Forest school – Day 3

The third day of our adventure was action-packed! The fire was lit and Mr. Butler was supervising the children toasting marshmallows. The day began with a safety talk describing how children should kneel on one knee when next to the fire pit. All of the children understood and behaved beautifully:

Once everyone had sated their sweet tooth, the children were tasked with building shelters for the Walkley School elves that live in the forest school. Mrs Critten modelled creating a stable point for the branches to meet. They discussed how to build structures and were encouraged to explore how they could be made stronger, stiffer and more stable:

After missing a day due to heavy rain, the children were eager to get outside!

We looked at some work by environmental artists such as Andy Goldsworthy and Chris Drury who use natural woodland materials to build and create 3D art and sculpture in the woods. The children were given the task of building their own twig tower sculptures in our forest school.

They were encouraged to gather some twigs, ready to create their twig towers. It could have a square base, a triangular base or be of their own designs.

This week in The Smartest Giants, we are spending our afternoons in Walkley Primary school’s very own forest school.

We began with a safety talk and an explanation of our boundaries. Then the fun began!

On day one we were collecting leaves to use in maths (sorting) and art (leaf rubbing and leaf crowns). The children were encouraged to find leaves of varying sizes, colours and shapes.