This week we were leaf detectives in forest school. We each opened an envelope and identified their leaf using this leaf ID chart from the Woodland trust.
We talked about the size and different shapes of the leaves. The big envelope contained the horse chestnut leaf!
We then turned to being leaf artists and we printed with each of the leaves.
In September, each class enjoyed a Forest School team-building day with Mrs. Whittaker and their teachers. The common theme for all the activities was “Connecting with Nature.” We began our day by exploring the meaning of the word “Nature” before venturing outside to make bird feeders and to plant tomorrow’s oak trees and horse chestnut trees with acorns and conkers.
We explored the natural resources around our school grounds to inspire our creativity, making decorated postcards and weaving with willow from our very own tree.
We ended the day gathered around the firepit, toasting marshmallows and sharing our favourite moments with each other.
Children learn best when they’re engaged and having fun, and our outdoors is the perfect classroom, building resilience, confidence, creativity and strengthening friendships along the way.
Year 1 have started their forest school journey. I want our children to understand that nature is the most precious and fascinating part of our world, and it is our responsibility to take care of it, protect it and enjoy it.
We started our session by finding out what is in Mrs Whittaker’s forest school bag.
We heard the robin birdsong, looked at a swan’s feather, and felt some prickly horse chestnuts!
We went on our own nature treasure hunt, and collected leaves, seeds, feathers, sticks. There are so many interesting things to collect at the start of autumn.
Our Mr Greenheads have grown hair. Time for them to go home for a haircut!
In Forest School after school club we made weavings with nature and a stick loom.
Hapa Zome is the art of bashing flowers and leaves into a piece of cloth so their natural colours make a print onto the fabric.
It is a simple natural way to dye fabric and it’s lots of fun!
This week our lettuce is ready to harvest!
First we cut the leaves, enough for a whole class.
Then we washed the leaves in a big bowl of water.
Now the lettuce is clean we spun the leaves dry in a salad spinner. It’s great fun trying to make it go round and round very fast!
We put the dry lettuce leaves into bags ready to go into class for tasting
Now it’s time to taste the leaves, rocket, red salad bowl mixed, mustard and romaine ballon.
Any spare leaves were fed to the guinea pigs!
This week we observed legs on the tadpoles! Next week we will have to make sure there is a log in the water so the froglets can climb out.
We finished making Mr Greenheads this week. It was so sunny we decided to work in the orchard, so cool in the shade.
Kian was in charge of watering the lettuce. Next week we will make a salad and taste the different leaves we have grown.
This week we made “Mr Greenhead” We followed the instructions in this non-fiction book and created our own Mr Greenhead!
Thank you to Ceejay for bringing in vegetable seeds from home. We planted them with Haadiya, Jonathan and George.
This week Lucas and I upcycled a kitchen colander and used it to make a sedum planter!
Forest school moved to the art studio this week and I enjoyed working with the children creating a picture from the walk to Adel woods. We painted and printed using pastels and paints. Can you spot the aqueduct?
In forest school club we made nature clay pressings.
This week we measured our sunflowers using rulers. We recorded the results and collated the class measurements on our outdoor blackboard. We checked each others results and decided who’s had grown the most!
To try and stop the slugs eating the sunflowers we have planted the sunflowers within large tin cans. Fingers crossed it works!
Now it’s time to plant and water
