What is that sound in the woods? The children have made some eye catching wooden wind-chimes! They began by using acrylic paint to decorate their sticks with colourful patterns. When the paint had dried the children added some string to hang them with. This involved learning how to tie a knot for many children. They worked in teams and helped each other. They showed great resilience and teamwork!

The KS1 Forest School groups created magic sticks using paint and natural materials that they had collected. They carefully tied on each item using pipe cleaners before their magic wand, sword or broomstick came to life!

Not to be out done by their older counterparts, the KS1 rangers took up the spades today to further progress ‘Project Tunnel’. We were so impressed with their hard work, great job guys!

Today our KS2 rangers started work on an exciting building project, creating what will be a natural tunnel at the end of our trim trail.

They worked really hard this afternoon, with lots of shovelling and stamping! Check out their progress so far…

Here are some photos from our 2nd forest school morning with 4T creating fun and easy leaf art!

If you have a go yourself at home, please send a photo to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com we would love to see your creations!

When the pond was built several plants were added, submerged under the water. These special plants play an important role in filtering the pond water, keeping the algae growth under control and providing oxygen to everything living in the pond.

Did you know.. these oxygenating plants grow fully immersed in the water and get their nutrients from the water through their leaves, not via their roots like other plants.

It has taken a whole term for these plants to work their magic in turning the water in our pond from green to clear. Check out the photos below, what a difference!

Excitingly we now have a super view of our growing tadpoles! To help keep our pond nice and clear, please don’t touch the water when having a look, we don’t want to disturb the careful balance of nature.

If you haven’t yet seen the tadpoles here is a video, they love to pop up to the surface to say hello! How many can you count?

We have had lots of wet weather last month in May but this did not stop 3YON having lots of fun in the rain. We put on our puddle suits and wellies and went outside . We walked through the woods and listened to the sound of the rain and talked about what we could see and hear. We then saw a large puddle and the children were so excited they jumped straight in. They splashed and sploshed, twirled and walked through the puddle. We had so much fun and laughter.

This half term we experienced lots of rainy afternoons! Thankfully we have our large wooden shelter to work in if it gets too wet outside.

The 2S group created some lovely Spring nature pictures using wooden prints and paint.

One chilly afternoon the 1E group were exploring the new nature area when we noticed raindrops plopping into the pond. As we headed toward the shelter the rain began to fall heavily and a storm broke out! The group excitedly watched the heavy rainfall whilst listening to the thunder. We concentrated on the sound of the raindrops on the wooden roof and noticed the ripples created when the large raindrops landed in the puddles on the playground. We then tried to replicated the sound of the storm using percussion instruments and added movement to keep ourselves warm. What a fun afternoon we had!

KS1 had lots of fun creating pictures of living creatures using woodland materials. Look at how detailed and creative they turned out to be:

The KS1 forest school groups kicked off the term with a mini beast hunt. We discussed seasonal changes such as longer days, warmer weather and the appearance of more birds and bugs. We also noticed tree buds and new spring flowers.