Tuesday 16th and Thursday 19th July - Year 2's final Beyond The Gate sessions.

For their final Beyond The Gate sessions with us, the Year Two children had the treat of toasting marshmallows on the fire. They absolutely loved this!

 

Whilst the fires were being lit, they were able to share their knowledge and understanding of the fire triangle and how to light fires responsibly and safely (skills for life). They all demonstrated our "safe fire position" whilst toasting their marshmallows and some could explain why this is a good position around a fire pit.

We hope these children will take with them amazing memories of their Forest School experiences as well as retain the knowledge and skills they have learnt. And, most importantly, continue to enjoy and respect nature, appreciating the awe and wonder of our natural world.

Tuesday 9th July - Rain, Mud and Swinging Fun!

Following the Year 2 requests, Mrs Dear put up a tree swing this week! This demonstrates the ethos of Forest School education - where there is a child-led approach to how sessions are planned. 

Giggles echoed around the site as most of the children in Kingfisher and Owl classes had a turn swinging. There were rich risk assessment discussions before using it, and during the play - especially when children were teaching other children how to use it safely. They loved the unpredictability of the tree swing and talked about how this was different to swings found in constructed play parks.

It was an extremely wet July day - especially in the afternoon where we had a torrential down pour (in amongst the constant light rain!). The children were not put off and relished the opportunity to freely play with mud and water again! All kinds of different games and role-plays happened with the mud and water being carried in various receptacles all over the site.

Mrs Dear had put up a vertical board with mud and paintbrushes and some children creatively drew mud pictures.

Other children continued to finish their musical instruments and others chose to create observational drawings of plants around the site.

Thursday 4th July - Moving Up Day!

As part of "moving up day", the lovely Year R children had a taster Beyond the Gate session.

They learnt how to go around our base camp circle by singing a song. Then, took part in a scavenger hunt - collecting their finds on a special stick - and finally they had a little time to freely explore the site and play.

It was lovely to see how amazed they were by the size of the site and all the things they could find. Some children choose to play on the climbing equipment while others played in the mud kitchen. Some created leaf rubbings  and others choose to relax by reading in the  tent.

Tuesday 2nd July

It was a chilly morning today with Kingfisher class - it certainly didn't feel like July - but it warmed up a little for Owl class this afternoon!

Mrs Dear challenged the classes to identify where plants were growing around the site. Using their map reading skills, the children had to mark the location of different plant species on a site map.

Over the last two weeks, some children have chosen to make a "clapper" style musical instrument. To do this, they used both a bow saw (to cut a wooden disc) and a palm drill (to make holes). Today, a few children finished them and the results were fantastic!

 

Thursday 27th June - plant & minibeast discoveries

Today was all about fascinating discoveries of flora and minibeasts with the children of Robin and Woodpecker classes. They were amazed to see hundreds of European Peacock caterpillars on the common stinging nettles near the bell tent. We hope that next week we will see some chrysalis and then, hopefully, beautiful butterflies! This discovery instigated mass minibeast hunting around the site.

The children are observing how the plants are changing as they grow through their life cycle. This week we have seen some buds on the Bristly Ox Tongue and flowers on the Creeping Thistle (which is prickly).  Also, a plethora of Birds Foot Trefoil has come into flower.

Mrs Dear showed the children how the Lords and Ladies plants are now growing their green berries (which will turn red in the Autumn). Three children in Woodpecker chose to draw some observational drawings of these during the session.

Whilst the children were freely playing and exploring, the majority of children were enjoying the opportunities available for developing gross motor skills. The hammock was enjoyed; climbing the big log tackled, and exploring balance by playing on a plank like a seesaw.

Tuesday 25th June

With the glorious sunshine, the children in Owl and Kingfishers enjoyed being Beyond the Gate today. They had the opportunity to make different types of bubble wands and seeing if they could make large bubbles!

Because the children had enjoyed making musical instruments last week, Mrs Dear gave them the opportunity to make a different style of instrument this week. For this, they could use the bow saw to cut a wood disc and then the palm drills to make holes. They then added string and beads. These will be continued next week.

Many minibeasts are being explored using bug hunting equipment and some children have even started using paper and pens to create their own minibeast hunting sheets!

Thursday 20th June - It's the Summer Solstice!

The Year 2 children have enjoyed learning about the Summer Solstice this week while Beyond the Gate. Mrs Dear taught them the science behind why we have our seasons - reinforcing the vocabulary 'tilt', 'spin', 'orbit' and 'solstice'.

Some children choose to use the power of the sun to make sun prints on special cyanotype paper (sun sensitive paper).

Others made jingly musical instruments from household items which would usually be thrown away. They then played them whilst singing a call and response song!

 

And lots had fun creating flower headdresses using cleaver as the base. Mrs Dear was impressed with their knowledge of the flora they were using, and some great discussions were held about how cleaver being sticky helps with its seed dispersal.

April 2024

It has been lovely to see the Year One children back Beyond the Gate in the spring sun.

Mrs Dear challenged the children with a flora scavenger hunt. Firstly, they were given a map of the site and used map reading skills to locate features such as the bell tent, shed, swamp, mud kitchen and bug skyscraper.

Each map had a star on it - in a different location – and the children had to follow the map to find the correct place. They then had to identify the plant which was growing in that location by reading a name label. They had to tell Mrs Dear the correct plant name for that point and then were given a different map. They loved this challenge and hopefully can tell you the name of some plants found around our site!

After this, the children were free to play and explore as they wished. Some children chose to continue their plant identification by leaf bashing and labelling, or collecting a leaf, cutting it in half and drawing the other half.

Amongst many different forms of free play, Mrs Dear observed one group of children making a seesaw and heard their independent risk assessment discussions: “be careful – I don’t think it is safe yet!”; “We need a team to help make it safer!”; “we need 4 people to lift that,”; “let’s be builders and build a park!”