Over the last couple of weeks we have had some new children join our Nursery. It has been lovely to see them settle in so well. The children have helped make them feel welcome and it has been lovely to see new friendships developing.
All of the children are developing their skills in all areas of the curriculum. We have been making good use of our junk modelling area. Look at some of these fabulous creations:
This week some of the Year 4 children started to build a bug hotel. We are hoping to provide a suitable habitat to encourage lots of different insects in to the Forest School area. We are using some pallets and we are going to fill the gaps with rotting wood, branches, bricks and anything else we can find that the insects might like! We needed to something to stack the pallets on so we used the bow saw to cut a tree trunk to make blocks.
It has been lovely to see the Forest School area being used well at lunchtimes, even if it has been a bit muddy!
These children were very proud of the den they made using the large branches. It even had a door bell!
On Wednesday another new group started Forest School sessions. In this group there are children from years 3, 4 and 5.
We started with a game to make sure we all knew each other’s names.
We then played a game of ‘one, two, three where are you?’ During the game the children were very good at following the Forest School rules.
The children were excited to use the bow saw. The children listened carefully to the tool talk and so knew how to keep themselves safe when using it.
The Nursery children came back after the holiday ready and eager to learn.
We have had a really busy week. The children have become very confident and are accessing all the areas of Nursery independently.
Here are some photos to show you how bust we have been!
Today a new group of children started Forest School sessions. This group of children are all in Year 4. The children made a great start, it was brilliant to see them making good use of the area.
We had great fun today at our Christmas party. We played lots of games, enjoyed some yummy food and watched a Christmas film.
We even had a visit from a special person – Father Christmas! He must have read the letter we sent him because he bought us the new dolls we were hoping for.
Merry Christmas everyone!
This week it was the last week of Forest School for this group of Year 5 children. We had a fire and toasted marshmallows. Everyone was very good at remembering the fire safety rules. We always walk around the fire circle. We wait until we are invited to the fire. We kneel in the respect position when at the fire.
The marshmallows tasted delicious!
In our reflection time we thought back over the last few weeks. Here are some of the children’s thoughts:
“I used to not care a lot about nature but now, because of Forest School, I care much more about wildlife”
“I liked it when we got to climb trees”
“It taught me more about nature”
“I usually don’t like bugs but now we’ve learnt about them I like them”
“I got to learn new games from my friends”
This week our story of the week has been a funny counting story about Father Christmas. He drank lots of cups of tea at all the different houses.
We gave our toy Father Christmas different numbers of cups of tea. We practised counting them slowly, pointing at each one as we counted. We showed how many cups of tea he had on our fingers. We also made marks on paper to represent numbers.
On Wednesday after school all the staff wrapped up warm and went outside for their staff training. We found out what Forest School is and its benefits for the children.
We also learnt how to make a star using willow, how to use a flint and steel and we toasted marshmallows!
On Wednesday Nursery and Reception went on a trip to Ash End Farm. We had a brilliant day looking at the animals and finished with a visit to a special person. Can you guess who? Look at the photos below to see if you are right.
The weather was cold but the sun was shining.
On the coach we sang Old Macdonald had a Farm and The Wheels on the Bus.
When we arrived we went to the play area, it was really good fun, especially the huge jumping pillow.
We listened carefully to the lady. She told us about chickens then we were able to hold one of them.
We were able to feed some of the animals. The goats were very hungry!
The lady read us the nativity story. Some of the children dressed up to help tell the story.
Finally we got to see Father Christmas! We each received a present and a badge.
We had a really great time.