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!