This week we have enjoyed welcoming new children, both from the Warren or those joining us from another settings. It has been lovely to get to know all these children whilst at Forest School and to help grow their understanding of the great outdoors.
One of our main focuses has been helping the children understand our routines of Forest School and the rules we need to remember to keep ourselves save.
What better way to encourage a group to share ideas, observations and their findings than to partake in a bug hunt! We noticed that the younger ones were more interested in looking at the bugs or maybe holding them whereas the older children were more motivated to extend this by asking questions.
We explored the paddock lifting up any logs or planks we could find, asking each other for help if necessary. It was great to explore our outdoor areas and gain confidence moving around these spaces with the new children and venture further afield than the Burrow. I found as the week went on they were finding their own logs to lift and their motivation to try to look under more challenging spaces increased. Under our metal sheets we found that our resident shrew has had babies! When we lifted the sheet we were very shocked to see around 5-6 shrews running around, we soon replaced the sheet though as worried they hadn’t formed their eye sight yet! On Tuesday morning we also found a toad under a log, which the children got very excited about watching. Such excitement spurs communication and it was great to hear the children exclaiming and describing their findings.
Overall we’ve had a brilliant week looking for bugs. Next week we will continue our bug hunt but introduce bug books to the children so we can look at pictures and increase our knowledge about their numerous characteristics.
Next week I won’t be here as I have a week off. Unfortunately I won’t be led on a sun lounger all day but instead looking after my 11 week old Border Collie called Murphy! The girls in the Burrow will continue the forest school sessions and as always will do an amazing job ☺
See you soon,
Lauren