This week the Burrow children have been focusing on the timber trail. We have been testing our balancing, climbing and confident skills as we took on the challenges that the trail can give us.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been focusing on fire and what elements come with this. Whether we’ve been looking at cotton wool or our fire steel the children have shown great interest in this activity!

Over the past couple of weeks we have spent time learning the Three Billy Goats Gruff story and during our Forest School sessions this story has received great attention. We were also lucky enough to visit Free Rangers’ own answer to the Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Recently in the Burrow we have been focusing on encouraging the children to be as independent as possible. Whether this is during Forest School, lunch or free flow. All the adults in the Burrow have been working together to facilitate and help the children to increase their independency on task. 

We have enjoyed a great week on Forest School and we feel very lucky with the weather we experienced. This week the tree house (fort) has been our main play area, using our climbing and balancing skills to move around.

At Free Rangers I am the Burrow Forest School Guru but that doesn’t stop me being involved with things the Burrow do whilst I’m out of the room! When I come back I am often greeted in the garden by children asking me to ‘play’ with them and often I think “I wonder how they expect me to play?” shall I be a fireman? Build a train?

This week the children and staff have enjoyed making boats and setting sail at the pond. After snack, we shared with the children, our pond rules; always asking the children to discuss these safety reminders, so we can gauge their understanding of these important behavioural expectations and work hard on personal risk assessment and independence.

Last week was a big success with our Pirate Ship, so this week we have been focusing on which of our toys float and which ones sink. Before we headed to our location I showed the children two picture cards with writing on, one card said floating and the other said sinking. We then discussed what we could see. 

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.

I hope you’ve had a good week and haven’t been struggling too much with all this cold weather this week! We have been double clothing the children, alongside their coats and waterproofs so no cold children here! 

Well as you may have guessed looking into the Burrow this week that we are celebrating Chinese New Year and if you didn’t know it’s the year of the monkey! The children have really got involved in our set activities especially on Forest School.