It was really difficult to hear. My Forest Schoolers rarely dishearten me over things they might mention during the sessions but one had stopped on the Timber Trail on one particularly wet Forest School session.
Read moreMacho Macho Kids
Our Forest School focus over the past few weeks has looked at the children’s perceptions of strength. If you ask any child if they’re strong and you’ll get a mini Mr & Mrs Universe lineup of bicep tensing as a visable display of their perceived strength!
Read moreForest School in the Den
Forest School at Free Rangers is our bread and butter. It's what drives the nursery and it's our aim to get your children learning, exploring and (most importantly) playing outside as much as we can.
Read moreFood For Thought
There's something wonderful about allowing children to make a legitimate mess. It can provide such fantastic learning opportunities. It's when we apply a certain level of meaning to the mess created that we can see the magic happening...
Read moreThe Assault Course is Dead. Viva la Timber Trail!
In the first year of Free Rangers opening, we did some serious development of our blank canvas. From the outset, we knew our outdoor space was special and we didn't take it for granted when planning its conception (nor do we now!) Our brief: to make it as appealing, varied and challenging a space for our little adventurers as possible, turning bare grass into the tangible, climbable, and jumpable. We built it, and they came. But that was a long, long time ago...
Read moreNot Everyone's Cup of Tea
As spring thoroughly forges ahead, the newest, tenderest shoots are often the fodder of deer and rabbits. But back in March on Forest School, we decided to make use of some rather more volatile ones for ourselves...
Read moreFinding Their Own Path
I should probably apologise. If your child has been coming home and making arrows from anything they can get their hands on and appropriating foods at dinner times for arrow making purposes, then apologies for any lost property and distracted children at the dinner table...
Read moreThe Forest School Holiday Club Christmas Special
MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎅🏻
We once again opened up our Paddock to welcome lots of excited children back for our Holiday Club. This time it was the turn of our Christmas Special: Two days of 'Festive Forest School Frolicking' in the wonderful outdoors.
Read moreFebruary Forest School Club
Firstly, I would like to say a very BIG thank you. Thank you to all you parents for supporting the work we do at our Free Rangers Holiday Clubs.
Read moreCrafting for Christmas' Sake
When dressing the Harding family Christmas Tree, I smile when unwrapping the brightly coloured Papier-mâché hearts and stars that have been so carefully crafted by myself and my siblings in our earliest educational years...
Big Play
Yeah. That's right. I climbed to top. On my OWN!
Muddy bottoms. Bruised knees. Smiling faces. THIS is what makes all Free Rangers children awesome. I'd like to say that I have a big part to play in this awesomeness (at least that's what I tell myself), but to be honest they do it all on their own. And this week's Forest School in the Den was no different...
Read moreSticks: Conduits for Creativity
E Y E - S P Y A D V E N T U R E O N T H E H O R I Z O N
The wonderful thing about children is, children are wonderful things. Why? Simple really, they have innate ability to turn on their creativity without having to think about doing it. Play comes very easily to them. When we get older and we are educated, and bent and shaped by external forces into knuckle dragging boring adults, it often very hard to get back into the swing of our creativity.
Read moreStinging Nettle Tea
Last week (2nd - 6th) was blessed with sunshine and delightfully Spring induced warmth, which made for a welcome change. It was so mild in fact, for the first time in 2015, we threw caution to the wind, and opted to leave the waterproofs inside! Hurrah!
Read moreFebruary Half Term Forest School Club
Another year, another start to our Forest School Holiday Clubs, and what a way to start! We'v had faces old and new come to visit, to shake off their winter doldrums and get stuck-in to some quality outdoor time...
With another Forest School Holiday Club done and dusted, it’s important to look back and review its successes and indeed where it could be improved.
Read moreEverything Tastes Better When It's Fried In Butter
Yes, you're right. They do taste as good as they look...
DONT PANIC! You've not missed Shrove Tuesday! It's next week, but I'll be away running our Forest School Holiday Club so thought it best to bring it a week forward. Pancakes for everyone!
Because of the spate of far-to-near-to-zero temperatures recently, we've begun to remind ourselves about fire lighting, so we've moved into putting that knowledge into practice and making a fire for a purpose.
Read moreAdventure Time
Telling the children We're going on an adventure! is an excellent opening sentence for Forest School. The children's eyes lit up with glee when they heard these words and you could almost see their cogs of creativity starting to spin into action.
Last week many of our children had asked if they could go on an adventure, whether it would be a pirate orientated one, or hunting dragons and dinosaurs.
Read moreTool Time
The benefits of tool use at an early age are numerous, but the associated risks often scare practitioners into avoiding it.
Tools have been the flavour of the week on Forest School, and we've given the children chance to benefit from exploring both their own, and the tools capabilities.
After last week's Bird Feeders (which have proven incredibly successful, as most have been pecked clean!), the interest in tools was still fresh, so to maintain this interest we selected various different tool 'stations' for them to access.
Read moreA Buffet for Birds
Hot drinks and warming fires were a must this week, keeping the cold winds at bay, and maintaining the longevity of the children's interest whilst outside.
Brrrrrrrrr! Another very chilly week on Forest School. But we've kept the little rangers occupied with some hands-on ornithologically-focussed kindness this week...
We've been fortunate enough on Forest School to be graced by some opportunistic Robins, who, almost without fail, will turn up just as we're having snack to pick up our crumbs.
Read moreIf it's not broken...
Nearly there...Using trial and error to overcome a challenge. Forest School and outdoor play is a brilliant outlet for this.
Last Week's Forest School hit such a chord with the children we thought we'd continue it into this week, but with a few extra tweaks and resources we felt would add something extra.
During last week, we introduced the children to a box of "bits"; open ended resources the children could access and use as they saw fit. No brief, just "what's in the box?"
Read moreA Box of Bits & Bobs
Simple and Effective Play
If anything could have eased the 'back to work cobwebs' on Monday it would be a solid start to a New Year of Forest School for the Den.
Thank the Forest School gods that it turned out to be a fantastic start to 2015!
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