Antigua Forest School

Antigua loved their visit to Forest School. We enjoyed noticing lots of signs of Spring as the flowers were beginning to bloom on our walk through the fields to the forest. We began the session with game of giant rock, paper, scissors which brought out our competitiveness and collaboration skills. The hammock was a hit with lots of children learning how to safely get in and out without spinning completely over! Then enjoying some sky gazing whilst gently swaying in it. Our new birds were a firm favourite with many children identifying them by matching them to pictures and listening to the differnt calls they make. All in all another fun afternoon in the forest last week.

A cool afternoon at forest school

Antigua had a lovely cooling afternoon in the forest for their final session yesterday. There was painting with oak gall, lots of digging, mixing in the nature kitchen, flag making and hide and seek. 

Some children were chilling in the dens and in the hammocks they described themselves as "A caterpillar wrapped up inside it's chrysalis."

   As always everyone had a fantastic time and they didn’t want to go home.

Colour spotters in the forest

Antigua were fantastic nature colour spotters on Wednesday afternoon. They explored the field and found lots of dandelions and daisys. We then sorted our finds by colour. 

                                             

Then in the forest we found green leaves, brown mud and black charcoal. We used the colours to make natural paint and experimented with using sticks and leaves as paintbrushes. 

                                          

There was even time to do some bird watching and it was very exciting to watch the Robin come and visit. The digging area was ever as popular and we found a whole worm family but were sure to return them to their habitat before we left. 

 

Antigua Forest School

Antigua class were very excited to be back at forest school today and especially that the sun was shining on us. We explored the new pathways to protect the bluebells, went bug hunting and found lots of worms. We made mini bug hotels from sticks to go in our big bug hotel and used palm drills to drill some holes into larger sticks for the bugs to bury into. It finished up with a song and can’t wait to be back again. 

Creating bug hotels using a palm drill to make holes in large sticks. 

The worms were fascinating and we enjoyed holding them! 

Antigua Forest School

At forest school this week Antigua enjoyed spotting signs of Spring. We noticed buds forming on the tree branches and even admired some small delicate flowers. We carefully matched the branches taking into account the details of the colour of the branch and the buds that we could see. We enjoyed studying the catkins and felt the texture of the pussy willow. 

Our new game of Bats and Moths was very popular and we found it funny being blindfolded whilst catching each other. 

The obstacle proved very popular with lots of teamwork going on to support one another. As well as some great teamwork using the pulleys to transport ingredients.

All in all another enjoyable afternoon in the forest.

Fun at forest school for Antigua

 

Antigua spent another wonderful afternoon at forest school on Wednesday. It was crisp but the sun was shining. With the bare trees getting ready for Spring it was the perfect opportunity to look and listen out for the birds starting to reappear.

The children thoroughly enjoyed learning about the different calls that different species of birds make and listening out for them in the woods. They made nests for the toy birds to perch in and cared for them in their habitat.

The children enjoyed making 'leaf angels', balancing along the rope again working with partners and the rope swing was a much enjoyed addition this week. We look forward to our sessions next half term. 

Antigua Forest School

It was a lovely crisp winter’s day at forest school last week for Antigua class. We walked to discover two huge frozen puddles which caused lots of excitement and we enjoyed breaking off large shards of ice to carry back to forest school.

We used Y shaped sticks again to build teepees this time covering them with evergreen branches and many children enjoyed the challenge of the balance rope to walk along. 

 

There was some great teamwork and turn taking throughout the afternoon as well as lots of perseverance. Great skills to be applying in such an enjoyable session.

Antigua Forest School

 

It was great to be back at forest school this week. We were reminded how to move large sticks around forest school and used this skill to drag Y shaped sticks safely. We then secured them to make teepee habitats for some animals. We used wooden and rubber mallets to tap in the pegs and worked as a team to come up with the best solutions. 

Some children enjoyed wrapping yarn around sticks and the hammock was as popular as ever! 

We can’t wait to go back next week.