Stanton St QuintinPrimary School

Discovering Together

Forest School

Welcome to Forest School pages. We hope you enjoy looking and reading about our Forest School experiences. 

Page 4

  • Winter Wonderland

    Published 14/12/22

    We have had a lot of enjoyment visiting the woods in the snow today.

    Some children worked together to create amazing Swedish snow lanterns; made by placing and stacking snowballs into a mound and putting a light inside. These sculptures channel children's energy and focus and look beautiful lit up in the dark. Here are a few pictures from our day...

     

     

     

     

     

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  • Whittling

    Published 04/12/22

    Over the last couple of weeks, some of the children have chosen to try their hand at whittling.

    The children identified the hazel tree and learned how we coppice the wood on a diagonal, so that water hitting the cut branch flows outwards, rather than inwards towards the tree where it could lead to infection.

    Everyone listened attentively as we chatted about the rules - asking to enter the tool circle and waiting to be welcomed in, then waiting patiently for their turn...

    The children put a glove on their non-tool holding hand and earned to whittle in the space between their knees; so that if the peeler slips, it would not catch their leg...

    They held the handle of the peeler and moved it in a downwards  direction away from the gloved hand.

    And at the end, the children had an amazing wand to take home! I was very proud of their achievements.

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  • Celebratory leaf stitching

    Published 13/11/22

    With so many celebrations happening at this time of year, the children had the option of making leaf garlands.

    We made our own needles using small sticks and attached wool, learning how to tie a cow hitch knot. Then we chose leaves to thread onto our wool, which generated wonderful opportunities for learning about the trees in our woodland as we studied the leaves we chose.

     

     

     

     

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  • The wonderful world of webs

    Published 03/11/22

    Inspired by the amazing spider webs that glisten with dew in the mornings, we shared the story 'Walter's Wonderful Web' by Tim Hopgood. 

    The children then had the opportunity to create their own webs, either individually or in groups. The team work and communication was incredible, as you can see from these fantastic creations...

     

     

    There was even a spider created...

    Mini webs...

      

    and leaves threaded through as flies...

    After the webs were created it was time to see if we could get through the webs without touching, or be caught in the web for a spider's dinner!

     

     

    Webs are fundamental to the life of a spider - it is their home and how they attract their food. They also have an important role in the ecosystem as they help to control the number of insects and spiders themselves are a source of food for many birds, hedgehogs, shrews and toads. 

    Did you know - spider silk if five times stringer than steel!

     

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  • Nature and Art Unite

    Published 29/09/22

    Inspired by the beautifully illustrated story of Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert, some children went off to create their own leaf art. Here are a few of the creations...

    ''A cat and it's funny because it has a square head"

    "A leaf friend, these acer the legs arms and head. I think I will add wings, then it can fly and make friends in the woods."

    "A magical unicorn."

     

    This activity offered up the opportunity to talk to the children about the leaves they had chosen; to notice their shape and size and look at the surrounding trees to see where they might come from.

    Noticing the different colours of the leaves we were able to relate this to changes that happen in Autumn and talk about why leaves change colour.

    Did you know: During Autumn and Winter, there is not enough sunlight for leaves to make their food and trees will live off the food they stored in the Summer. As the green colour (chlorophyll) disappears from the leaves, we see all the different colours, like orange and yellow. These colours have been there all along, but we only see them when the green fades. The brown we see in leaves comes from waste that is left in the leaves.

    One child made a picture frame around their leaf art and this led to some wonderful knot work as we worked together to create picture frames from sticks, using square lashing...

      

     

     

    We rounded off the session with a game of 'Otters and beavers', with much hilarity and excitement!

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  • Whole School Woodland Walk

    Published 08/07/22

    Today, the whole of Stanton School visited our local woodland!

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