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The mystery! The intrigue!
Picture the scene: a gaggle of giggly preschoolers sit attentively under the shade of our bowing apple tree. The sun streaks through the leaves leaving dappled sun spots on the ground, as the children create collective stories from a mismatch of natural resources. Not bad.
Read moreWe've made a Forest School video to highlight why we at Free Rangers think Forest School is such an important activity for us to share with your children.
Read moreThese past two weeks of Forest School have seen the children take to building: both through the assembly of structures and the construction of stories. And what a fascinating two weeks it's truly been.
Read more"So are you some kind of prince then?"
It's a thought poking question, especially if you ask a 4 year old whether they think they are? Gladly the majority said yes. Some however, decided they weren't...
Read more"I dunno love... It's gunna cost ya this one..."
Over these past two weeks the Den Forest Schoolers have donned their hard hats and paved their ways to some excellent play. The focus has expanded from simple building blocks to complex role-play and imaginations coming to the fore.
Read moreStrength and Cooperation. Learning and playing together through self discovery. Is there anything better?
When you ask a child: who thinks they are strong? you will without doubt be faced with the smallest line up to the Mr/Mrs Universe contest, as they flex their muscles and faces in a visual show of their perceived ability. Last week, we moved on from the Big Play activity where we learnt about safe movement over (and off!) our logs and larger play resources.
Read moreYeah. 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 moreIt's been another great week of our Forest School Holiday Club, with the exciting addition of the very first Forest Skills course to boot! Despite the weather threatening to dampen the spirits (and everything else), it luckily held off for the 4 days we ran our course and opened up the days to some excellent play opportunities.
Read moreFLY MY PRETTIES! FLY!
You may recall back in January, we built some rather lovely little bird feeders, to give our feathered friends a little energy boost throughout the scarce Winter months. We've looked again at the feeders and why they were an important source of food. It didn't take long for the last feeders we made to appear on the radar of the birds around Free Rangers. Especially the Robins.
Read moreCreativity has continued as we have delved into the world of wood once more, crafting and utilising a variety of tools during last week's Forest School. The basis of the sessions involved using saws to cut ring of wood from Elder and some Blackthorn limbs. Then we would use a hand drill to make holes and turn them into rings.
Read moreE 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 moreLast 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 more"Oh yes please! I would love to try your cake..."
First off, I'd like to thank the excellent Den team for filling in last week whilst I was away, running our Holiday Clubs for (as they are now known by the Nursery children) "The Big Boy and Girls". Whilst I love running these weeks, it always nice to come back to the simplicity of Forest School with the Nursery children.
Read moreAnother 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 moreYes, 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 moreTelling 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 moreThe 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 moreHot 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 moreNearly 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 moreSimple 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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