The Little Red Hen

We have been reading the story of ‘The Little Red Hen’ in 3YO Nursery and using actions to re-tell the story. The children were very excited when we went for a walk to the orchard to find the wheat that the hen had planted. As we walked we told the story using the actions we had learnt. When the children saw the wheat they were amazed at how tall it was. “It’s bigger than me.” One child said. The children loved measuring themselves against the wheat and exploring the different textures. We then helped the Little Red Hen cut the wheat like in the story before taking the wheat back to the class room to ‘grind the corn’ .

Well done 3YON.

The ultimate listening challenge

Last week in the pouring rain, Y4 road-tested our new outdoor classroom, where we played a variety of listening games.

This week we upped the challenge by setting them off in threes to navigate our willows woodland, blindfolded! The ultimate test of giving, receiving and following instructions.

We even tested Mrs Howard’s listening skills, who was very surprised to discover where we’d led her while she was blindfolded.

Great job Y4, be sure to put your new listening skills into practice back in the classroom!

Tunnel update

Thanks to some real hard graft by our Forest School Rangers (plus all the friends roped in) you’ll see our new tunnel is really taking shape!

It is still cordoned off with the barriers for now, as we are patiently waiting for the roots of our recycled turf to take a firm hold onto the 8 tonnes of soil.

In this hot weather Jack is keeping it well watered to give the turf the best chance to thrive in its new environment.

We hope that the tunnel will be ready for all to enjoy from our new term in September.

4K take on a biodiversity audit.. ?

There were a lot of puzzled looks when it was announced to 4K that they would be completing a biodiversity audit for their forest school activity! After some good discussion we got it figured out though, and could make a start with the help of our iPads and the ‘Seek’ app.

We can confidently feedback that our school grounds are absolutely bursting with biodiversity! Lots of badges were earned within the Seek app which made us very proud.

You could ask an adult if you can download Seek onto a device at home, and see how biodiverse your local area is? Let us know if you manage to earn some badges, send an email to forestschool@allertonceprimary.com. Happy Seeking!

Flick through the slideshow above to see some of our finds, and also an example from the Seek app.

? Check out our wild flower meadow! ?

Move the slider across to see the difference between April (left) and July (right)

You might remember the blog post from April (link below) where Jack and Hugo were sowing wild flower seeds behind our Y2/3 building.

What a difference 3 months later – the area is now bursting with colour from our beautiful wild flower meadow! The bees were certainly enjoying the flowers as I took these photos.. ?

Woodland Wind-chimes

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!

Each stick was tied to a branch in our woodland area. When the wind blows the sticks knock into each other, producing a beautiful percussion sound.

Magic Sticks

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!