Barbados class celebrate

After filling up their marble jar before half term, the children in Barbados class voted to go into the Year 1 outside area for their treat. This afternoon they got to have some fun whilst the sun was shining and enjoyed playing on the different equipment the year 1 area had to offer. Keep up the great work Barbados class!

Bugs galore

This week in as part of our poetry basket sessions the children in reception learnt a poem all about bugs.

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.

Marvellous me day in Reception

 

On Friday 13th October children in Reception will be participating in a 'Marvellous Me' Day. This half term in Reception we have been thinking about all of the things that make us marvellous. We have been discussing our families, our likes and dislikes and also our similarities and differences with our classmates. What a better way to round up our topic then to hold a WOW Day for us to celebrate all of the things that make us, us? On this day, the children in Reception can come to school wearing clothes of their choice. This could be their favourite outfit, clothes in their favourite colour or clothes that represent something about them. Please discuss this with your child so that they are able to share with us in school why they have chosen their outfit. 

Antigua Forest School

Bugs, bugs, we find lots of bugs at forest school. Today was all about bugs, we looked for them in their habitats - under logs and stones, climbing the trees, hiding in the mud, crawling on the flowers. We made mini bug hotels and added them into a luxury giant bug hotel so that the bugs have plenty of spaces to live. 

Some children even made a mini obstacle course for the bugs to play on. 

The rope swing was ever as popular with lots of patient waiting and turn taking. 

Adventure awaits...

As Barbados class headed into the forest today, they discovered some footprints in the mud. We quickly identified that they belonged to some deer who had managed to get onto our school grounds, thankfully the deer rescue volunteers arrived and were able to safely rescue them. 

As we waited patiently for the deer to make their appearance, we moved our forest school session to our play area and had an opportunity to create our very own plant pots and plant a bean seed.

Mrs Ladybird showed us a trick using a dandelion head and water.

When we returned back to the forest, we swung on the hammocks, ran through the tall cow parsley. Created mud pictures on a canvas and trees and made some tasty treats in the mud kitchen.

It was an eventful forest school session but luckily the rain held off for us to explore and have some fun!

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.

Springtime for St Lucia at Forest School

 We had an exciting day exploring our senses to discover the new season. Spring is here, and we spied many blossoms, green shoots, and tweeting birds!

We played 'catch the moth', and the blinded bats tried to find their squeaking dinner!

Some of us built dens and camouflage to shelter us in the forest.  

We practiced threading wooden flowers onto thread using the right numerical order. 

Some friends helped their blindfolded adventurers cross the obstacle course, being their eyes and ears as they transversed the logs!

We also explored our senses, diving into mystery bags to see if the objects were spiky, smooth, rough or slimy! We had fun guessing what the bags held. 

St Lucia will be back at Forest School in two weeks. 

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. 

Jamaica Forest School

After our Christmas break, the children in Jamaica Class got to head back outside to begin our forest school sessions. Once outside, we discovered that our forest had become bigger and we had lots of new areas to explore! 

We began our session sitting altogether, listening to all of the sounds that we could hear around us, followed by a fun game of hide and seek. Then, we used Y shaped sticks to build teepees, this time covering them with evergreen branches and many children enjoyed the challenge of the balance rope to walk along. We also spent some time using binoculars to take a closer look at our forest school creatures, as well as having lots of fun swinging in the hammock! There was plenty of good teamwork observed throughout the afternoon which was so lovely to see.

It was a week of very exciting discoveries for Jamaica class. We are looking forward to our next forest school adventure!

Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Nursery

 This week Nursery have been focusing on 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears'. We have made bears and enjoyed exploring porridge oats, scooping and pouring them into different sized bowls. 

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.

Jamaica Class Make Slime!

Jamaica class exceeded their attendance target and won a very exciting prize - making slime! Well done, Jamaica class! 

Another wonderful day at Forest School for Jamaica and Antigua

We had a wonderful Wednesday at forest school again last week. 

We enjoyed searching for a variety of natural colours and shades to create a leaf rainbow and used oozy mud to practice our mark making skills. 

Many of us enjoyed rubbing the chalk on the bark or trees to create patterns and observed the chalk dust sprinkling on the ground like snow! 

We also enjoyed skillfully and carefully using hammers to make some Christmas tree art. 

 

A Tale of the Trees

It was a Tale of the Trees in Autumn for Antigua and Jamaica this week. We acted out this native American tale together and watched as the trees shed their leaves to help keep the animals warm in the colder months. We collected, sorted and threaded colourful Autumn leaves and read Leaf Man in preparation for next week. Lots of children set themselves the task of climbing (low down) through our trees. They learned how to use hands and arms to climb, as well as feet. 

A super windy week for forest school

Jamaica and Antigua class enjoyed a rainy day at forest school. Zavier noted ‘it’s dark, windy and rainy today’ whilst Riley exclaimed ‘it looks like night time out here’. The children created leaf bats by attaching a piece of string to a huge maple leaf before drawing a face on their leaf. They loved watching their leaf bats dance through the air as the wind blew. The children were carrying large branches carefully and climbing in and out of the hammock with ease, gently swinging their peers as they rested. We concluded the session with a much loved story, Room on the Broom, and drank a warm cup of hot chocolate.