? 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!

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?

https://youtu.be/zz8Lx51B7W0

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!