This week in Forest Schools we planted bulbs. The children looked carefully at the daffodil bulbs and thought they looked like onions.

In the year 1 outdoor area there are pots planted with daffodils, tulips and crocuses.

At Allerton CE Primary we are fortunate to have extensive grounds around the school, and this year my role is lead Forest School sessions with our Year 1 children. I take groups of children into our woodland area for planned sessions that enable the children to engage and explore the natural environment. 

These are the activities so far:

We explored our woodland area to find 6 natural objects. We looked carefully to see what we had found and then played a memory game ( Kim’s game)

We found evergreen leaves and punched shapes in the leaves using a decorative hole punches.

We self register on our evergreen tree by hanging our own small log decoration on the tree.

Our best sessions are when it’s raining! We have waterproof trousers and jackets to wear and a canopy over the log seats.

This week we searched for tree seeds and planted up pots, ready for germination in the spring. We went on seed gathering hunt, and spotted lots of berries too.

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

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?

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.

4H thought we would make the most of the fantastic weather yesterday and take our Water Cycle model creations into the outdoor classroom. The children were tasked with creating a 3D model to show this model including our key vocabulary of ’Condensation’, ’Precipitation’ and ’Evaporation’.

Linked to Y1s science learning, 1B went exploring around our school grounds doing their best noticing to establish which season we’re in currently.

Can you guess from the pictures below what they concluded?

(Varun was noticing so closely he ended up with raindrops on his face!)

This afternoon, 4H thought we would put our helping hands to good use to litter pick at the Nursery Lane entrance.

We were shocked by how much litter we managed to collect in just half an hour!

Here’s all of us with all of the litter we managed to collect!

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! ? ?