly.’ The children were shown the beautiful ‘Leaf Man’ book by Lois Ehlert and went on a Leaf Man hunt. Back inside in the warmth, we created our own leaf rubbing pictures using the book as inspiration.

Session 3 - Listening

 Today’s theme was listening, in particular listening to our friends. The children enjoyed the story, The Rabbit Listened - in which an upset child just needs someone to stay and listen to her - and we talked about the 5 ways to show you are listening. The children had to listen carefully to be able to copy stick rhythms and follow sets of increasingly difficult instructions which involved lots of running and jumping!!  After enjoying our warm juice and snack, we went on a ‘Sound Hunt’ around our Forest School area to try to identify the source of different sounds. We then looked at a South American rain stick/ rainmaker and had a go at making our own out of recycled materials, pulses and dried leaves. We enjoyed turning them over and over and listening to the rain sounds they made.

Session 2 - Spiders

Spiders were the theme of this week's Forest School. After our song and game of Duck, Duck, Goose, we sang and performed Incy Wincy Spider, to see if the children could guess what today’s session was about. We read The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle and looked at some pictures to help us learn fun spider facts. We tried to recall these facts during a ‘wool web’ building exercise which allowed us to see how spiders make and catch things in their web. After drink and snack, we used magnifying glasses to take a closer look at live spiders and discussed how to handle insects with care and consideration. We then created spiders out of clay and other natural materials we found in the Forest School area. The children had the opportunity to go on a spider hunt and see if they could find any spiders for closer observation. 

Session 1 - Exploring at Forest School

It was the children in Nursery's first Forest School session of the year. They were shown how to put on and helped into their waterproof clothing. Once in our Forest School area, the children learned how to hold/carry sticks safely and used them to drum on the tree stumps to accompany our Forest school song. We played Duck, Duck, Goose around the fire circle to help the children remember the rule, ‘We must not go across the fire circle’, and they demonstrated their kindness by ensuring everyone had a turn. We read ‘Let’s go outside,’ to help the children understand the sort of activities we do at Forest School, such as den building and minibeast hunting.
The children went exploring around our Forest School area identifying red wool ‘hazards’ such as berries, prickly brambles and tarp ropes and learned that red wool means ‘Be Careful! Don’t Touch!’ After washing and drying our hands outside, we all enjoyed warm juice and a healthy rice cake snack. We then created ‘dog logs’ using sticks, acrylic pens and twine. The children took their dogs for a walk, showing them the identified hazards and ensuring the dogs followed instructions to stay safe in the Forest School area.