Little Big People

With Summer beginning we hav

e added some new challenges to our Butterflies group sessions. With the final half term of learning before they depart for Reception, we have shrunk our groups and unpacked our toolbox. Over the coming weeks the children will learn to use a range of bushcraft tools safely. This kicked off this week when the children were introduced to peelers and challenged to remove the bark from a piece of green wood so that it could be coloured in as a beautiful caterpillar. This involved a lot of big thinking - how could we keep ourselves safe with a sharp tool? How much space did we need to give each other? How should we move our hands to make a smooth caterpillar? The children were delighted to try our a new skill and definitely sat an inch taller as they began their whittling.

We have also been looking at life cycles recently to tie in with our Spring learning, and, as Summer gets going, the Forest School creatures are giving us lots to think about! This began with our nursery tadpoles who are getting bigger by the day, we have looked at how they develop - egg, tadpole, back legs, front legs, tail absorbed - and even released some into our Forest School pond. We have also watched the birds, with our resident crows teaching their fluffy-headed youngster how to find its own food. The children are fascinated to learn about the different faces of nature and draw similarities and differences between their own family and the wild families living around us.

Planet Protectors

Spring is such a wonderful time of year to observe and learn about nature. Over the past few weeks we have enjoyed watching the birds feeding their young and their young graduating from the nest, the crows are a particular favourite. We have also noticed the effect the warmer weather has had on the ground - it is harder, dustier and we are finding different sorts of insects.

April was also exciting in Forest School as April 22 was Earth Day - a global initiative to raise awareness and take action for the environment. We were so impressed with the children's ideas on ways in which everyone can help the planet, whether we are at home, nursery or out and about. These included: putting rubbish in the bin, and taking it home if there isn't a bin; not using too much water by having long showers or deep baths; putting food waste in the compost bin; sorting our rubbish and recycling paper, plastic, tin and glass; being gentle with animals and insects; planting and caring for trees and plants. To celebrate this special day the children were challenged to make an eco warrior bracelet with four special things that they had gathered from the woods. The children were encouraged to look for things which felt special to them, this included daisies, dandelions, feathers, sticks, leaves and mud. The children were also taken to look at some plants which were dangerous for them and shouldn't be picked, either due to being spikey or poisonous. We very much believe that knowledge is power for children so giving them these opportunities to learn about dangerous plants and to think about how to gather flowers responsibly is the perfect way to encourage them to think about safeguarding the planet. You can see some of the plants to look out for below so please do be careful of them when you are out and about.

Sharing the Woods

Last month we learnt about the animals who were starting to wake from their long winter sleeps and it occurred to us that many of them were nocturnal, and were awake at night-time. This led us to be curious about who we were sharing the woods with so we donned our scientist hats to look... could we find claw marks, burrows or perhaps some poo? Maybe there would be feathers or nests, or what about nutshells or signs of a last meal? After completing our investigations the children were charged with choosing a location for our new gadget - a Trail Cam. This whizzy bit of kit was received as part of the Learning through Landscapes grant and allows us to capture photographs of the woods while we are not there. The camera is triggered by movement, have a look below to see who came to visit...