Due to the windy weather we stayed on our school site for Forest School today.  The children collected and sorted sticks in to groups and then ordered their sticks by size.  We explored our Forest School Area at school and made stick crafts - stickmen, wands, fishing rods and even a dog toy!  Great creativity in all the wind.

We started our DT food and nutrition unit by exploring fruit and vegetables.  We started by naming and describing a wide range of fruit and vegetables.  The children gave suggestions as to how we could sort the fruit and vegetables.  We then used our knowledge that fruits contains the seed, so we had a careful look to see if we could see the seeds.  We finished the session with a food tasting and tasted the fruits that often get mistaken for vegetables (peppers, avocado, cucumber and tomato). 

This week at forest school the children were able to self select their own learning and further develop some of the skills we have started to develop.

Children selected their activities from a selection:

-Mud kitchen

-Mud painting

-Den building

-Bug hunting

-Digging

-Sculptures and transient art

This week in our class worship we thought about our spiritual selves by using windows, mirrors and doors.

Windows

Opportunities to be aware of the world in new ways, looking out into the world.

To wonder about life's WOWS. Things that are amazing.

To think about life's 'OWS' that take us by surprise!

Learning about life in all its fullness.

Mirrors

Opportunities to reflect on our experiences.

Looking inside ourselves.

Consider life's big questions and reach for some possible answers.

Learning from life by exploring our own ideas and those of others that are important to us.

Doors

Opportunities for us to respond.

Moving onto a new path or situation.

To do something creative to develop and apply our ideas.

Learning to live out our beliefs and values in real life.

We started our 'Great Explorer' topic by thinking about what explorers do.  We packed a bag for explorer bear with the things we thought he would need.  We used a map of the school to explore the school grounds and find some clues about the explorers we are going to learn about during our history topic.

Our first session at Forest School was cold and frosty, the children enjoyed learning our rules for Forest School.

No pick,

No lick, 

Be careful with that stick,

And... stop at the boundary!  

We enjoyed exploring The Parks Plantation, whilst hunting for forest treasure and looking for signs of winter.  Special treasures included: bone fragments, empty snail shells, leaves, sticks, holly berries, nuts and feathers.  We cannot wait to go back next week!

In our science learning this week, we sorted different materials into groups.  We started to talk about different materials and what they are used for.  Here you can see how we sorted the different materials into wood, glass, metal, fabric, paper and plastic.