Forest School  Class 5

Summer 2024

Week 1

We were so excited this morning for our first Forest School day. The weather was dry so we could explore the garden and play games on the field.

What a great day we all had, here is what we got up to….

As part of our Science, we learnt how to classify objects into ‘LIVING, DEAD and NEVER ALIVE’ – did you know that to be a living thing it needs to grow, eat and breathe! We loved looking for things that were living, dead and never alive and found lots of exciting things.

Mrs Platts took us to look at flowers in the garden. We discussed the different parts and what their function is. We know that the roots not only take water to the plant from the soil, but also help to anchor it to the ground.

Mrs Grayson talked to us about our school bees and showed us how a hive is constructed.

As part of our DT work, we made a courgette cake. We talked about healthy and unhealthy foods, thinking back to Healthy Wee. We also re-used our knife and grating skills learnt in Y1. We measured ingredients, mixed them and learnt how to safely use the graters. At the end of the day we got to eat the cake and some of us had seconds, including Mrs Cann!

In the afternoon, we used clay to make pinch pots. We collected natural materials from the garden and used these to decorate our pots. We took inspiration from the Sheffield artist Penny Withers. We also planted some flowers in the playground gardening and had a go at den building!

 Week 2

We had another great day in Forest School. The weather was a little bit wet but this made for perfect conditions when we were doing our Science work.

This week our Science focus was mini-beast habitats. We thought about the different micro-habitats in our school garden and WHY a mini-beast would choose to live in a certain environment. The key words we came up with were:

Shelter    Food      Water.

With Mrs Platts we learnt about how plants reproduce, using pollinators which they attract through their scent, shape and / or colour. We had a look at some flowers in the garden as well as the tomato and beans plants that have been grown from seed.

Our DT focus this week was making bug hotels. We made some fabulous habitats for mini-beats and hope to encourage more into the school garden.

Mrs Palmer talked to us about the importance of bees and how they help to pollinate farmers crops.  We thought about all the plant based foods we eat to ensure with have a healthy diet.

In the afternoon we got to make clay coil pots! Some of us found this a little harder than last weeks’ pinch pots, but we all did really well and understand what slip is and how it is used.

Here are some of the photos from the rest of the afternoon’s activities. We enjoyed gardening, bug hunting, bird watching, den building and making more mini-beast homes.

 Week 3

A glorious sunny and hot day today for Forest School and another busy day learning lots of new skills and facts.

Our key word for the day was ADAPTATION. We can all adapt to hot or cold weather but we also learnt how insects have adapted to help them survive in the habitats in our garden.

We learnt the meaning of the following new words:

• Camouflage
• Exoskeleton
• Nourishment
• Movement

We thought about how certain insects and mini-beasts have ADAPTED to their habitats to SURVIVE.

We learned about butterflies, caterpillars, bees and woodlouse. We used our insect adaptation sheet to record the different ways insects have adapted to survive. Did you know that caterpillars have chewing mouth parts which means they chew side to side?

With Mrs Platts we took on the role of scientists and conducted an experiment to see what plants and bulbs need to (germinate) grow. We learnt about having a ‘CONTROL’ – the one part of the experiment that does not have anything changed. Our control plant pot had soil, water, warmth, light and air. Then we planted seeds and bulbs in different pots with one thing from the control missing each time.

We will have to wait for a week or two to see what happens, but fingers crossed at least our ‘control’ planted seeds will grow!

We leart all about the life cycle of a bee with Mrs Palmer.

As part of our DT work we practised our knife skills and grating skills as we made apple and carrot muffins. We took it in turns to weigh the ingredients and add them to the bowl. We all had a turn at grating the carrots and apples as well as mixing the ingredients together.

In the afternoon we loved making different weaving frames using sticks and then weaving with natural materials as well as gardening, den building and bird watching.

But our most favourite part of the day was getting to eat the carrot and apple muffins!

Week 4

It was a bit of a damp Forest School today but that didn’t stop us getting out into the garden and taking part in lots of fun activities.

We looked at plant lifecycles with Mrs Platts. Just like us, plants live, reproduce and then die. 

We talked about the meanings of the following key words:

1. Germination
2. Growth
3. Flowering
4. Seed

We learnt about animal food chains with Mrs Cann. Do you know what the difference between PREDATOR and PREY is? Or what a PRODUCER and a CONSUMER are? We created some food chains together thinking about the mini-beasts / animals that we would see in our local environment such as our gardens or local woodland. We then played a fun food chain game on the field.

As part of our DT learning we worked with Barry and Neville to make our own weaving frames. We worked in small groups and helped each another tie the knots to make a stable framework. We then used natural materials to weave into our frames.

We learnt all about the body parts of bees with Mrs Grayson and used a magnifying lens to look closely at the bees. Did you know that bees have two stomachs?

In the afternoon we finished our weaving frames and helped Mrs Platts with the gardening. We also went on a bug hunt around the garden.

Week 5

Today was another sunny day in Forest School. For our art this week we did some observational drawing of leaves and pansies. We thought carefully about line and shape and we used a range of media including pencil, pen and pastels.

We worked with Mrs Palmer to learn about the artist Barbara Hepworth. We used clay to make our own sculptures inspired by her work.

Mrs Platts and Neviile showed us how to use a peeler carefully to whittle sticks. In the afternoon we decorated them with felt tips.

In the afternoon Mrs Platts taught us about fire saftey. We had a campfire and toasted marshmallows. They were delicious! Mrs Grayson also took us into the apairy to see the school bees. Some of us were very lucky and saw the Queen bee!

Week 6

Today was our last Forest School session at Stannington Infant School. As a special treat we went on a local walk and put lots of our learning to use. 

As we walked we discussed the different trees and plants we could see. We were able to identify a Rowan tree and an Ash tree. We also found some red clover and some mini-beasts.

Neville told us a story about pack horses and how hard they worked. We had to close our eyes as we listened to the story. We were sure we could hear the horses but when we looked we couldn’t see them! We played pooh sticks with the sticks we whittled last week before walking back to school. 

We have really enjoyed our time in Forest School.