Our next rangers assignment – Project Tunnel!

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…

Choosing the best position for the tunnel
All hands on deck to shovel our mountain of soil
Creating the base for the tunnel
Stamping the base down to ensure it is solid
Rolling our tunnel into position
Weighting our tunnel down
Protecting wildlife along the way
Building the base up to keep the tunnel secure
Lots more shovelling soil
A final stamping before we let the rangers finish for the day!

Now we see you tadpoles.. via the magic of oxygenating plants! ✨

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!

Slide the arrows on the photo right and left to see before and after

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?

Puddle Jumping

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.

Rainy Days in Forest School

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!

Nature Art Using Sticks and Stones

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

Here class 1E have created butterfly using different leaves to add texture to the wings
The boys group made a human skeleton. Notice the fingers, toes and pine cone knee caps!
1C decided to make fantastic human skeletons. I love that they have added ribs!
This group added a letter A to represent both of their first names. Super team work!
Here we have some more brilliant human skeletons from class 2A
The boys group in 2C created a beautifully detailed spider together. They then had time to produce a picture of anything they wanted. Do you recognise the characters they have created?
Class 2S produced a colourful butterfly and another super human skeleton.

KS1 Mini beast hunt

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.

Leaf art with 4T ? ? ?

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.

KS1 Rangers project ‘bird home revamp’

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!