After a lovely week off I was raring to go on Monday morning when I got in and wow what a difference a week makes. It was great to see how well the new children have settled into the routines of Forest School and would personally like to thank all the girls in the Burrow for holding it together whilst I was away!
Last week I touched base about our routines on forest school but I thought I would go a little more into what happens when the children come to play!
We get suited and booted to be ready for 10am. We decide what clothing will be best whether it’s sun cream and hats or boots and waterproofs. During this time we try and encourage the children to be as independent as possible and as I was told during my childhood “there’s no such thing as can’t”.
Once we’ve set off the children head either towards the cabin or fire pit depending on what activity is happening that week. When we arrive we wash our hands and the children hand out their own snack one by one. On forest school we try and involve mathematical learning so what better way to test our knowledge by counting our cups!
This is the most important side of forest school (bar having fun)… our rules. We have 4 main rules which include we must look after our bugs, we let the fire burn in the fire pit, we remember what to put in our mouths and we listen to our adults. You may have also heard your little ones sing our forest school song, this is a key moment on forest school. A newer thing that has happened in the Burrow is our forest school chant, we do this by shouting FOREST SCHOOL at the top of our voices whilst flinging our arms in the air.
Once this has happened we are raring to start our forest school activity which this week has been visiting the farm and seeing what we may see! During the week we saw horses, chickens, geese, tractors and goats.
Next week we will be testing our motor skills on an obstacle course.
Thanks for reading,
Lauren