Over the last 2 weeks we have made newspaper pots and sown sunflower seeds. These will be planted in our year 1 flower bed. We hope the birds will enjoy the seeds in autumn and the pollinators will visit in summer.

Making the pot involved concentration, good rolling skills and some strength, , but the end result created lots of ‘Wows!”

Then we filled the pot with compost using our fingers to carefully push the compost in.

Now it’s time to close a variety of sunflower. Did you know that there are over 70 different types of sunflower?

The children needed to give the group a reason for choosing that variety. Olivia loved Sun King ” Because it’s scruffy!” Kai wanted Sunburst ” Because it’s got a variety of colours and it’s good for pollinators” Ayat wanted Claret ” Because it’s red and it’s like fire”

Let’s get planting!

This week we are preparing the pots and planting them ready for taking them home for Mother’s Day.

Our first job is to make a hole in the bottom of the paper cup so water can drain out

Next we filled the cups with compost using a scoop

Then we planted sunflower seed. We held the seed in our hand and thought about the amazing process of germination. Now it’s time to water!

Inside we spent time writing a very special message to our Mothers or Special person in our lives. They are beautiful to read. Here are a few examples! Kai has 1 side English, 1 side Japanese!

This week we made pancakes outside for Shrove Tuesday and the start of Lent.

We followed the recipe and checked off our ingredients

First we measured out 1 cup of flour

Then we poured 1 cup of milk into the bowl

Then we cracked an egg!

Now it’s time to whisk the batter

Then we took in turns to pour the batter into the frying pan

Now it’s time to sprinkle on sugar, squeeze on lemon and enjoy our pancake!

This week we looked at our pots that we planted in Autumn. We are excited to see the daffodils starting to flower and the tulips showing signs of growth.

I showed the children a pot of snowdrops and we looked closely inside the flower. The pollen is bright yellow and the green patterns so intricate.

This week we started to make a gift to take home for Mother’s Day in a few weeks time. Our first activity was to decorate the paper pot. Some groups printed with leaves that we collected from weeds around school. Other groups used pastels.

Finally we added some cut twigs around the pot to give a rustic, natural feel!

Soon we will be planting something inside!

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!