The sun has been shining and the children have been smiling, what a lovely week we have had in the Burrow! As some of you may know I’m currently doing my Level 3 Forest School course, this involves planning sessions for the children and evaluating into the next week plan. We have been focusing on pirate ships this week and I managed to turn the cabin into a real life pirate ship!
Before our snack the children had already noticed the big pirate flag that was flying in the wind: “it’s a pirate ship”, I heard a lot of children shout. Once aboard we had our snack and looked at our new picture cards, which reminded us of our forest school rules, then it was time to explore! I made some telescopes, found some wicker ships wheels and we even had a plank to walk!
At first the adults guided the imagination and play to get the idea rolling, whether this was looking out to sea or walking the plank. The children soon got involved and it was great to see the amount of play coming from the children. “Lauren, I’m swimming in the sea. It’s very cold” one child told me. We practiced our jumping from the plank; I even noticed that some of the children held their nose! At one point of the session Soraya couldn’t get out of the sea so the children had to pull her out… phew!
During the session the children had the opportunity to choose where to play and they were constantly using their physical skills. I had a lot of feedback from parents of the children talking about the pirate ship at home. It’s nice to see they had as much as fun as I did!
Thanks for reading,
Lauren