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.

This morning it was 4T’s turn for forest school, and it was all about leaves for us!

We had a good hunt around school for different sized and shaped leaves, noticing where the various types were growing.

Then it was time to get creative. The children really impressed us with their imaginative artwork!

If you would like to create your own leaf art at home it is really easy. All you need is some paper, glue a pen and some leaves. Please send in any photos to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com.

Our KS1 Rangers have successfully completed their first project – renovating our school bird boxes.

The first step was to locate the existing boxes. Before taking these down we were careful to check for any nests. Excitingly one box was in use, check out the photo below. It is very important not to disturb nesting birds.

Next the rangers got busy mixing natural colours to repaint with, to make the boxes more camouflaged and attractive to the birds.

Before…

Working hard as team ants to repaint in natural colours ?

The finished result!

We were able to investigate an old nest in one of the boxes, and see the different materials the birds had used to build their nest.

Finally, Hugo helped Jack to secure the boxes back in the trees. We considered a clear flight path to the box, as well as ensuring they faced different directions, not too close to each other.

See if you can spot the revamped bird boxes around school. Thanks for your help rangers!

Loads of ideas were generated during the first gatherings of our KS2 Forest School Rangers, great job guys!

We look forward to getting started on our first project, for which we might be putting our rangers’ building skills to the test..! Keep an eye on the blog for project updates.

Another busy morning with 3S, searching the school grounds high and low to find all the items on our scavenger hunt list. We had lots of great discussion around vocabulary, and how to classify the different things we found.

Today 3S took part in a forest school scavenger hunt. Their challenge was to find natural items that were soft, hard, rough, smooth, spiky, damp, green and crunchy. We found lots of variations for each item!

You could try doing the same thing next time you’re outside, using this list or you could make your own.