Explorers
2024 - 2025
Spring 2
19th March 2025
Something had happened in our classroom and the dragon eggs in the nest had cracked but there was nothing inside. We searched around the outdoor area to see if we could find the baby dragon. Some of us made our own dragons using found natural things.
12th March 2025
This week at “Knight School” the children learned about dragons. We learned that they might be lurking unseen right in front of us and we didn’t know it. We went on a hunt to see what signs we could see and there were lots of scales, horns, claw marks and hidden eyes around.
5th March 2025
This week in "Knight School" we looked at what knights wear. The children identified, armour, chainmail, warm clothing underneath. They said that they would also carry things such as swords, axes and shields. They said that they would also have a uniform and we talked about how they would have standards or the family crest or coat of arms. They identified this could either be their family or those who they worked for such as a lord or royalty. They made their own shields with an image they invented to represent them in battle using found natural materials.
26th February 2025
This week Explorers received an invitation to knight school. We learned a little about castles and made our own model castles using natural materials we found in the Forest School area. We were able to name some of the parts of the castle such as battlements and towers.
Spring 1
12th February 2025
This week we carried out our Big Bird Watch. The children had the binoculars and marked down on the sheet which birds they had seen.
5th February 2025
This week Explorers looked at birds nests and what materials they use to make them . They looked at which ones were for structure and which were to keep them warm. Then they went to look to see if they could find any bird nest hiding in the trees around school. Some children wanted to refill the bird feeders we made in a previous week.
29th 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.
22nd January 2025
This week Explorers practiced moving around carefully and quietly with the game ‘Keeper of the Keys’.
The keeper sits in the middle and the other children try to take them without the child in the middle noticing. Some children had very good listening skills and some were good at quietly taking the keys.
15th January 2025
This week Explorers made bird feeders to encourage the birds into our school grounds ready for our RSPB Big Schools Birdwatch.
8th 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
27.11.2024
This week Explorers looked at animals native to the UK and were very surprised by some of them such as the adder. They did not think that any snakes lived in the wild in England. We talked about how some animals ears move then we played a game where we had to move like a specific animal but we had to listen carefully to what was being said as sometimes the action was wrong such as “fly like a frog”
20.11.2024
Today Explorers investigated the snow and ice. We looked at what sounds it made when we stood on it, what it felt like under our feet and looked carefully to see what patterns we could find in the ice.
13.11.2014
No.16 Wear a wild crown. Explorers made jewellery using leaves and treasures they found that they thought were beautiful.
Autumn 1
22.10.2024
This week Explorers collected leaves and used them to collage the spines on a hedgehog picture.
9.10.24 - Practicing Putting on our Wellies
This week we read The Acorn by Edward Gibbs and practiced taking out their wellies and changing them in the outdoor classroom before the lesson.
26.9.2024 - 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.
18.9.2024 - 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 and spent some time trying to learn each others name a little better.
11.9.2024 - No. 12 Have fun with sticks
For our first week of Forest School we were introduced to Sammy Snake, our rope bus that we used to get outside keeping together. 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.
Visit the 50 things website to find out more information.
2023-2024
Summer 2
17th July 2024
Today Explorers made bottle rockets and used alka-seltzers to launch them. They learned about how pressure builds inside the bottle causing the top to open and this propels the rocket into the air.
Bottle Rocket Launch
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
This week Explorers have been looking at the book the 3 Little Pigs and so in Forest School we made our own mini stick houses to leave as potential habitats for small animals and insects.
Summer 1
22nd May 2024
Today Explorers learned lots of facts about bees and we played some bee themed games in the hall.
15th May 2024
This week Explorers tried to find the trees using the ID jars that Year 6 made last week. The jars were looking a bit murky, so once we found each tree, we replaced what was in them and added some glycerin to preserve the newly added leaves.
8th May 2024
Today Explorers 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 the children went on a ug hunt they found all sorts of interesting species and we had to look some of them up after as we weren’t sure what they were.
24th April 2024
Today a KS2 child read us 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 Explorers played the Gruffalo game, they were given a creature (mouse, fox, snake, owl) and when their creature was said in the story they had to run around the circle back to their spot. We had some very tired mice who will definitely sleep tonight!
28th February 2024
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
7th February 2024
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.
24th January 2024
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’.
17th January 2024
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
Explorers dressed dolly pegs using found natural materials creating clothes. They made lots of different 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.
Slow motion video of the winners race.
4th October 2023
We read the story “123 Where are you?…123 Here I am!” and practiced hiding quietly so that we would know what to do when observing wildlife, while playing a hide and seek game.
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.
13th September 2023
For our first Forest School session we all got to know the new reception children a little better and the Year 1 children helped them to learn the Forest School rules and introduced them to their favourite Forest School game 'Squirrels Scamper'. We also sang a new Forest School song.