Tuesday 22nd July

For our last ever block of forest school adventures we have let the children do lots of deciding, problem solving and leading. On the mini bus Lisa asked the children where they wanted to go, several of our friends expressed an interest to explore the balancing stones, and the others wanted to see the orange river following a chat with Kirsten.

So we had a very busy day ahead especially if we wanted to fit everything in. One of the children led the way, keeping a sharp look out for any dangers, calling back to his friends when needed. He then spotted some poo on the path which the children were intrigued by as it looked different. After some researching we narrowed it down to either fox or deer poo. A little bit more research was needed and we collectively decided it was fox poo!

We then chose another friend to have a turn at leading the way, he worked closely with another child who helped navigate the way to the balancing stones.

Once there the children went off exploring in all directions. One of our friends found a hidden walk way and inside was a massive house of sticks. We wonder who lives in a house of sticks?

Well… we spotted some more poo! There were lots of fabulous guesses as to the animal this poo may belong to, so we took some pictures and Agreed we would carrying out some further research as soon as we could.

The children demonstrated their amazing physical skills as they balanced their way over the stones, some playing with sticks pretending to be deer and unicorns, others enjoying picking and smelling the mint, and others went off taking risks in the climbing tree. One of our friends spotted some deer poo and wondered if the deer decided to poo here because of all the beautiful smelling mint, another friend suggested we pick some mint as there was a lot and took it back to nursery to explore. After co-researching with Kirsten using the our seek app, we found out that the mint we found was watermint and is an edible plant.

After gathering some mint it was time to stop for our lunch. During lunch we had a little visit from a deer! It was grazing on the nearby plants and we couldn’t believe our eyes with how close the deer came.

After lunch it was the tricky task of navigating a very big and steep hill but working two at a time, using our arms outstretched and keeping our knees bent, the children safely made their way down the hill demonstrating their amazing abilities. It was a little trickier getting the trolley down but with some team work Kirsten and Lisa managed it. But uh oh! A fence and a bridge. It was like we were in a real life bear hunt story. The children gave us some amazing encouragement as Kelly, Lisa, and Kirsten worked together to lift the heavy trolley up and over the fence then ever so carefully over the very wobbly bridge. But uh oh! The wobbly bridge wobbled and the heavy trolley toppled and oh no! Lisa fell into the swamp (good job it had all dried up!)

Then ever so quietly the children tiptoed one at a time over the bridge, hoping not to scare the bear or the troll! We made it!

Once safely at the other side we began our descent to find the orange river. Using our sharp senses the children could hear the rushing current of water and were very pleased to spot the orange river. Although we weren’t as happy with the Very smelly and strong egg smell!

As we began our adventure further into the woodland we began spotting lots of beautiful butterflies, and Lisa came prepared! We each took a butterfly check list and began using our sharp eyes to see how many different types of butterflies we could see. Ranging from painted ladies, to speckled wood.

As we headed up towards the mini bus we decided to stop at our main site to show Kelly since it was her first time with us at Blaydon Burn, but unfortunately the plants were so overgrown it was nearly impossible to get through!

Before we knew it the minibus was there and waiting for us. After a super busy day we all enjoyed some quiet time on the bus, some of us even nodded off for a while!

Thursday 10th July

This week we asked our driver to drop us at the very edge of our forest school where the huge ponds are. The children took charge and we appointed a ‘leader’ who would try and navigate through the forest to find the biggest pond. On the way we spotted butterflies, dogs and lots of birds. Eventually we spotted some water and as we walked around the corner we were greeted by a HUGE pond! The children were completely amazed! We talked about water safety and there were several signs which showed us how to be keep ourselves safe. We looked on watching ripples on the water, the birds flying overhead and anglers attempting to catch a fish.

 After leaving the pond, we headed down towards the deeper part of forest school. On the way we spotted a stony area where the children demonstrated their balancing skills. We all attempted to walk along the stones and stay off the ground which was pretty tricky! We decided we would use the rocks to create a bridge across the grass and see how far we could get. The children stood in a line and passed stones along before placing them at the end. The path went on and on and on. What amazing teamwork!

 

After lunch, it was time to leave and we headed towards the minibus pick up point. This time another child took charge. We were a little earlier than we expected so had enough time to go on a mini adventure. One of the children pointed out that the woodland was very dense and it looked like the ‘deep, dark woods’. We quietly headed inside before we all heard our leader shout those words we love to hear, “deer, deer, there’s a deer’ and sure enough a beautiful deer ran past. What a great way to end our day!

Thursday 26th June

We are so lucky to have a huge forest school and each week we discover new spaces which challenge children’s thinking. This week we were dropped off at the very top of our site. This was a new area to the children and very quickly the children became intrigued by the space. We began observing a beautiful wildflower area where we spotted an abundance of creatures. There were ladybirds, moths, butterflies and bees present.

The children spotted a brick wall with arches. They wondered what it could have been. Was it a wall? Was it a bridge or was it was a home for a troll? We headed further into forest school to discover different walls but these ones had small holes in them. Some were square whilst others were circular. We had lots of theories about what these might be. The children eventually concluded, they must be animal homes.

After lunch we decided to venture further down the path until we found a small stream with a bridge. The children immediately began to explore the area. This led to the children exploring floating with various natural materials. The forest school environment provides many opportunities for scientific discovery. The children quickly discovered what would and would not float.

Tuesday 17th June

This week at forest school, it was fire week! The children were all excited and even more so when they realised it was pizza and pancakes for lunch! This is one of our favourite meals to cook on the open fire. The children had a range of ingredients to choose from so they could make the perfect pizza.

We discussed fire safety and each child tried out our firelighter. They were all amazing and managed to create a spark completely independently.

After lunch we got busy working on our allotment. The children worked extremely hard to pull more of the weeds out at the top of the garden in preparation for our new herb bed. We hope to add some fresh herbs to our pizza next time.

Tuesday 10th June

This week the children decided they would like to go on another forest school adventure and this one would be completely different from our usual weeks. We asked our driver to drop us off at a different part of our site and this would access a space which the children had never visited.

At the very bottom of our forest school site is the River Tyne. We walked down the bank, under the bridge and the children were amazed to see the huge river. We sat for a while looking for various wildlife. As the river is linked to the sea, we were hopeful to spot some octopus', dolphins, sharks, jellyfish and whales but sadly on this occasion we didn’t see any of these things. We did however find lots and lots of seaweed and a family of horses!

The children were intrigued by the river and wondered where all the water was coming from. We quickly formulated a plan to find the source of the water and off we went. On the way we found a very interesting old building which the children were sure must have been a castle. We followed the sound of water until we came to a bridge and found a beautiful waterfall. We decided to create some small boats made from leaves and sticks which we could float down the river. The children made some amazing creations which sailed off out to sea.

After lunch, we headed back towards the minibus but on the way we heard a strange noise. It sounded like a pterodactyl. Surely, there were no dinosaurs living in our forest. We were not waiting to find out and walked a little quicker up the path. One of the children spotted a T-Rex lurking in the bushes and this began a fun hiding game. We quickly ran up onto one of the hills to hide in the bushes. It was a very steep bank but with a little help from our friends we all climbed up safely. Once we thought it was safe to do so, we headed back to the path but the T-Rex was back. One of the adults explained to the children that if we saw a T-Rex we had to curl up into a little ball and make ourselves as small as possible so it couldn’t see us. The children thought this was hilarious and great fun. Each time the adult shouted “T-Rex”, the children (and grown-ups) curled up small. It was a great source of entertainment but we did have some curious looks from local dog walkers!

Tuesday 3rd June

This week at forest school we decided to explore a part of forest school which we hadn't visited for quite some time. The children were keen to see if anything had changed and quickly discovered seeds and snail. We then headed along the path and found a beautiful open meadow which the children enjoyed exploring. The meadow gave the children the freedom and space to run really fast before discovering a dried out swamp area which was perfect for a spot of balancing. There was also a huge hill which the children wanted to explore but first they had to get over the deep ditch. With a bit of support from one another, they were quickly on their way.

One group of children got involved with some mud drawings which was lots of fun whilst others played one, two, three, where are you? and everyone else explored the stoney desert.

The rest of the day was spent building stones sculptures, checking our holes in the hill, finding a bear den and providing first aid to a bee. What a day!

Tuesday 27th May

This week’s forest school took a different turn. We headed off into the woodland with lots of different ideas as to what we would do that day. The day started with a sighting of, not one but four little rabbits running across our path. What a delight! As we reached the wooded space, one of the grown-ups asked if everyone could find four sticks of roughly the same size. The children got busy immediately finding their sticks and created a frame. The children then looked around to find some natural materials to create their own work of art. The children showed their amazingly creative talents, creating beautiful art pieces.

After lunch we headed to the pond and discovered something rather amazing! Two swans and six cygnets and they were beautiful! We also noticed something else lurking in the water. The children wondered what it could be and the final decision was - it was a crocodile!!!!!!!

So next time you venture off into the woodland and you find a pond, keep a close eye on the water! There may be something watching you!

Thursday 22nd May

Our final week of forest school was upon us, and we were extremely excited for fire week! The children listened beautifully as Diane explained the rules of fire week, to ensure we all understood and were able to keep ourselves and friends safe. We watched in awe and wonder as Diane began laying the structure for the fire, learning some new words such as kindling, tinder, flint, and steel! The children showed their amazing understanding of the rules as they kindly reminded Kirsten, Lisa and Tara of the safety rules as they moved around the fire circle. The children listened carefully to the fire and enjoyed a quiet moment as we could hear the snap, crackle and pop of the flames against the wood. Sitting around the fire we all enjoyed some open fire cooked pizza before finishing off with some chocolate covered pancakes with strawberries! What a treat, and it was super delicious!

Once the fire was out and the allotment became a safe space again, the children all helped Lisa and Tara to fill up their buckets with some bark from our recent delivery and transport it back into our allotment. This was very tiring work, so we took regular water breaks as well as ending our day with a relaxing sit in the sunshine, working together to pull out some weeds amongst our beautiful purple flowers.

Thursday 15th May

Today we arrived at forest school and walked straight to our site ready to start our day. On arrival, we chatted briefly about keeping safe but the children were keen to get busy. Some children chose to work on the den, others explored the bouncy log whilst a few children chose to practice climbing the tree.

Later in the morning some children began exploring the boundaries of our site. They wondered how they could get to the hill but were met with a huge boggy swamp and nettles. We wondered if there was another way to explore the hill so we began looking around. We found an old bridge which a previous group of children had made but it was beginning to look old. We decided to rebuild the bridge so we could cross. It was hard work to find big branches and even more tricky to move them to the right place. The children worked as a team to carry the biggest branches to the bridge. They were then placed in between the existing branches to repair the bridge.

Once complete, we headed across the bridge. This would be the beginning of a forest school adventure! We looked around and wondered how we would get back to our camp. Some children thought we could turn left whilst other thought we could head right. We voted and the decision was to turn right. We headed up the boggy hill, navigating ferns, squishy mud and fallen trees. Once at the top we thought about which way we would walk. Both choices meant we had to climb up hills, balance walking back down hills and finally walk back along the path back to our site. This provided the children with many opportunities to develop their skills in balancing, negotiating spaces and compromise.

Thursday 8th May

This week we decided to get onto our site as quickly as we could to ensure we had lots of time to explore. On the way, the children chatted about what they might see when we arrive. We were hopeful we might spot rabbits, squirrels, deer, a Gruffalo and maybe even a cheetah! Well, you never know!

On arrival we chatted about how to keep ourselves safe and the children quickly reiterated our forest school promises. We headed off down the path and stopped just as we reached our site. Now was the time for tip toe toes and quiet voices just incase we spotted any animals. Sadly, on this occasion, there were no animals waiting for us but we did spot something interesting. it was a tiny fragment of egg. We wondered where the egg could have come from. We could hear birds all around us and one of the children was adamant the noise came from a blackbird.

 After a quick chat, we got busy. The children had already planned for their day and their grown-ups didn’t feature it! There was den building, role play, balancing, sliding, tree climbing, writing in the mud with sticks, negotiating new pathways through the garlic and animal hole spotting to name a few. The children demonstrated their newly learned forest school skills as well as those acquired at home and nursery. There was communication, negotiation, compromise, risk assessing, supporting others, working together, spacial awareness, physical skills (both fine and gross), balancing, the list goes on! All of this from self-chosen, independent activities with their friends in a wonderful environment. No wonder forest school is such a hit!

Thursday 1st May

The 3-4’s group had an incredible first session at Forest School! Excitement filled the air as we boarded the minibus, eager to embark on our adventure. Upon arriving at the site, the children were brimming with enthusiasm, ready to explore.

We began by discussing our Forest School expectations to ensure everyone’s safety. As we paused to listen, one child observed, “I can hear different birds up there”, while another wisely noted, “We need to use calm voices, or we’ll frighten them away”. We even identified a warning call from a blue tit, likely alerting others to our presence as we wandered through its habitat.

Once we reached our main site, the children enjoyed a guided tour, while the adults shared fascinating plant and tree facts. Then, an unexpected surprise—Kirsten had gone missing! We were astonished to find that our grown-up friend had forgotten the golden rule: ‘Stay together’. To bring her back, we played the "One, two, three—where are you?" game, eventually finding Kirsten who reassured us she would stick with the team moving forward.

After our adventure, we settled down for a picnic and enjoyed ample time to explore. Some children engaged in imaginative role play, others climbed trees and a few worked together to build a sturdy den. The freedom to investigate, create, and immerse ourselves in nature made for a truly memorable day.

We can’t wait to return next week for more discoveries and fun!

Tuesday 22nd April

This week at forest school, the children enjoyed one of their favourite things – fire week! As we arrived, we had a quick check in the pond to see what amazing creatures may be living in it. We immediately spotted hundreds of tadpoles. They were very active and were enjoying themselves swimming around and even occasionally popping their head out of the water. We then sat in our fire pit where Jen gave us a fire safety chat. Soon it was time to get to work building the fire. The children discussed what sorts of resources we may need to create a fire but there was one thing no one had used before, a fire lighter!

We lit the fire but then it was time for the children to have a go. After a quick demonstration, they were pros! Everyone managed to make a spark. We enjoyed our lunch and pudding. There is nothing quite like pancakes with melted chocolate and strawberries cooked on the fire. Delicious!

Look at what we found in our shed!

After lunch, we cleared our fire pit, ensuring we followed our forest school rules of always leaving the area as you find it and off we headed into the forest. This time round, we were heading in from a different direction so there were lots of new things to see and engage with. The children found a huge meadow which gave us the opportunity to stretch our legs and run as quickly as our legs could carry us, making everyone chuckle. As we headed down the big path, Jen pointed out the ‘sneaky path’ which all children who have ever been to forest school know about. This path allows the children to walk down by themselves and the grownups meet at the bottom (we can of course see the children clearly but they don’t know that). The children thought this was amazing and they displayed their forest school knowledge by putting out their arms and bending their knees to balance. This led to the children climbing other small hills and before we knew it our day was over. See you next time forest school!

Tuesday 15th April

This week we have been extremely busy filling our day with fun and adventures. As we arrived at camp we decided as a group that a shelter may be needed as the weather forecast predicted rain showers. We worked together to pull out the tarp and attach it to the trees, luckily the rain stayed away and we had a lovely dry day.

The children very quickly began exploring and the tree slide was the first place to visit!

One of the children had observed the trees as we walked through the woods and continued this as she explored the site. She was intrigued by the fallen trees and described them as being upside down. We discussed why the trees may have fallen down and what would happen to them. The children thought they would make great animal homes. One of the grown ups explain that dry sticks are great to use as fire wood. As it is fire week next week we then collected sticks to use on our fire, we found lots of different sticks, long, short and even different shapes.

We had lots of fun making our own mud dough! This activity was a one that divided the group as some loved the messy activity but some children were not sure about the texture. The children were very creative and used the natural resources to add to their dough.

After a busy morning we had lunch and then decided to explore the woodland further. This was a great opportunity for the children to explore different terrain and test their physical skills. We climbed a big hill which was tricky but we made it!

The children negotiated narrow walk ways, slippy embankments and there were so many opportunities to balance. We also took time to lie back and take in the surroundings. We listen to the birds and how tranquil the woods are.

We had an amazing day and look forward to next week!

Tuesday 8th April

This week the children have continued their explorations in the forest. The children have been interested in climbing, balancing and finding different ways to move around the woodland. This helps the children to develop confidence in the space as well as developing physical skills, spacial awareness and risk assessing.

The children are intrigued by sticks and what they can be used for. This week we planned to create fishing rods which the children used in the river to catch fish. We caught a Nemo fish, a Dory fish and some tuna fish which was lucky because we needed something tasty for our lunch!

The interest in sticks continued and the children began to explore the height of sticks. Some children tried to find the longest sticks possible and began to measure them against their friend but who could find a stick taller than a grownup? After a lot of mathematical learning the children began to use their sticks in different ways. We added some to our den, we reached up high as we attempted to touch the tallest trees and some were even used as swords!

Tuesday 1st April

This week saw a brand new group of forest schoolers heading off to the woodland with a few of their older preschool friends. As we arrived, we talked about what we may see and there were lots of ideas! The children thought there may be birds and squirrels with the addition of tigers and Gruffalos. What an imaginative group but the grown ups weren’t sure if they wanted to bump into a tiger or a Gruffalo!

The children spent their day balancing, climbing, bouncing, running, crawling and rolling. We were amazed by the capabilities of the children and even on week one we observed some fast developing skills. At the end off our day, the children walked along the woodland path towards the minibus and to our surprise, there stood two beautiful deer! What a great end to a perfect forest school day!

Thursday 20th March

Thursday 27th March

This week the children wanted to visit the same site as last week but wanted to get there as quickly as possible so we could spend lots of time exploring. We found an old stream and immediately the children wanted to get inside and negotiate a route through. As we arrived onsite, the children split themselves into three groups, one decided to venture into the dried up swamp, another ventured to the big puddle/swamp and the others wanted to climb trees.

The dried up swamp provided the children with amazing balancing opportunities whilst the puddle/swamp provided lots of splashing and jumping in muddy water. The children who chose to climb the tree learned new skills in communication, gross motor skills and problem solving.

After lunch we headed away from this site and into a more sheltered one as we needed a little shade from the sun. On the way we discovered footprints. Luckily one of our children had already identified the type of animals which live in the forest. He knew immediately it was a bear! We had swishy swashy grass, trees, a cave and mud. He must be right! Luckily, he even had his bear book with him which provided an insight into what kind of bear. After a lot of discussion, we finally concluded, we have brown bears living in our forest school. Lucky us!

Thursday 6th March

This week we began forest school with a brand-new group of extremely excited children ready for woodland adventures. As usual, we chatted to the children about where we would visit that day and the children decided they would like to go where there was water. We are very lucky to have some very large ponds on our site so it was off to the ponds for a day of exploring. When we arrived, we noticed some men angling. The children were intrigued and the kind men came and chatted with us about the types of fish which were present in the pond, even showing us one of their biggest catches.  The children shared their own knowledge of fishing with one child stating, “In Peter Rabbit, the fish like shiny things”. The man agreed and explained that pike do like shiny things. The children are very good at teaching the adults too!

 We continued our day walking through the beautiful woodland discovering some new and exciting places to explore. We found a huge ditch which we attempted to climb over. It was really tricky but we had lots of fun trying. We also found a completely new piece of woodland which we have never visited before. Our plan for next week is to check on the anglers and then head to the new section of forest school so watch this space!

Tuesday 25th February

Our forest school day began as we jumped onto our minibus. We didn’t have a plan for the day but the children are always amazing at creating one. They decided they wanted to go and look for crocodiles. But which part of our forest school site would lend itself well to crocodile spotting? One of the children pointed out that last time we visited forest school, they had spotted a huge pond and that was obviously the best place to spot a crocodile so off we set. We did spot quite a lot of life around the pond but sadly no crocodiles. Maybe it was a little too cold for them.

There were lots of signs of ‘new life’ and the children were excited to spot buds on trees, catkins (or caterpillars as the children referred to them) and little yellow flowers which some children thought may be either daffodils or sunflowers. We ventured further along the path and then suddenly we found something strange, something which intrigued us all. What could it be? It looked like a wooden door in the ground. One of the grown-ups wondered if it was a trap door. Some of the children attempted to open it but it was ‘too secure’ in their words. What could be hidden beneath the wooden door? There were lots of thoughts. Could it be an animal, a gruffalo or what about a troll! But someone quickly pointed out that trolls live under bridges so it definitely wasn’t a troll. This would be mystery for another day!

We found a track which led all the way to the main part of our forest school site. Clearly the preschoolers are excellent navigators. The path was quite muddy but we do enjoy exploring muddy patches. As we headed onto our forest school site we saw something truly amazing! There in front of us stood three deer (we have been waiting for many weeks to spot them). Then we had another amazing moment. At lunch time another group of deer passed us on the hill. These deer were a slightly different colour but after waiting patiently for four weeks, we had been rewarded with spotting lots of deer. We were all thrilled!

Tuesday 18th February

This week at forest school we had lots of plans to look for signs of woodland animals so began our day at the very top of our forest school area. Our plans were quickly changed as the children discovered something amazing! We spotted huge walls, arches and doorways all around us. The children instantly thought we had walked into a derelict castle and it had been knocked down by someone or something! This discovery sparked lots of ideas about who could have lived in our forest school and what it was used for. 

The children discovered small holes in the side of the walls and wondered what might live inside. One of the children believed it could be where bats live with another child suggesting that bats only live in caves.

We soon came across an area where the trees had fallen and decided to investigate. We found a long path and wondered if this had been attached to the castle. It was a tricky climb to get up onto the path but we worked together and the rescue stick was used to help pull children up the hill. We all managed to climb to the top. Well done forest schoolers!