Getting ready for our Sunflower competition!

This week we planted a sunflower seed, hoping that they will grow really tall and provide food for our birds and insects! We will keep a diary on their development and will measure their height every week.

First we made our own pots out of newspaper, reducing our use of plastic!

Then we filled the pots with compost and planted the seed

Now it’s time to water!

Decorating pots ready for Mothers Day!

Our task this week was to decorate a pot ( 100% recyclable and plastic free) with natural materials. This pot will be transformed into a beautiful gift for Mothers Day!

It was cold this week so we managed half the task outside and then carried on inside as we needed warm fingers for this fiddly task! We painted our pot and then carefully placed twigs around the outside, held by 2 elastic bands.

Pancakes in our woodland

As part of our learning about Lent, our Forest school groups made pancakes outside. Many children talked about the pancakes they had made at home during half term, and we discussed the different ways of making them and the different toppings!

Our first job was to think about where our new logs came from. The children walked to St John’s Church last year when they were in Reception so we recalled the visit and thought about how sad it is that the 300 year old beech tree had fallen down and how many animals had lost their home. However, we have new seats now, and they are so comfortable compared to our other ones!

We followed this pancake recipe to make the pancakes

The first job was to make the batter by adding the ingredients, milk, flour and an egg.

Then we whisked the batter with a whisk

Then we melted a knob of butter in the frying pan

Then we poured in the batter

We enjoyed watching Mrs Whittaker toss the pancake. Archie had a go too!

Now it’s time to squeeze some lemon juice and sprinkle the sugar. Delicious!

New log seats for Forest School!

Thank you to Mr Mudd, his work colleague and Amber for delivering log seats this afternoon to school.

It’s a wonderful story as they are from a 300 year old beech tree that fell in a recent storm in the grounds of our local church St John’s. Mr Mudd, a tree surgeon was called to clear up the tree and we are now the proud owners of these beautiful logs!

Firepit

In the final week before half term, Forest School headed down to the firepit for toasted marshmallows and a biscuit.

We had a day with snow, followed by a day with rain and boggy grass surrounding the firepit! Despite the weather, we kept warm by the fire and enjoyed a tasty marshmallow.

The children learnt how to safely walk around the area and kneel safely to allow them to toast the marshmallow over the flame.

RSPB Big Schools’ Bird Watch

This week we used all our knowledge gained over the past few weeks to complete the RSPB Big Schools’ Bird Watch.

We joined 1000’s of other schools to work out which birds visit our school grounds. These our our results

Blackbird 5, house sparrow 1, carrion crow 8, blue tit 3, pied wagtail, 1 magpie 5, herring gull, 5 robin,1 pigeon 5, song thrush 3, goldfinch 5 red kite 1

Our last group spotted some small colourful birds on the alder trees on the other side of the school field. They were goldfinches! All children taking part will bring home a certificate this week.

Looking through the bird hide to see birds on the bird feeders

Filling up the bird feeders with fat balls

Ahed and Keelan using the toy birds to learn about ‘Herring gull’ and ‘Sparrow’

Birds, birds, birds

This week we played ‘Bird bingo’ to start the session, as a reminder of the names of birds. We included 2 more birds this week- a pied wagtail, that visits us after playtime and moves really fast, wagging it’s tail!

We also included the Herring gull as we see them every day flying in the sky and landing on the field looking for treats.

After a recap of the seasons, we reminded everyone about the need to feed the birds in winter. Today we made some cheerio bird feeders. We counted out 20 cheerios, and threaded them onto a pipe cleaner. We then ran across the school field ( whilst looking for birds of course) and hung them on the branches!

We’re going on a bird hunt…..

Our session began by identifying the birds we might see on our bird hunt. The children are recognising many of the birds now! Then we learnt this rhyme for each bird,

To help us see the birds, we each had a pair of binoculars to use. So off we went, around school to spot birds on a cold winter day! We saw crows, magpies on the roof, a robin, a pied wagtail on the playground, red kites in the sky, gulls in the sky. What an exciting bird hunt!

New Year in Forest School!

It was lovely to be back in our woodland this week, although it was very cold! We measured 3 degrees C on our thermometer.

This half term we are concentrating on birds. By the end of the half term we want the children to be able to recognise the birds that we see every day around school.

Here are photos of the birds we see every day at ACE

This week we have been thinking about our birds in winter. The food sources are limited now, so we have been making pine cone bird feeders. We spotted the robin having a feed, so they must be tasty!