2024-2025
Spring 1
4th February 2025
This week Discoverers were looking at bird nests. They discussed what materials birds use and then had a go at making their own. It was a very wet session so we didn’t manage to take any photos.
28th January 2025
This week we have celebrated Chinese Culture Day and in Forest School we learned about the Lantern Festival that is held on the 15th Day of the Chinese year. We started to make our own lanterns colouring our design on parchment paper. We were really happy with the way they turned out.
21st January 2025
This week Discoverers had a practice at birdwatching. They picked a spot and tried to stay there for the whole time looking for birds that landed on this site. They were not given tick sheets as they had to rely on their identification knowledge from previous weeks and write down what they saw. They did very well remembering UK winter birds.
15th January 2025
This week Discoverers learnt about migration and how birds in the UK during winter may be different from birds in the UK during other months. We learnt that birds migrate to places where the climate is appropriate for them. We had a look at what birds we could recognise. We talked about how we would approach wildlife to make sure they didn’t get scared, then went to see if we could find any as a practice for our RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch.
7th January 2025
This week everyone picked a very special stick to represent them in an activity for our worship next week. While we were out we had snow so we enjoyed playing in the snow before it melted.
Autumn 2
10.12.2024
This week, Discoverers made Christmas Gonks using recycled cardboard for the hat and leftover wool pieces for the beard. They added little pompoms for noses.
3.12.2024
This week Discoverers made angel decorations for Christmas using recycled cardboard wool and a small paper doily. They worked really hard to wrap the wool around the doll shape. It took some real concentration.
26.11.2024
This week discoverers were thinking about hibernation. We talked about our bog babies and what they might need if they wanted to hibernate. The children made a mini hibernaculum for their bog baby.
19.11.2024
Discoverers have been learning all about Bog Babies. We discussed all the features of Bog Babies and what their habitat is like then we made our own using clay.
12.11.2024
No 16. Wear a wild crown. This week Discoverers attempted to make leaf crowns. It was quite difficult to thread through the stalks, but they persevered. Lots of the children wanted to take them home to show their grown ups how to make them.
5.11.2024
This week we learned about Remembrance and Discoverers made poppies using red leaves and card.
Autumn 1
22.10.2024
This week Discoverers made spiderwebs using sticks and wool. It was much trickier than they expected it to be.
15.10.2024 - No. 1 Get to know a tree.
This week we picked our favourite tree and did leaf and bark rubbings. We also tried to identify the species of our tree.
8.10.2024
This week we read The Acorn by Edward Gibbs and looked for tiny treasures that would fit in matchboxes.
24.9.2024 - No.30 Go on a Scavenger Hunt
This week our younger children enjoyed the story Goodbye Autumn, Hello Winter and looked for signs of autumn around our site on an Autumn scavenger hunt. There was also some Rolling down hills and Foraging Wild food as they happened upon some raspberries and wanted to give it a try.
17.9.2024 - No.18 Create some wild art
This week we looked at the story Leaf Man and found 'a Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows' we then looked around for natural materials to make our own Leaf Man.
10.9.2024 - No. 12 Have fun with sticks
We changed into our wellies and went to the outdoor classroom to hear the story 'Not a Stick' where we enjoyed hearing looking at all the things the pig imagined his stick was. Then we looked for our own special 'Not a Stick' and shared what we imagined it was.
Maybe you might like to share this story with the grown-ups at home you can watch it by clicking here.
2023-2024
Summer 2
17th July 2024
Discoverers chose what they wanted to do today and they decided to create fairy houses. They had lots of fun finding things to build them and adding in details like swimming pools and gardens.
3rd July 2024
We looked for ‘treasures’ in our Forest School area and made bracelets using what we found.
26th June 2024
This week we made boats using corks, cocktail sticks and our favourite found leaf as a sail and we raced them to see which leaves made the best sails.
19th June 2024
This week it was sports week and so we all had a go at some Forest School sports. First we threw wellies to see who could throw them the furthest. Next we had a horse race where we made long sticks into our horses and raced them down the track galloping along. Finally Year 6 did a tarpaulin race where they had to drag a member of their team along the race trac, swap people at the other end and race back again. We all enjoyed ourselves a lot and wanted to keep going with the horse racing!
5th June 2024
Today Discoverers created their own habitats for insects and small wild animals using found natural materials.
Summer 1
22nd May 2024
Today we made pop-up bee books to celebrate Bee Week. We put in all the facts that we have learned about bees so far. There were lots of very interesting facts and the books looked amazing with the bee popping out of the middle.
15th May 2024
Today Discoverers investigated different habitats within our site and had a go at making a little lift the flap book showing the habitats and what we found there.
8th May 2024
Today Discoverers made journey sticks by finding a stick, going on a journey around the grounds and adding found treasures to the stick as they went to remind them of where they had been. Afterwards we shared our journey with each other.
1st May 2024
Today Discoverers children when around our outdoor area trying to find insect habitats and what might lurk in them. They found lots of wonderful critters.
24th April 2024
Today we read a story that Mrs Abbott had given to us about hedgehogs. We remembered lots of information that Sue and Sally told us last week and could even remember that a hedgehogs nest is a hibernaculum! We played a game of 'Worm, Worm, Hedgehog!'
17th April 2024
Today we had a visit from Sue and Sally from Hog Manor who came to talk to us about the hedgehogs they rescue. They showed us how to make a hibernaculum from natural materials and showed us a real life hedgehog spine that we felt to see how sharp it was.
Spring 2
6th March 2024
Today Discoverers told tales about the cardigan monster that lives under the tree house and we used our ‘belief binoculars’ to find it. We shared tales around the fire circle and played a new game called ‘pop’ which involves naming different native flora and fauna.
This week we learnt about how important bees are to the environment and made our own little bees using Alder seeds, yellow thread and tissue paper for the wings.
Spring 1
Today the weather was finally good enough to carry out the Big Schools Birdwatch. We found a quiet spot around our site and counted all the birds we saw. We even saw a lapwing which is on the conservation list as a threatened species.
We had intended to carry out the Big Schools Birdwatch today, however 39mph winds meant that it wasn’t really Birding weather. We decided to utilise the time by refilling our bird feeders and we played a new game called ‘Roosting Starlings’.
Today we made bird feeders spreading fat onto empty toilet roll tubes and rolling them in bird seed. We are trying to encourage the birds to come ready for our RSPB big bird count next week.
10th January 2024
Today Hetty Hedgehog came to us telling us that her home had been destroyed in the recent storms and asked that the children make her a new one. We had a think about the sort of things she might need in a home. The children told Mrs Powell that Hetty should be hibernating and that she is nocturnal and should not be out during the day. They said that she would need a safe and secure home that was insulated, waterproof and windproof.
We also looked at a skull of a rabbit from a skeleton that year 6 found on the field. The children were fascinated to see what it looked like.
Autumn 2
1st November 2023
Discoverers were able to choose from making a wreath or making clothes for a peg doll using found natural materials. They produced some really lovely items and some great looking characters.
Autumn 1
18th October 2023
We read the story Leaf Man and went off to see if we could find our own Leaf Man. Some children made a self portrait using things they found around our school site.
11th October 2023
It was a wet drizzly day today. We stayed in the hall and made conker comets using our found conkers and crepe paper streamers. Then we raced them to see who could get them to go the farthest.
4th October 2023
Discoverers ground down “stones” to make Stoneage paints today and created their own cave paintings using what they had created. They used straws to blow the paint over their hands and used their fingers and hands to make other marks.
27th September 2023
We made flipper flappers today that spin in the wind. The children loved making them spin as they ran around the field.
20th September 2023
Discoverers went to Hopwood woods as part of their learning on the Stoneage. See the class page for more information on what they got up to.
13th September 2023
For our first Forest School session we reviewed the Forest School rules and played our favourite Forest School game 'Squirrels Scamper'. We also sang a new Forest School song.