It’s been lovely to see the children’s confidence grow throughout the week on Forest School; already I can see our new children learning our Forest School rules and understanding what Forest School in the Burrow entails.

We managed to spend time in the fort this week, for those of you that don’t know our fort here is a picture. In the Burrow we have different names for it… the main ones are the tree house or the tree top house (I’m guessing this is from the Gruffalo stories).

I put in place a slack line for the children to test their balancing skills and direction; this is either left, right, up or down. The children would hold the hands of an adult and make a choice of what they would like to do on the slack line. A few would bounce and a few would choose to move along using their feet.

In the Fort we also had a pulley system which seemed to be a huge hit with most of the children. Understanding how this mechanism worked didn’t take the children long, some of the younger children needed a little guidance on how to use this but soon got the hang of it. Children would place bricks into the crate and say “ready” to their friends at the top who would start pulling. As we only had one pulley the children also showed good sharing skills and understanding that our other friends would also like a turn.

We are so lucky at Free Rangers to have a free flow nursery that the children are able to explore the paddock (we will still watch over the children but give them the opportunity to explore). A little girl who’s moved from the Warren wanted to go and explore, I told her she was allowed and she replied “Lauren come”. I mentioned that she could go by herself which she did but kept looking back. By the end of the session she showed so much confidence roaming back and forth.

On Friday morning we made the most of going to explore the pond and farm as it was very icy. The children seemed mesmerized by the ice and we struggled to get them back to nursery as they wanted to stay in the great outdoors of Free Rangers.

Overall a fabulous week.

Thanks for reading,

Lauren