Our Week in the Forest
What a wonderfully adventurous week we’ve had at Forest School! Despite the cold weather and heavy rain at the beginning of the week the puddles were impossible to resist and the children delighted in splashing and stomping their way through our walkouts with huge smiles and lots of laughter.
Earlier in the week some of the children set off on a special bird adventure walk around the meadow. Equipped with binoculars and lots of curiosity they searched carefully for signs of birds and discovered feathers scattered across the doggy meadow, which we collected to explore later. We listened closely to the sounds coming from the trees and used the Merlin Bird ID app to help identify robins nearby. Although we didn’t manage to spot many birds flying overhead the children loved scanning the treetops and discussing what they thought might be hiding amongst the branches. Later that afternoon the meadow became a place for even more imaginative play as the children pretended to soar through the skies like birds, aeroplanes and helicopters, spinning in circles and creating fantastic flying sound effects together. Even our walk back to the Scout Hut became an unexpected mini adventure with the children showing brilliant road safety awareness and kindness by holding hands and helping one another along the way.
We also spent time this week making homemade play dough, which gave the children plenty of opportunities for teamwork, problem-solving and experimenting. Working in pairs, they mixed flour and water together while negotiating turns and discussing how much of each ingredient was needed. Some mixtures became extremely sticky after a little too much water was added but the children quickly discovered that adding more flour helped improve the texture. It was wonderful to watch them persevere and adapt their mixtures independently.
Our recent interest in maps and drawing has continued to grow too. With Megan’s support the children have been exploring how to represent the world around them through drawings and simple maps, carefully observing local features and learning about direction and position. Translating a real-life 3D environment onto a 2D map is a challenging skill, but the children are becoming increasingly confident and thoughtful in their approach each time we revisit it.
One of the highlights of the week was sharing the story Follow the Swallow, which introduced the children to bird migration and the incredible journeys swallows make to Africa in the spring before returning again in autumn. Inspired by the story, the children created their own swallow wings using cardboard and carefully mixed paints to match the colours from the illustrations - light blue, white, and orange. Once their wings had dried in the sunshine over lunchtime, we headed out to the meadow where the children transformed into swallows flying all the way to “Africa” at the imagination tree. Along their journey, they encountered a crocodile-filled river and worked together to figure out how to cross safely without being snapped up. The adventure continued as they built nests and protected their eggs and baby chicks using their handmade wings.
The children also demonstrated fantastic teamwork and care for nature while creating a bird bath for local wildlife. With support from Meredith, Megan and Claudia, they worked together to move a very large tyre into position before clearing away sticks and stones, carefully relocating any bugs they discovered, and filling the finished bird bath with water ready for visiting birds to enjoy. Their sense of responsibility and excitement about helping local wildlife was lovely to see.
Later in the week, we experienced dramatic thunderstorms which meant we needed to evacuate the site. Although some of the younger children were initially startled by the loud thunder, everyone coped incredibly well with the sudden change of plans and showed impressive resilience throughout. Before leaving the meadow, the children even managed to enjoy an impromptu dance party together! Once safely back at the Scout Hut, we settled back into our usual routines with lunch and nap time for our sleepers, while the non-sleepers enjoyed a sunny walk to Morley Park. There, they discovered a painted running track on the grass and enthusiastically organised sprint races, hopping races, tiptoe races, galloping races and many more imaginative challenges.
To finish the week, the children enjoyed even more puddle splashing before heading indoors for sensory play and soft play activities. The sensory area featured oobleck made from cornflour and water, which fascinated the children as they explored its unusual texture and discovered how it could behave like both a solid and a liquid. Alongside this, the soft play equipment encouraged climbing, balancing, jumping, and cooperative play, ending the week with lots of movement, laughter, and fun.
