Year 4 (Koala class)

 Welcome to your Forest School activities page!

Here you will find details and photos of all our sessions in the Woodland and on the Animal Park.  Please scroll down the page to see what we will be getting up to each week!

Click on the Planning and Risk Assessments tab to see what we have planned for the 12 sessions leading up to Christmas with Year 4, along with the letter to parents with all details of what your child needs for their FS sessions

Group 1 will have their session on Tuesday afternoons, Group 2 will have their session on Friday afternoons.

Our first sessions were on the 10th and 13th September and we will be having weekly sessions right up to Christmas!

Group 1 are now known as "The Crazy Creatures"!

Group 2 have decided to call themselves

"The Wild Ones"

The Wild Ones - 29th November

Learning about Woodland Food Chains around a campfire!

Well, the weather was certainly a good bit warmer than this time last week, when everything was still frozen!  The hoses are now running freely, and all the animals have fresh drinking water again, thank goodness!

We fed everyone from the school fruit buckets, and The Wild Ones never forget Olive now, she had lots of apples and banana skins today.  Some of us noticed that Hamish, Dottie and Donut are now in the bottom field in the woodland.  Miss T explained that she moved them yesterday, now that all the pumpkins and other crops have finished.  The bottom field is where the 3 piggies live during the winter.  The shelter in there is bigger so they can spend more time snuggled up together during the cold winter months.

We went into the woodland and Miss T talked to us about fire safety.  We remembered from when we had a campfire in Year 2, that we need to be very careful and safe in the fire circle.  We were super sensible and once we were all seated, Miss T showed us the flint and steels that make a spark when struck together.  We learned that we need three things when starting a fire: fuel (such as hay and straw and thin sticks), a spark (flint and steel) and air, or oxygen, to enable the fire to take hold.  We also learned that it is imperative NEVER to play with fire and only use flint and steel when a responsible adult is with us.

Once the fire was lit and going well, we had a try with the flint and steel, to make a spark.  Some of us got it straight away and some of us found it a bit more difficult, but everyone kept at it. Marg gave us some cotton wool so we could try to light it with the spark, and again some of us got this quite quickly, but we were all very impressed with the two that found it a bit more difficult.. they never gave up, kept trying and eventually their cotton wool caught light!  We were all very proud of our achievements, but we know how dangerous fire can be and how important it is to respect it at all times.

Once the fire in the fire pit was going well, Miss T put a big pan on it.  The pan was full of lovely home made vegetable soup.  We had a look at the vegetables that were in it and Miss T said that the big pumpkin that had grown in the bottom piggy field was in the soup, along with broccoli, kale (well done W for knowing what this was!), potatoes, carrots, onions, water and vegetable stock (well done R for knowing what stock is!).  While the soup was warming we had a chat about Woodland Food chains.  Miss T, Mrs Phipps and Marg were all very impressed with how much knowledge The Wild Ones had about this. We knew that the whole food chain begins with a Producer which is nearly always a green plant (Well done again W for knowing the word 'photosynthesis'!) which is eaten by a herbivore, and we knew that when the top predator dies (in this case, we used a badger), the body is absorbed back into the ground when it decomposes, helped by decomposers such as fungus and detrivores such as worms, slugs, snails etc. and the minerals from this process are turned into food for the soil which enables the plants to grow and the whole process starts again!  WOW! SO fascinating!

We had some soup and dunked some bread into it and NEARLY everyone really enjoyed it!  Next Miss T put a big pan on the fire and melted some coconut oil in it until it was really hot.  She put some popcorn kernels in and we had to be quiet to listen to them start to pop.  Miss T had to put a lid on the pan because the popcorn flew out of the pan as it popped!  We all sat carefully around the fire and tried to catch some popcorn in our cups!  Miss T made some salted caramel sauce and poured it over the popped corn.  It was really delicious!

WOW! A super, busy session today Wild Ones!

Have a look at our photos below.

The Crazy Creatures - 26th November

Learning about woodland food chains around the campfire!

The weather was very different to this time last week, when we had a snow day off school!  It was sunny and calm today, and although we didn't spend much time on the Animal Park, we did take time to feed everyone with fruit bits from the piggy buckets.  Horace and the goats were in really good moods, and we made sure, as always, that Olive had plenty of bits too.

We went into the woodland where Miss T had set up a camp fire, ready to light.  We listened to the instructions on how to keep safe in the fire circle and we found somewhere to sit sensibly and safely.  Miss T showed us how to use the flint and steel to create a spark and how it's important to have plenty of tinder and kindling to make sure the fire lights.  Once the fire was lit and going well, we all had the opportunity to have a go with the flint and steel lighters.  First we made sure we could make a spark and then Miss T gave us a small piece of cotton wool, which we placed either on the wet ground or on a log or stone to see if we could light it.  Miss T, Miss Rice and Marg were all very impressed with the resilience and perseverance of everyone who had a go at this activity.  It's not easy, but everyone who tried eventually lit the cotton wool, with shouts of "I did it!" and "oh wow! I can do it!" (These are Miss T's favourite words in Forest School sessions!)

We talked about Food Chains in a woodland and learned that everything comes full circle, from the Producer (which is always a plant), to the primary, secondary and tertiary (a new word for many of us!) Consumers right up to the top predator, and although some of us knew quite a lot about this, many of us didn't realise that when the top predator dies (we used a Buzzard as an example here), the decomposers (fungi etc) and detrivores (creatures such as worms, slugs etc) move in to make sure the body decomposes and is absorbed back into the ground, where the nutrients feed the soil so new plants can grow and the whole process starts again!  It's fascinating and one of us had a sudden moment of realisation here and said "Oh!  I see! It all goes full circle and starts again!  That's amazing!"  Thank you D!

Miss T had made some soup and we looked at the vegetables that had gone into making this.  We warmed the soup up over the campfire and had hot soup and bread.  It was delicious and most of us ate it all up.  We then made some popcorn over the fire by heating up coconut oil in a pan until it was really hot, adding popcorn kernels, then listening to see if we could hear the kernels pop!  We had to put a lid on the pan because the popcorn started flying out of the pan when it popped!  We knelt carefully around the fire to see if we could catch some in our cups!  Miss T made some salted caramel sauce and we poured it over our popcorn. This was very popular and it was soon eaten up!

A very busy session this week, we got a lot done!  Well done Crazy Creatures, and thank you for all your enthusiasm!

Have a look at the photos below.

The Wild Ones - 22nd November

What are the extra needs of our animals during snowy weather?

Only the Wild Ones had a Forest School session this week, because school was closed on Tuesday due to a heavy snowfall.  There were lots of children in the woodland on Tuesday all playing out and sledging in the snow which was really lovely to see and hear!  We talked about wearing lots of thin layers of clothing to keep us warm, making sure our jackets and coats were all zipped up, and hoods were up to keep the warm in.

We had a discussion with The Wild Ones about how difficult it is on the Animal Park during the freezing weather and we developed an understanding that things we take for granted are extremely difficult for the animals.  The main thing is water.  The water that fills duck ponds and water troughs on the Animal Park comes through a hose pipe from Miss Thompson's house but this has been frozen for three days, so all the fresh water has had to come out of the rain water barrel, but that was empty today, so Miss T has had to carry all the fresh water down in cans and buckets and even then, it freezes so Miss T takes the ice off the top every day and puts hot water in the drinking troughs to help it stay unfrozen for a bit longer.  We talked about other ways to make sure the animals get enough fluid, and one of us said if they are fed lots of fruit, that would help... Very impressive H!  However, Miss T said that although there had been a fruit delivery from a local wholesaler, this week, it had all frozen in the boxes, so it had been put in buckets of warm water to thaw it out!

It's also important to keep shelters and coops warm and dry, so all the animals have had lots of extra hay and fresh shavings.  If they are dry, it's easier to keep warm and they also snuggle together at night to keep the heat in.  We talked about which of the animals really aren't bothered about this weather, and when we looked around, we saw that the ducks were splashing around in icy water, walking on the snow and ice like it wasn't there, and really weren't phased by it at all!

We gave everyone some fresh hay and when we put some in Olive's paddock, she picked it up in her mouth and took it straight into her shed to make her bed more comfortable.  Miss T said that her bed is like a volcano shape, so that will keep Olive warm.

We went into the woodland and played the action log cookie warm up game, which really warmed us up, then we went to see if our land art was still there.  We found traces of it, and at first we thought it had gone, but then we realised that it was still there, just under a layer of leaves and snow!  We went for a walk around the woodland and threw some snowballs in the meadow.  We tried to aim them at the trees and even though they were a long way away, some of us managed to hit the trees!

We played the moss ball alliteration nature name game and all of us remembered out alliteration names from when we played this game before.  We managed to get 5 moss balls back to Miss T.  This is tricky to do and we really needed to concentrate and work together.

A fabulous session again this week Wild Ones!

Have a look at some photos below, most of which were taken by the children.  There are a couple of short videos of the moss ball game and snowball throwing too!  There are some good photographers in this group!

The Crazy Creatures and The Wild Ones - 12th and 15th November

Land Art in the Woods

We collected buckets of beautiful autumn leaves to take into the woodland for our land art project.  We couldn't take the buckets onto the Animal Park because the goats would have eaten them all!  Our animals were happy to see us with our fruit buckets - they were very hungry this week!  On Tuesday, some of the Crazy Critters plaited Shaggy's lovely long hair and put loom bands in, and Neddy's beard is still plaited four days later!  The scaffolding is still up around the back of the building and there is a lot of work happening on the roof, so we needed to keep out of the way, but we were super sensible and super careful.  

We went into the woodland (with our buckets of leaves) and went for a wander through the meadow and up by the pond.  We were a bit disappointed to see that one of the dams had been completely dismantled and all the water had drained out of the middle pond.  This will negatively affect the wildlife in the pond over the winter and it was quite upsetting to see that all the work we had put in to build the dam had been destroyed.  We will spend time re building it next week, but this should not be necessary.  Some of us have made some signs to put up on the trees around the pond in the hope that this damage will not happen again in the future.

We collected lots of autumn treasures as we walked around the woodland, then took them back to the log circle.  We split into groups and cleared a piece of ground to make our land art.  There were so many different ideas and lots of communication, initiative and giggles as the pictures took shape.  You'll see from the photos what fantastic ideas each group had and even how some of the groups merged to work together.

Another fantastic week in Forest School, Year 4 and some wonderful land art pieces.  We discussed what will happen to the pictures during the week, and if they'll still be there this time next week, and we decided that the wind may blow them away, more leaves could fall on top of the pictures, or even foxes and badgers may take some of the pieces away!

We'll see what's left of the pictures next week!

There are a lot of photos to look at, but they are all so good, I didn't want to leave any out!

Enjoy!

Week 8 - Wild Ones!

Remembrance Poppies

The Wild Ones were super sensible on our Animal Park this week.  We have some scaffolding up around the building and we have to be super careful around it.  Everyone listened to the safety talk and we only did a few jobs this week with the animals, concentrating on feeding and making sure everyone was happy and safe.

We went to the Community Bench at the top of the woodland to learn how to weave poppies for Remembrance Day on Sunday.  We lashed two sticks together with jute string in the shape of a cross, then we weaved black wool over it for the middle of our poppy.  We talked about Remembrance and why we symbolise this with poppies, and then we chose either red or purple wool for the main part of our flower.  The red poppies are to represent people who have died for us in the world wars, and the purple poppies are to represent animals that have died in wars.  Some of us decided to used both colours of wool and when Miss T had demonstrated how to weave the wool around the sticks... "over the top and underneath"... we had a go and really persevered, because this is a difficult task to master, but once we had tried for a while and had a bit of help, there were cries of "I can do it!" and "I can see it now!" The results were really good and we'll be using this technique to weave some Christmas decorations.

The Crazy Creatures had planted their poppies in the memorial garden in the woodland, so we collected them and took them back into school to give out, so we could all take our poppies home for Remembrance Day.

A super session Wild Ones, well done...

Week 8 - The Crazy Creatures

Remembrance Poppies

It was lovely to be back at Forest School after our half term week, and the animals were certainly very pleased to see everyone!  There aren't many eggs to collect now the days are getting shorter, but we sorted hay for the goats, cleaned out Horace's water tub and gave everyone some food and a fuss before we headed into the woodland. 

We went up to the Community Garden to make Remembrance Poppies.  We chose a short and a long stick out of the box, made them into a cross shape and lashed them together with jute string.  Miss T showed us how to make a loop knot and how to weave the string around the sticks tightly to hold them together.  We then used some black wool for the centre of our poppies and weaved it around each of the four sticks in turn... "over the top and underneath".. This was quite tricky but we persevered and with a little help from Miss T and Miss Rice, our cross sticks were all lashed tightly, ready for the next stage.  We talked about Remembrance and why we wear poppies and also about the purple poppies to remember the animals that died during the World War 1.  Some of us decided to make our poppies red and  purple, to remember both the people and the animals.  We also had a think about special people or animals we have lost during our life time.  We weaved the red and purple wool around the sticks in a clockwise direction, making sure the wool was pulled tight around each stick and the end results were fantastic.  This is not an easy process, and some needed more help than others, but what impressed Miss T and Miss Rice the most, was that no one gave up!  When we had finished our poppies we planted them in our Garden of Remembrance and we will collect them next week and take them home.

Thank you Crazy Creatures, we were very impressed with your perseverance and team work today.

Have a look at some photos below.

Week 7 - Crazy Creatures

Looking at Autumn leaves and fungus (from various perspectives!)

Only the Crazy Creatures are having a Forest School session this week, because of the INSET day on Friday, but this makes up for the session they missed at the beginning of term, when Mr Pepper came in to make the Egyptian film.

It was a beautiful, sunny Autumnal day for our session this week, and it was surprisingly warm too!  We collected some dry leaves in big buckets before we went on to the Animal Park, but we had to leave them outside the gate, because the goats might have eaten them all!  Miss T said dry and crunchy Autumn leaves are like crisps to goats!  We made sure all our animals shared the food out of the piggy buckets (as best we could, because Shaggy and Horace kept trying to run off with the buckets!)  We collected just a few eggs, and candled them to make sure there were no chicks inside.  We are really good and this now, we can do it without any adult intervention! We cleaned out water tubs, swept paths and the roof of the goat shed, sorted the hay out for the goats, and then we headed into the woodland.  We remembered to take our buckets of leaves and a tarp and we had a look at the different shapes of the leaves.  We have been doing this in class and some of us could remember which tree some of the leaves had come from.

We spread the leaves on the tarp and all held on to the edge.. we counted to 3 and threw the tarp up in the air and Miss T pulled it away at the last minute so all the leaves fell on us!  We have a super video of this, have a look below!  We did this several times and then made leaf angels in the fallen leaves on the floor!

One of our group has been asking to go on a fungus hunt since week 2 of our Forest School sessions, so we went and had a look for some today.  There were so many different types, and Miss Rice took a fabulous photo of the smallest mushroom we have ever seen, growing out of some Jelly Ear fungus!  We went and had a look at the birch polypore bracket fungus which is growing out of a dead silver birch tree.  It was amazing how much fungus we found and Miss T said that we should never destroy fungus when we see it as it is an essential part of the woodland food chain as it is a decomposer.  We will be learning more about this after half term.

We went back to the main FS site and had a go at climbing the tree that we cleared the ground around last week.  Miss T was amazed at how many of us said we had never climbed a tree before!  She showed us how to climb safely and also how to get down again, and only to climb as high as we were happy to go.

Some wonderful, independent learning this week Crazy Creatures, well done!

Week 6 - Wild Ones - 18th October

We are Goats too!

When we feed apples or carrots to the goats, we need to hold on to them really tightly while the goats take a bite, because their mouths are too small to take the whole thing, like Horace or Olive do, and they can't hold on to it because they don't have hands!  Shaggy has learned to turn his head and push the carrot / apple against his body while he takes a bite, but it's still difficult to stop it falling to the floor.

We did all our usual jobs on the Animal Park, and made sure all the animals had plenty of food, fresh water and hay in their sheds.  We collected the eggs and took them into a dark shed to candle them, without any help this week.

We went into the woodland and Miss T explained that we were going to be goats and try eating an apple or a carrot without using our hands.  She showed us how to make a hole through the apple or carrot and then thread a piece of string through to hang it up on a rope.  Some of us found this a bit tricky to start with, but there were soon cries of "I did it!" as we found the best way to do it.  We hung our chosen fruit / veg onto a rope then knelt down on the floor with our hands behind our backs and tried to eat without using our hands..  It was a lot of fun and some of us couldn't even get close because we were laughing so much.  Miss T and Mrs Phipps were really impressed with our problem solving skills and how much we talked to each other while trying to take a bite!  Some of us just wouldn't give up until there was only string left hanging from the rope!

Miss T talked to us about how to use loppers and we all listened to the safety talk really well.  We demonstrated how sensible we can be, and this is especially important when we use tools.  It's important to communicate with each other to work out the best strategy when cutting sticks.  We used the loppers to cut down brambles and nettles around the climbing tree and we put some rope on the trunk to show how high we can climb.  We'll spend some time climbing the tree next week.

Have a look at our super team work photos below.

Week 6 - Crazy Creatures - 15th October

We are Goats!

While we were on the Animal Park today, we looked at how the goats eat apples.  If it's a whole apple we need to hold it tightly while they nibble it, because they only have small mouths an obviously cannot hold the apple while they eat it.  Goats only have teeth on the bottom of their mouths at the front, but the do have big teeth top and bottom and the back of their mouths.

We collected about 12 eggs - the ducks and hens are laying less eggs now, because the days are getting shorter and they tend to have a bit of a rest over the winter months.  They are also shedding their feathers ready to grow new, thicker ones to keep them warm, so that takes a lot of energy.  We 'candled' the eggs, which means shining a bright light through each egg to see if it is fertile or not.  It is not likely that the eggs will be fertile at this time of year, but it's always best to check.  If the egg glows when the light is shone though it, the egg is not fertile.  If small red veins or shadows can be seen then that means a chick is beginning to form inside the egg, and if a fertile egg has been incubated under the mother for a few weeks, no light will shine through it and the chick can sometimes be seen moving around inside.  It's fascinating to see, and all of our eggs today were not fertile.

Horace was very good at sitting for his food today - he is such a performer!  One of us spent a lot of time talking to Olive, because she felt that Olive gets a little left out while we are on the Animal Park.  Olive is not confident around people she doesn't know, which is why she stays in her paddock.  Miss T said that she comes out to play on the Animal Park in a morning, while no one else is there, but she is quite happy to go back to bed once she knows people are coming!

Once all jobs were completed and our animals were all fed, watered and had fresh hay in their beds, we went down to the woodland.  Miss T said that as we had been talking about how the goats need help eating apples and carrots, we were going to try 'being goats'!  We threaded string through either apples, tomatoes or carrots and hung them on a rope that was tied between two trees.  We put our hands behind our backs and tried to eat the fruit / veg without using our hands! Oh this was hilarious!  We had so much fun, but most of all Miss T and Miss Rice were impressed with how resilient we were.  This was not easy but we all persisted (between fits of giggles) and eventually managed to consume most of the fruit.

We had a tool talk on loppers and how to use them safely and then we had a go at cutting some sticks.  We worked together in pairs and the teamwork was fantastic!  We cleared the brambles around our climbing tree and put chippings down around it.  We'll be having a go at climbing it next week.

Some of us built bug hotels and bug snugs and there was some absolutely brilliant communication and team work this week Crazy Creatures.. Well done!

Week 5 - The Wild Ones - 11th October

Orienteering in the Woodland

Lovely sunshine for our session this week but the Animal Park was so muddy after all the rain earlier in the week, so there was a lot of mud sweeping to do.  We collected the eggs and Miss T said we could have a look to see if the eggs were fertile or not, by shining a bright light through the egg.  If an egg is fertile, small red veins will be visible, or if the egg has started to incubate, there will be dark shadows / patches visible.  In spring, when the hens / ducks are incubating their eggs, it is possible to see the chick moving inside the egg when shining a bright light through it.  This is known as 'candling'.  One member of our group said that her Grandad Dave had shown her how to do this.  She even knew what to look for!  You'll see from the photos how the egg 'glows' when it is not fertile.

We made sure all the animals had lots of treats out of the school piggy bucket, and we remembered to fuss and feed Olive too.  She was a bit grumpy but she took the food gently.  We changed the water in Horace's water tub because the ducks had been swimming in it and the water was really smelly!

Once all the animals were fed and watered, we went into the woodland, to the log circle in the main Forest School area.  We played the log cookie warm up game. Miss T showed us some log cookies with a picture on one side and an instruction on the other eg. "climb a tree".  When we saw the picture, we tried to guess what the instruction was and then mime the action.  We knew that a mime is acting something out, but not making any sound, just actions.  We managed to guess what most of the pictures but we found it a bit difficult to act them out without using any sound, especially when one of them was "Be a duck"!!

Miss T then showed us the woodland maps and we remembered so much from our orienteering sessions back in Year 2!  Most of us knew how to 'ground' the map, we knew what landmarks are and we knew we needed to use the paths marked on the map to get to where we need to go.  We split into smaller groups of 2 or 3 and Miss T gave each group a number which corresponded to a numbered triangle on the map.  We worked out how to get to the location of our number and when we got there we had to look for a hidden action log cookie.  When we found it, we worked out a mime and then we performed our mime back at the log circle for the rest of the group.  This was lots of fun, especially the group who had the log cookie  "Be a pig"!

We had some free time after this and we found lots of fungus growing out of tree stumps and if you look carefully, you will see a photo of three little wood nymphs hiding behind one of the mushrooms that we found!

Thank you Wild Ones, we had some fun today!

Week 5 - The Crazy Creatures - 8th October

Orienteering in the Woodland

The Crazy Creatures are really good at getting all our jobs done on the Animal Park now, they just go and get on!

We let Horace out of his paddock, but he took ages to realise his gate was open, we think he'd been fast asleep in his tin shed, which has lots of hay and straw in it - it looks SO comfy!  When he did come out on to the park, he ran up to the top because there was lots of fruit from the school piggy bucket for him to hoover up!

We made sure Olive got plenty too, and we changed the dirty water in Horace's drinking tub so it was lovely and fresh.  We collected about 12 eggs, filled the hay baskets up for the goats and swept some of the mud from the paving slabs,  We cleared the river that flows from the duck coop - it had become all clogged up with mud and wasn't flowing properly.  We even groomed Shaggy and plaited some of his fur, because he was in a lovely, calm mood today and didn't keep running off! We hand fed the ducks and chickens and watched the goats as they took food from their new "slow feeders".  When Miss T blew the whistle, we took all the tools we'd been using back to the tool rack before lining up at the gate to go into the woodland.

We went to the main FS site today and tidied up the log circle.  We played the log cookie warm up game, and some of remembered this from when we were in Year 2.  Miss T has some log cookies (no, we can't eat these cookies, they're made of wood!) with an action on one side and a drawn picture on the other side, of something we might do in Forest School, eg "Build a Den" or "Stung by a nettle".  We tried to mime the action with big movements - this will help to keep us warm when the weather turns cold!  Today, however, we needed to go and find some of these action cookies in the woodland, by finding the markers on our woodland map.  Each group was given a number, we found our number on the map and then had to work out how to get to it by using the paths in the woodland.  When we found the location of our number, we needed to look for a hidden log cookie and when we found it, we worked out how to mime the action, so we could perform it for the group to guess.

We talked about 'grounding' our maps, to make sure all the landmarks were in the right place and some of us got this straight away!  One of us even worked out from the compass that is marked on the map, which way is north!  Very impressive!  We remembered that the map has to stay in the same orientation all the time, and some of us found this a little difficult at first, but we all went off and successfully found our log cookies (eventually!).  We brought them back to the log circle and performed our mimes for the rest of the group,  This was very funny and there were some really good guesses!

We had a bit of free time so we started to scatter some wood chippings around the base of our climbing tree.  Some of us have asked if we can use the climbing tree again, so we need to make it safe.

Have a look at our photos below.

Week 4 - "The Wild Ones" - 4th October

Another very wet and muddy session!

The weather was a lot better today, in fact the sun was shining for us!  The Animal Park is still very muddy, so we didn't do a lot of jobs, but we did feed and cuddle all the animals and we put hay in the sheds.  Shaggy the goat is very greedy and keeps jumping up to try and get all the food!

We collected some shovels and headed down to the pond to see what the Crazy Creatures got up to on Tuesday.  The dams they had made were still in place and all the ponds were very full.  We decided that we would need to build the sides of the bottom two ponds up with logs to stop the water overflowing there, so we set to work and the results were fantastic!  We put long logs along the banks of the ponds and secured them with mud and stones so most of the water couldn't get through.

We looked at the source of the water that feeds the ponds and Miss T showed us a little well at the top of the highest pond where there is a constant flow of fresh water, even when it's not been raining.  Some of us spent time looking for frogs in the top pond and we found quite a few.  Miss T said the frogs spend the winter in the well and behind the pond liner on the sides of the top pond.  We tried using the underwater camera, but the lens kept steaming up.. We'll have to have a think about how we could stop that happening?

We played the nature moss ball team game and once we understood the concept, we were really good at it.  We all chose a nature alliteration name, eg. Mrs. Phipps Fish, we introduced ourselves to the group and then we threw the moss balls to each  other in turn, ending up with Miss T Tadpole and we managed to have four moss balls going at once, which is a pretty good start!  We'll practice this game over the coming weeks.

Everyone (who wanted to) jumped into the bottom pond at the end of the session and to finish, we tipped the pond water out of our wellies (wellie weeing!) before making our way back to school.

Another super session Wild Ones, orienteering next week!

Have a look at our photos below.

Week 4 - "The Crazy Creatures" - 1st October

A truly wet and muddy session at the pond!

There has been torrential rain for the past two days and it was touch and go as to whether we would even get an outdoor session on Tuesday.  BUT it stopped raining at about 12 noon, so Miss T decided we would brave the elements (mainly because we had asked for a muddy week anyway) and get outside!  

We didn't stop on the Animal Park this week, because all the animals had been locked in their paddocks / coops for the morning and it was far too slippery and dangerous to get any jobs done.  The ducks were the only animals to be out of their coop, because they really don't mind getting wet... 

We went straight down to the ponds and had a look at how the water flows from the top pond, down to the other two.  We looked at the source of the water coming into the top pond and found that there is a fresh water spring under the ground that constantly supplies a flow of water through the ponds.  We stirred the mud up at the mouth of the spring and could see how fast the water was flowing after the recent downpours.  Unfortunately, the dams that keep the water in the bottom two ponds have been destroyed.  We were a little upset about this as there is simply no need for this level of destruction, BUT we decided to work as a super team and rebuild these dams using rocks, sticks, stones and lots of mud.  We also took a little time out to paint mud on each others faces, making sure we always asked if it was ok before painting our friends faces.  If someone said 'no' we made sure we didn't put mud on them.

If you look at the water levels on the first few photos, and compare them to the water levels after we had built the dams, then you will see what a good job of holding the water in the bottom two ponds our dams are doing.  In fact, we had to let a bit of water through because our dams were so good, they started to overflow! There was some absolutely brilliant team work, communication and consideration during this session, and Miss T, Miss Rice and Marg were very impressed with how well everyone worked together.  It was very amusing that several of the group were quite content to just sit in the pond, and we all did a "Team jump in" after our work was complete. 

We always make sure that we do not go into the top pond as this is where the frogs live. The frogs also dig deep into the mud for the winter and we have found several inside the spring before too!  We could see quite a few tadpoles that had not turned into frogs, they will probably over-winter in the pond and may well turn into frogs early next spring.  We also saw water beetles, fresh water shrimp and little tiny leeches in the mud at the bottom of the pond.  The bottom two ponds have less creatures in them at this time of the year, and most of them will be down in the mud and will survive us jumping in and disturbing the water for a short while.

We played our Moss Ball Team Game too, and a lot of the Crazy Creatures Group could remember this from Year 2! We all chose a nature alliteration name for our own name, eg "Miss Thompson Tadpole"; we introduced ourselves to the group using this name and an associated action, then we threw a moss ball (a ball of moss pressed into the toe of an old sock, twisted round to make a ball!) to one member of the team, saying their name before throwing, and eventually, the moss ball came back to Miss T, who is always the last person to be thrown to.  We managed five moss balls and only a couple of them ended up in the pond!

Let's see if "The Wild Ones" can beat this on Friday!

Have a look at our photos below.

Week 3 - Group 2 (The Wild Ones) - 27th Sept

Hunting for invertebrates in the woodland.

We didn't even need the job list for the Animal Park this week, we just went and got on with everything.  We do need to remember to think of the needs of the animals, and remember to talk to them, just like we would talk to our friends.  When collecting the eggs from underneath the hens, we need to tell them "it's ok, we're not going to hurt you", just to reassure them.  Similarly, when grooming Shaggy and Norbert, we need to remember to ask them if we can brush them, talk to them, stroke them with our hands first, otherwise they could get scared and wonder what we're going to do to them!  We know not to chase the hens and ducks as they will just run away.  If we want them to come to us, we need to kneel on the ground with some food in our hands, and, again, talk to them kindly when they come over.

We put lots of hay into Horace's new piggy arc, because Miss T said that he doesn't like sleeping in it, he sleeps in the one in the main Animal Park at the moment, so we made it lovely and comfy for him and fluffed up all the hay.

Once we had completed all the jobs, we headed into the woodland.  We had a look at the pumpkin patch that Miss T's son, Sam, has planted.. there are about 10 pumpkins that we could see and one of them looks just like a bottom!  We went to see Hamish, Donut and Dottie, the three pigs that live in the paddocks in the woodland, and Miss T told us that it's Donut's 14th birthday today, so we all sang Happy Birthday to him!

We went to the main log circle and had a look for some invertebrates (creatures with no back bone, basically) such as slugs, snails, beetles, spiders, woodlice, worms etc. We have been learning about these in class this week.  We found loads underneath logs and rocks and we also found a lot of blue beetles, that Miss T said were Alder beetles.  They are an invasive species that eat the leaves of the Alder tree, then lay their eggs in the Autumn leaf litter on the woodland floor.  The eggs hatch in the spring and the whole process starts again!

We went up to the Community Garden to look at the Cabbage white caterpillars.  There have been hundreds of these on the Brassica plants this year, which is why Miss T let us pick them up and have a look.  Normally, we would leave caterpillars alone.  They have decimated the leaves on the brassicas, but once the caterpillars have gone, the plants will start to grow back.   We talked about the life cycle of a butterfly and when Miss T was explaining what the cabbage white butterfly looks like, two flew past so we could see! 

A lovely sunny Forest School session with our Wild Ones!

Have a look at some photos below.

Week 3 - Group 1 (The Crazy Creatures) - 24th Sept

Rebuilding the woodland dens and bug hunting

A super busy session this week, and after some discussion, Group 1 decided they would like to be called "The Crazy Creatures".

Our job list for the Animal Park wasn't pinned up this week, Miss Rice had it in her hand, so she could check it off as jobs were completed.  The only problem with this is that Shaggy the goat decided to jump up at Miss Rice and eat the job list!  We thought this was very funny and luckily, most of us could remember what jobs needed doing. We all worked really hard to feed, change water in drinking tubs, sweep, rake, put hay in sheds and buckets and groom Shaggy and Norbert (Norris and Ned really don't like having their hair brushed!)

We went into the woodland and had a chat about using the woodland gloves.  Miss T showed us how to take the gloves off without turning them inside out, and how to roll them up like a pair of socks and return them to the bag.  We rebuilt some of the dens and we dismantled one, because it had started to fall down and could have been dangerous; we tidied the mud kitchens and some of us looked for bugs and insects under the logs and stones.  We found a lot of bright blue beetles and Miss T said that these are Alder Beetles.  They are quite destructive because the eat their way through the leaves of the Alder tree, then lay their eggs under the leaf litter on the woodland floor in the Autumn; these eggs hatch into larvae in Spring and the whole process starts again!

We went up to the Community Garden at the top of the woodland to see the caterpillars that have destroyed the Brassica (Kale) plants.  They are the caterpillars of the cabbage white butterfly and there have been hundreds of them on the plants.  The plants will regrow over the winter once the caterpillars have gone.  We will be talking about the life cycle of the butterfly over the next few weeks.

Have a look at our photos below - the group have asked for a muddy session next week, so we will be visiting the pond with The Wild Ones and The Crazy Creatures to mend the dams and to get super muddy!

Week 2 - Group 2 (The Wild Ones!) - 20th September

Autumn in the Woodland

We spent some time on the Animal Park, making sure all our animals had everything they need.  We gave everyone some fruit bits out of the school piggy bucket, we changed all the water in everyone's drinking tubs, we collected eggs, and we made a fuss of everyone too.  Horace and the goats (especially Shaggy) are always very pleased to see us!

We went into the woodland this week and we tidied up the main FS site.  We rebuilt the seating circle, tidied the mud kitchen, moved some rocks and logs and added some sticks to the dens.  There was some super team work and the woodland soon looked a lot tidier.

We had collected some buckets of dried leaves on our way down to the Animal Park and we tipped these leaves onto a tarpaulin.  We all held on to the edges of the tarp and threw it up into the air. Miss T pulled the tarp away and all the leaves fell on us!  There are a couple of videos in the photos below.  Have a look, it was lots of fun!

We made leaf angels and we talked about Sizzles, our friendly woodland dragon.  We can tell when Sizzles is around because the tree canopy moves.  We will be looking out for Sizzles each week.....

Have a look at our photos below.

Week 1 - Group 2 - 13th September

Visiting the Animal Park

The weather was beautiful for our first Forest School session with Group 2 this week.  We talked about the rules of the Animal Park, and everyone could remember that we need to be calm and quiet around the animals and not chase or scare them.  We took some fruit bits from the school piggy bucket down with us and made sure everyone had some food, including Olive.  Marg joined us and we had a look at the job list, and chose which jobs we would like to do.  We changed the water in Horace's drinking tub, collected eggs and made sure the goats had plenty of fresh hay.  We did manage to have a little cuddle with one of our 8 week old chicks, but we have to remember not to chase them around too much to catch them, as this scares the chicks.

We swept paving slabs, and changed the water in all the containers in the chicken coops and goat paddock and we learned how to change the hose connection over, so that the water flowed into the different duck ponds.  We made a new channel to help the water flow out of the duck pond, and it worked really well.

We had a chat about the different types of eggs and learned why they are different sizes and colours.  Most of us were confident to feed the goats and Horace, and Horace seemed very pleased to see us and even let one of us brush him!  He doesn't normally like to be brushed, but Shaggy loves being brushed, so we spent a lot of time doing that and he looked really smart by the end of the afternoon.

A lovely first Forest School session, Group 2.  Next week we will go into the woodland.

Have a look at some photos below.

Week 1 - Group 1 - 10th September

Visiting the Animal Park

Even though it was raining today, we were still very excited to visit our Animal Park again, and Miss T was very impressed with how much we could remember from our FS sessions in Year 2!

There was a job list pinned to the chicken coop and we ticked off lots of jobs as we completed them.  We collected eggs and learned that the bigger hens lay the bigger eggs, the smaller hens lay little eggs, and that duck eggs are mostly big and blue!

We talked about the differences between cockerels and hens and how to tell a male duck from a female.  We had some really good discussions with some really super questions.

There are three new animal arcs on the Animal Park, one on Horace's paddock and two on the main AP area.  We filled these with fresh hay, so the animals have somewhere to shelter from the rain.  We learned that goats really don't like the rain and will go into their shelter as soon as the rain starts.  The ducks on the other hand, love the rain and anything to do with water and mud!

We dug a channel from the duck coop to help the water that overflows from the duck pond to flow away and under the fence.  We found this a tricky concept to begin with, but once we realised that we needed to work together and dig in a line, we realised it made the water flow much more efficiently, and we made a really good job of the river, even making two channels join into one main river (a tributary, as one child remembered from their Year 3 learning!)

We groomed Shaggy the goat and learned that it is important to talk to him and reassure him that we are going to be kind and gentle.  Horace the pig is very friendly and even sat for us while we fed him.  We need to remember to feed Olive, our little pink pig.  She is a bit scared of lots of people around her, so she stays in her paddock, but she still needs lots of love and food!

There are lots of little chicks on the Animal Park, the youngest are four weeks old, and even though we really wanted to pick them up and cuddle them, Miss T explained that the Mamma Hen would not want us to, she would worry that we wouldn't bring them back, so we just watched them.  Mamma Hen (Peckles) teaches her chicks how to find food, how to scratch the ground and look for insects, and also how to stay out of the way of the goats and Horace!

A super first session Group 1. 

Have a look at some photos below.