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!
