Art work in the sun

The Reception children enjoyed the beautiful weather on Friday and went for a walk through the woods. We found a lovely spot to sit and used our senses to observe and explore the surroundings. The children then drew a picture of their favourite flower, insect or tree that they had looked at. Reception were very creative and came up with some amazing art work of the world around us . We even laid down and had a quiet moment where we watched the clouds and talked about the different shapes they made.

Great art work Reception

Minibeast Hunt

This week 3YON have been on minibeast hunt. Each child took a magnifying glass and went to discover what minibeasts they could find around the school grounds. The children found some webs on the cherry trees and noticed that it was caterpillars that had made them. They also found lots of lady birds, bees, ants, beetles and snails. One child commented, “I found a buzzing bee on the flowers.” The children had lots of fun on their hunt and have been sharing what they have found with their teachers and friends.

What minibeasts can you find at home?

Visitors to our orchard

Some of the fruit trees in our orchard have visitors. They are woolly aphids who have set up home Aphids are sap-sucking bugs who suck sap from the woody stems of apple trees and other plants. They are an important part of many food chains, supporting many predators such as earwigs, ladybirds, lacewings and hoverfly larvae.

Ants also “farm” aphids protecting them from predators and feeding on the honeydew that aphids make. You can see an ant in this short video of woolly aphids in our orchard.

Spring Walk

The children at Nursery have been enjoying the sunshine and going on a Spring walk around the school. We used our senses to listen to the birds, smell the flowers and look for wild life in the pond. ” They smell lovely.” One child said.

The children talked about the flowers and discussed the different colours, sizes and shapes. “I like the orange one.” A child observed. We talked about the names of the flowers and the leaves growing on the trees. The children also visited the pond and we found some water snails. We’ll done nursery

Hopefully next time we will find some frog spawn.

Noticing the seasons ? ☀️ ? ❄️

What season are we in? How do you know? What do you notice?

What brings you joy in this season? What sparks a sense of awe and wonder?

Email your observations (photos/pictures/videos/poems/writing) to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com to share on the Forest School blog and with your class.

We can’t wait to see what you notice! ? ?

Collecting Sticks

3YON are learning about the story of The Three Little pigs. The children went to the woods to collect some sticks which the second little pig used to build his house. They talked about the different sizes and how the sticks had got on the floor from the trees. One child suggested, “it was the wind” and another child said, “maybe the birds.”

When the children had collected all the sticks, they brought them back to the class room to make their own collages of houses made of sticks.

Celtic knots – Forest schools

We’re harking back to Europe’s Iron Age over the next two weeks in 4H with an in-depth celebration of the Celts.

We have discussed the impact of the Roman Empire on the traditions and culture of the Celts. Today we began looking at Celtic knot patterns which evolved from use in ‘wode’ body paint to greater significance in the 5th Century onwards.