Thank you to Rory who brought in some beech husks from a walk in the park. I loved receiving a little envelope with a nature present inside! All the beech nuts were gone, so maybe a squirrel is saving them for a feast on a cold day…

This week we carried on our bird hunt. It was cloudy and cold and we didn’t see any red kites this week! We decided they prefer flying on a sunny day.

Because it was so cold this week we made some bird feeders from pine cones. The berries and nuts are in short supply now so they need some help from forest school.

We smeared the scales of the pinecone with high energy lard and then sprinkled on bird seed.

We hung them on the silver birch trees around the hive.

This week in forest schools our Year 1 children took part in the Big Schools’ Bird watch. We started our session by looking at pictures of birds that we might see, and learnt their names. We looked at some interesting feathers that Mrs Whittaker’s mother found in her garden and identified the birds using a bird ID book.

We practised using the binoculars and then set off on the bird hunt around school. We saw red kites, crows, pigeons, and sparrows.

This week Forest School went into the classroom and the children learned to draw one of our favourite birds- the robin. After learning a few facts and listening to the robin sing, we practised drawing the outline and adding the features. We did this several times, getting more and more confident, and then we drew the final design on cartridge paper.

They are brilliant! We hope you enjoy having the art work displayed at home!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Christmas has arrived in forest schools!

Some children decorated their pinecones with pompoms and string. The scales were quite closed so we needed to push the pom poms in carefully with a pencil.

They can’t wait to take their natural decoration home to hang on their tree, or to decorate their house.

Some children carried on with painting the pinecones ready for decoration next week. We’ve put these on a radiator to help dry the paint and open the scales!

First, we learned a few facts about pinecones

Pine cones come from pine trees, which are part of the conifer family.

Pine trees are evergreen, which means they don’t shed their leaves in autumn.

They do drop their pine cones, though, as these contain the seeds. The scales protect the seeds until they open, and then they are dispersed.

Then we painted our pinecone green, using paint. It’s a messy job, but we did well to not get paint on our school uniform. Green hands are fine! Next week we will decorate, and each pine cone will become a little Christmas tree!

This week we finished planting our bulbs in various containers outside Year 1. It’s soon changing season from Autumn to Winter, and our bulbs need to be in the ground!

First we looked at some photos of flowers grown from bulbs to see if we could remember their names.

We also looked at an onion, and learned that this is a bulb too. Of course, we can eat onions but not daffodil, tulip, snowdrops or crocus bulbs. But squirrels like them!

It’s incredible to think that such a beautiful flower grows from a bulb that we plant in the soil.

We took turns to plant the bulbs and label the pots. We look forward to spring!

On Tuesday morning it snowed! We checked the temperature on the thermometer and made sure the birds had some food in their feeders. We gave the birds an extra treat of apples and tomatoes!

As part of our Forest School activities this week we used natural materials to make remembrance poppies. We wrapped black and red wool around 2 sticks to create individual poppies.

We sat together in the woodland, with a candle and our poppies to reflect upon the meaning of remembrance and the sacrifices made by so many around the world.

On our way back to the Year 1 area, we looked at one of our poppies growing in the flower bed!

We have displayed our poppies in the Year 1 outdoor shelter for all to see. Please come along and take a look!

As we celebrate Harvest in school, in forest schools we went on a pumpkin hunt around school! We had clues to read, which helped us find the next pumpkin.

Our first clue!

We took it in turns to read the clues and we all found 2 pumpkins each. The children walked all around the school to find the pumpkins!

The last pumpkin was the biggest and heaviest!

This week we have carried on with our leaf printing in Forest school and in class too. We are learning the difference between evergreen trees and deciduous trees. We are becoming excellent ‘leaf detectives’, recognising oak, sycamore, rowan, holly, birch and beech leaves.

This week we took part in a fun tree identification activity that will help us to learn about the trees in our woodland.

We started the session by having an envelope each to open. We took it in turns to open the envelope and look carefully at the leaf inside. We matched it to the same leaf on the identification chart.

We looked at the colour, shape and size and learned the tree names, Oak, Alder, Holly, Birch and Horse Chestnut.

After identifying the leaves and trees, we then used leaves to make our own unique artwork. We carefully painted the underside of the leaf and pressed it carefully onto the paper. We slowly peeled the leaf away and saw an imprint of the leaf’s pattern.