Forest School is a unique method of Outdoor Education that allows children to develop confidence, independence, self-esteem and awareness and knowledge of the natural environment. This is achieved by setting small achievable tasks. The child is never put in a position where he/she will fail so success is attained. It is a child centred and child led programme that provides the opportunity for the children to use their personal learning style to complete their chosen tasks.
We believe everybody should have regular, long-term access to a woodland or natural environment which provides them with inspirational and challenging outdoor learning opportunities. Forest School offers a learner centred approach, where participants can learn through self-directed play and exploration. Children who come to Pleasant Street will be given the opportunity to develop their curiosity, confidence, self-esteem, creativity, empathy, communication skills, knowledge of the natural environment and ability to assess risk.
At Pleasant Street through the deliverance of Forest School we:
Activities
Our activities will depend on the ability and experience of participants. Examples of Forest School activities include:
After a busy session, we made our own pizza pockets. We filled wholemeal pitta breads with toppings including; pizza sauce, cheese, tomatoes and peppers before putting them on the fire to cook. It was great to see some children trying and tasting some new ingredients.
We enjoyed listening to a story called ‘The Flower Thief’ which explained some of the signs that we might look out for in the garden and at home to show us that Spring is here. We used the petals and leaves from flowers such as tulips, gerberas and daffodils to create a piece of art. We then used hammers to transfer the dye from the flowers to the fabric.
After a fun morning making some snacks for the birds, we made a snack on the fire. We toasted some bread, before deciding on our topping. We used the utensils to spread our jam or chocolate spread before sitting down with our friends to enjoy our treat.
In today’s forest school, we looked at a non-fiction book about birds, which listed some ways we can attract birds to our garden and some interesting ways to provide food for them to enjoy. We made two different types of bird feeders; we threaded Cheerios on to pipe cleaners and rolled tubes in bird seed. We decided which tree to place them in and we are looking forward to seeing if any come to visit for a snack!
Today the children enjoyed a camp fire, We began by thinking and looking for woodland animals then the children talked about fire safety before helping to chop the wood for the fire. We took turns to stack the wood correctly before lighting the fire with a flint, then we enjoyed singing songs around the camp fire and listening to a story.
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Today we had a lovely time visiting the forest school facilities at Liverpool John Moores University. The children enjoyed building a den, collecting sticks, filling bird feeders, playing games on the field and taking part in a treasure hunt to find different natural materials. What a lovely morning !
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We enjoyed a lovely forest school session and took part in lots of activities before enjoying a delicious hot chocolate with our friends.
We started by looking for some of our animal friends in the garden. We had to think about their habitats to help us to locate them. We looked up high to find Olly the Owl and looked low down and under some branches and leaves to find Holly the Hedgehog.
After that, we paired up to go on a scavenger hunt around the garden, looking for different natural items including twigs, stones and a birch tree.
Then it was time to help to get the fire ready. We put the logs in the fire pit, helped to chop some kindling and stacked it on top of the logs. Some people helped to turn our cotton wool into clouds which we used to start the fire. We sang songs with our friends and joined in with the retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk before enjoying a delicious hot chocolate!
Today we were very glad of our big tent, which helped to keep us warm and dry. We held our fire friend and reminded each other of the safety rules. We then went on a search for Holly Hedgehog and Olly Owl, thinking about their usual habitats to help us locate them. We then had a go at using flint and steels to try to make our own dragon sneezes; it was a little difficult but we started to get the hang of it with adult help.
After this we enjoyed a special treat to warm us up. A delicious milky hot chocolate with a biscuit.
Today we enjoyed our first Forest School session. We had a reminder of the fire safety rules from the story Fiery Fox before lighting our fire. Each child helped to cut the kindling by banging the knife with a mallet. After this we watched Miss make dragon sneezes with the fire steel to light the cotton wool.
Whilst the fire was burning, some of us went on a scavenger hunt around the garden to find objects such as stones, conkers and logs. Some children preferred to have a chat around the fire with their friends.
When the fire was ready, we prepared a tasty treat, chocolate bananas! We sliced them and placed chocolate buttons inside before wrapping them up in foil. After they had heated up, we enjoyed eating them together.
Today, we enjoyed a story around the fire about Fire Safety. We listened carefully to the story of Fiery Fox and the rules that are in place to keep us safe. After this we enjoyed helping to set up the fire before singing some of our favourite nursery rhymes with Mr Curry.
We enjoyed spending some time exploring the forest school area in Nursery. We spoke about the safety procedures we need to follow when we enjoy a fire together in the future and found out the names of some of the tools we may use in the future. We are looking forward to taking part in more forest school activities soon.
Today, we spoke about our upcoming Forest School sessions by establishing some safety rules. We moved our story time to the fire pit area, so that we could get used to sitting on the wooden logs. When our story was finished, we listened carefully to the instructions about how we walk behind the logs so that we do not stand close to the fire. We were very sensible and spoke about our knowledge about fire safety and the dangers of touching things that are hot or playing near fire. We can’t wait to continue to explore forest school and activities over the next few weeks.
