Term 5- Week 1 Forest school begins!

We could hardly contain our excitement on Monday -  as Robins came through the door, ready with their Forest School kit plus all the other belongings needed for the school week - Monday's were beginning to feel a little like packing for a holiday! No sooner had Robins finished the register they were ready with their questions .....

"What do we get to do in Forest School?"

"Who teaches us?"

"Where do we do Forest School and when?"

"Can we climb trees?"

Luckily for us Mrs Langford is our Robins Forest School expert and was able to tell us all about what to expect and before we knew it, it was the afternoon and we were getting changed into our long sleeved tops, trousers, waterproof trousers and wellies with of course spare socks at the ready for afterwards. All of a sudden Mhairi our Forest School teacher was in the classroom and was ready for us! So off we went, into the Forest and ready to explore!

This week Mhairi showed us lots of pictures of different plants that we might find in Forest School, explaining to us which ones we could touch and which ones we couldn't as well as explaining why we couldn't touch them. She also taught us the safety rules of Forest School and what sound we needed to listen out for when we needed to return to an adult. We then went on a forest animal hunt, looking where the animals were hiding around Forest School and learning about the different areas they were hiding in!

We even found an outdoor kitchen just like the one in the Robins outdoor area, we couldn't wait to explore here!

Before we had gone very far into the Forest School area, most of Robins had already spotted an unusual but exciting item hanging from one of the trees. You can imagine the excitement.....it certainly didn't take us long to climb the ladder!

As we made our way around the Forest we soon found the pond and Robins certainly had fun dipping their wellies into the water, just enough to have some fun and just enough to end up with some wet socks...those spare socks certainly did come in handy!

Through the trees we went, hunting far and wide for the remaining animals...where could they be? As we went we learnt all about how we could only climb trees where the branches are thicker than our arms so as we walked we checked each branch to see if it made a good climbing tree or not!

We had reached the end of the path and suddenly we realised that.....

"Oh no mud! Thick, oozy mud.

We can't go over it, we can't go under it, we have to go through it!

Squelch squerch!

Squelch squerch!

Squelch squerch!"

Please help us to make each week as easy as possible by remembering their Forest school kit, which will then come home every Monday to be washed. 

What will I need for Forest school?

• A long sleeved top and trousers (whatever the temperature)
• Waterproof jacket- please ensure they bring this with them, we can always keep it in school if they don't use it.
• Wellies if these aren't already in school
• Spare socks- as we found out this week these are a crucial part of Forest School!

Robins had the most amazing time in Forest School this week, from exploring the outdoor kitchen to climbing the tree, squelching in the mud to even building their own den! Here are some more of the memories from Forest school this week!

Our week continued with more nature being found....an egg on the way to school!

We weren't too sure who the egg belonged to but the shell was extremely pretty, an almost mint green colour with speckled brown dots! What an amazing find from our Robin on their way to school!

In Maths this week we continued to explore doubles and Robins were able to remember what they had learnt from last week with Mrs Higgins, we were off to a good start! With butterflies at the ready Robins practiced creating doubles, ensuring that both sides of the butterfly had the same number of coloured dots, just look at our doubling butterflies!

I wonder if you can work out the total of our doubling butterfly!

We decided to continue to use butterflies to help us with doubles and on Tuesday we wowed Mrs Brown and used Numicon to create doubling wings for the butterflies! 

"Double 3 is 6"

"Double 1 is 2"

"Double 4 is 8"

"Double 5 is 10"

With the sun shining Robins certainly took advantage of the weather and spent lots of time in their outdoor area, with the outdoor kitchen a firm favourite we soon had everything from blueberry tea and strawberry jelly being made!

Robins were soon cooking up a storm, from whisking to carefully mixing the colours until they had reached the colour that they wanted! They filled the containers right up to the rim...they were so full that they almost spilt over the top!

One of our favourite activities outside though involved some problem solving! A group of Robins were extremely interested in what the long tubes were so Mrs Brown showed them and then left the Robins to construct the tubes so that the tennis ball would successfully roll down! They all worked extremely well together to work out which way the tubes went together, when they needed to change the tubes to make the ball roll down faster and what to do when the ball got stuck! Great work Robins!

We celebrated the sunshine by planting our very own flowers! Robins showed a super understanding of what flowers need to grow and independently planted their own seeds, we can't wait to watch them grow!

On Wednesday morning, we welcomed Hedwig, Cheesecake (love the name) and Oreo into our classroom. One of our Year 6 pupils had kindly brought in her chicks. We learnt that the chicks were yellow when they were first born. They are now three and a half weeks old, I was quite surprised at how big they were, and when they are fully grown will look like this.....but for today, we were glad that they were still quite young and small.

Our Mystery Reader sessions continue to be really popular - and a fantastic example of how important reading for pleasure is. This week we welcomed Auntie Karen! There were some pretty tough comments and questions at the end but Auntie Karen handled them brilliantly. Huge thank you to all of you who have volunteered to be Mystery Readers (we do know the children put pressure on you to do it - well it saves us putting the pressure on!), we really do appreciate you giving up your time and we see the enormous benefits.

And finally, with the weather being as glorious as it has been, we were able to head out for our welly walk, without our wellies and without coats. We even went in the morning as it was cooler - not often we say that at the beginning of May. As we walked around the village both myself and Mrs Langford commented about how beautiful the village is, the countryside, the friendly villagers who always stop to say hello, the scenery - just all so beautiful. We are so lucky to have this on our doorstep.

We then spent our afternoon outside but only for a little while before heading inside to cool off!

Have a great bank holiday weekend and see you all on Tuesday