Year 4
Spirituality Week at Forest School
An activity we learned about at Forest School was Tibetan prayer flags. This is an ancient custom for bringing blessings to the world. When the people of Tibet began to follow the teachings of Buddha, they continued this custom and if you visit Tibet, I'm sure you will see their prayer flags. We learned about the significance of the colours of the flags too!
Some children helped to respect nature by pulling up the Himalayan balsam seedlings. Like the prayer flags, the Himalayan balsam originates from Tibet. Unfortunately in Britain this plant is not eaten by any native species of caterpillar, and consequently due to other aspects of its biology (It grows very tall, quickly, thus blocking the light of native plants which fit into the food webs and help to maintain the population balance of many native species of both plants and animals) it has become an invasive plant which harms our wildlife.
Lots of children helped to make a spectacular den for Stig of the dump. There was tree climbing and general exploring going on.
The Red and Green teams whittled toasting spears, learned about fire safety and toasted marshmallows, which they ate between two chocolate biscuits.
Message From Stig of The Dump
Today we found a message in a tub!
It was a message from Stig saying he needed some clay models to decorate his den for a Springtime party.
The children did their best as you can see from the photos.
The children also discovered lots of interesting things this week at Forest School: spiders' eggs were found, beetles, a tiny worm, two small caterpillars, various fungus, branches with the same markings as giraffes' skin, ferns growing like the tops of cellos, pussy willows and acorn cups. We had competitions to see who could find the smallest acorn cup, the smallest toad stool, and to see who could find the tree from which the pussy willows came. Alas no-one found the tree, but Leighton found the smallest acorn cup, and Paige found the smallest toadstool.
Dens of branches and tarpaulins, and weapons, from whittling sticks, were made for Stig.
It was lovely cold fresh sunny weather.
Blue Sky, Dry Weather- still muddy in places. Week 3
First we looked for hazards and played two safety games.
Later we looked for signs of spring, we hunted for invertebrates and improved our nests by adding soft materials.
Jasmine was thinking of Easter Time, and learned how to tie two sticks together to make a cross-maybe she'll make an Easter Garden.
Jayden "mined" for coal- he found some coal, shale and another black stone. He thought he had a third black stone, but when he cleaned off the mud, he realised it was more like hardened clay- a russet colour.
Lots of children found clay but they didn't find time to model it. Maybe they'll make models at home and bring them into school to show us.
More photos were taken on the class ipad, here are a few photos of today's events.
The "blob"is still there, and some signs of spring were taken. Can you see the willow catkins high up in the willow trees?
Another muddy visit to Forest School. Week 2
As well as splashing in puddles, safety games, and hot chocolate, we thought about signs of spring.
Nesting birds came to mind and some of us made giant nests to sit in.
On looking for signs of spring we found...well we're not certain but it could be slime mould, star jelly or blobs. This is a mysterious substance that has been recorded especially in Britain. The Science community has not discovered definitively what it is. There are some very strange ideas on 'the web'.
We were so busy, we didn't take many photos this week, Have a look.
Y4 had their first very muddy session at Forest School IT WAS FUN!
Jigsaw Hunt, Mud Slide, Safety Rules and Hot Chocolate
