“A friendly, creative, environment for learning together”
Forest School Class 5
Autumn 2024
Week 1
We were so excited this morning for our first Forest School
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.
As part of our DT work, we made a courgette cake. We talked about healthy and unhealthy foods. We measured ingredients, mixed them and learnt how to safely use the graters.
In Art 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.
In the afternoon we did lots of other activities including gardening jobs, den building and Art sculptures inspired by Andy Goldsworthy’s work. We also had fun games on the field. At the end of the day we got to eat the courgette cake and some of us had seconds, including Mrs Everitt!
Week 2
We had another great day in Forest School. The weather was a little bit cooler and damp but this made it perfect conditions for 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:
Habitat Conditions Shelter
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 and in the plant pots.
Another Science/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.
In our Art activity 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 cold but dry day for Forest School today and another busy day learning lots of new skills and facts.
Our key word for the day in our Science 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
- Survival/Protection
- Movement
We thought about how certain insects and mini-beasts have ADAPTED to their habitats to SURVIVE.
We learned about snails, spiders, woodlouse and other mini beasts. We used our insect adaptation sheet to record the different ways insects have adapted to survive. Did you know that some mini beasts have an Exoskeleton which is on the outside of their bodies?
With Mrs Platts we looked at plant lifecycles. Just like us, plants live, reproduce and then die.
We talked about the meanings of the following key words:
- Germination
- Growth
- Flowering
- Seed
As part of our DT work we practised our knife skills and grating skills as we made apple and carrot traybake. We took it in turns to weigh the ingredients and add them to the bowl. We all had a turn at gratingand peeling the carrots and apples as well as mixing the ingredients together.
In the afternoon we loved making different weaving frames using sticks and leaves. We also enjoyed bird watching and designing bird boxes for our chosen birds.
Week 4
It was very sunny in Forest School today so we were very keen to take part in all of the fun activities.
Mrs Platts took us around the school grounds to identify different trees. We ticked off the ones we could find including oak tree, silver birch and ash.
We learnt about animal food chains with Mrs Everitt. 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 Mrs Palmer 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.
In Art we did careful observational drawings of different leafs. We used pencil and pen and thought carefully about line, shape and scale.
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. We enjoyed playing some more field games too!
Week 5
Today was another sunny but cold day in Forest School. For our Art this week we did some observational drawing of acorns, conkers and pine cones. We thought carefully about line and shape and discussed what trees they came from.
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.
We really loved working with the Autumn leaves to make leaf collages of animals!
In the afternoon Mrs Platts taught us about fire saftey. We had a campfire and toasted marshmallows. They were delicious!
Week 6
Today was our last Forest School session. 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.
Mrs Grayson 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.
Forest School Class 6
Autumn 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, we found lots of exciting things.
We discussed the different parts and functions of plants with Mrs Platts. We know that the roots not only take water to the plant from the soil, but also help to anchor it to the ground.
In Art 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.
Another Science/DT focus this week was making bug hotels. We made some fabulous habitats for mini-beasts and hope to encourage more into the school garden.
In the afternoon, we did lots of other activities including gardening jobs, den building and Art sculptures inspired by Andy Goldsworthy’s work. We also had fun games on the field.
Week 2
Another great Forest School Friday for Class 6 – we had dry weather all day!
This week our Science focus was mini-beast habitats – we thought about WHY a mini-beast would choose to live in a certain environment.
Working with Mrs Platts, we learnt about how plants reproduce, using pollinators which they attract through their scent, shape and / or colour.
With Ms Seaward we made a courgette cake as part of our DT work. We talked about healthy and unhealthy foods. We measured ingredients, mixed them and learnt how to safely use the graters.
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.
For the rest of the afternoon we did more bug hunting and gardening jobs. Some of us chose to make natural sculptures inspired by Marc Pouyet. At the end of the day we got to eat the courgette cake, it was delicious!
Week 3
Yet another busy forest school day learning lots of new skills and facts. The weather this week was cold and icy so we spent some time outside and used our indoor learning spaces to keep warm!
A 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.
We learnt the meaning of the following new words:
- Camouflage /protection
- Survival
- Movement
….and thought about how certain insects and mini-beasts have ADAPTED to their habitats to SURVIVE.
We learned about spiders, woodlouse, worms and other mini beasts. We used our insect adaptation sheet to record the different ways it has adapted to survive. Did you know that caterpillars and grasshoppers have chewing mouth parts which means they chew side to side? Did you know that spiders can live in almost any habitat!
With Mrs Platts we looked at plant lifecycle. 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 loved making different weaving frames using sticks and leaves. We used out DT skills to thread different sticks and leaves to make patterns on our weaving frames. We collected our materials from the forest school garden!
In Art, we did careful observational drawings of different leaves. We used pencil and pen and thought carefully about line, shape and scale.
In the afternoon we loved designing bird boxes for our chosen birds. We used books to research about the bird of our choice. We also enjoyed playing Forest School games on the field with Mrs Platts, our favourite is the woodcutter game, we are learning the names of lots of different trees!
Week 4
A cold but dry day for Forest School today and another busy day learning lots of new skills and facts.
As part of our science learning we learnt about animal food chains with Miss Travil – do you know the difference between a PRODUCER AND A CONSUMER? We created some food chains together thinking about the mini-beats / animals that we would see in our local environment such as our gardens or local woodland.
Mrs Platts took us around the school grounds to identify different trees. We ticked off the ones we could find including oak tree, silver birch and ash. We then demonstrated our knowledge of trees when playing the woodcutter game on the field.
In Art we did carful observational drawings of different trees around our school. We used pencil and charcoal and thought carefully about line, shape and scale.
As part of our DT work, we practiced our knife skills and grating skills as we made apple and carrot traybake. We took it in turns to weight the ingredients and add them to the bowl. We all had a turn at grating and peeling the carrots and apples as well as mixing the ingredients together.
In the afternoon, we played games on the field where we used our knowledge from the tree identification activity. We worked together to do den building and gardening. We are getting really good as using teamwork to complete tasks! Some of us did some bug hunting in the afternoon, we used a magnifying glass and tick sheet to help us identify different minibeasts.
Week 5
A cold but dry day for Forest School today. For our Art this week we worked with Ms Seaward to learn about the artist Barbara Hepworth. We used clay to make our own sculptures inspired by her work.
Mrs Platts and Nevile showed us how to use a peeler carefully to whittle sticks. We decorated them with felt tips in the afternoon, each colour representing a part of our Forest School journey.
We really loved working with the leaves to make leaf collages of different animals! We walked around the Forest School garden to collect different natural mateirals. We used excellent teamwork to complete this task!
In the afternoon we used our great teamwork skills to do gardening and make homes for our wildlife. We discussed protection and survival for animals.
We ended the day by having a talk on fire safety by Mrs Platts. We had a campfire and toasted marshmallows. They were delicious!
Today was our final Forest School session.
Outdoors we spent time discussing different trees that we have learnt with Mrs Platts. We discussed how we can identify trees when the leaves have fallen from the trees. We identified trees by their bark and made some amazing bark rubbings!
In the morning, we went outside to collect leaves to use for our clay printing. We used different skills such as rolling, smoothing the edges and pressing the leaf into the clay.
In the afternoon we worked on our teamwork skills. We worked together to garden around the Forest School garden, we are learning to work responsibly with different equipment. Some of us used the natural resources in the Forest School garden to make different collages of animals, this week we discussed the minibeasts that we have seen in the Fores School garden. Bug hunting and bug hotels was a fun activity this afternoon, we looked in different microhabitats and identified different minibeasts!
Here is a picture of something that we found in Forest School. The children investigated this and tried very hard to discover which animal it is from, can you?
