What an amazing way to wrap up our Forest School journey this term. Games, craft, cooking, chilling and reflecting.
After some running around to keep us warm playing ‘predator and prey’ (thank you Year 4s for your expertise on the subject), it was time for the children to leave their mark on the trees that they have played around, in and on over the past 12 weeks. Everyone made faces out of clay and attached them to the trees; it was lovely for them to leave their mark for others to find and also for them to return to, and remember their time at Forest School.
As they were sculpting their faces, wonderful creative stories emerged about their character as they used their imagination to explain to each other who their clay face was. Some were happy, some had a moustache or had a beard and there were a lot with leafy hair! Some expressive eyebrows made us laugh and they all looked like they were enjoying life stuck to a tree!
Then we got the fire going and got cooking. There was popcorn (cooked in the sieves), cooked apples that were covered with sugar and cinnamon (on the extending sticks), and festive mincemeat donuts (these were fried in the pan). After a sample of this delicious donut delight, everyone loved it and wanted to make more and more and more! It was rather like we had been hit by a swarm of locusts until we ran out of ingredients!
While some children prepared and cooked, others were chilling in the hammocks or trying to master the extended slackline building on our experience of using it last time. Everyone was so busy and we couldn’t believe how quickly time flew by. Others created their own clay art.
Finally, we all took it in turns to pour a cup of water on the fire to extinguish it for one last time and we reflected and shared our favourite moment of our Forest School journey. Although this was the final session in school for this group, we thought about how it could actually be a new beginning. The children all know the activities they have experienced and enjoyed outside in nature, they have that knowledge and can go out and to fields or woodlands and play games, build dens, look after nature and find out about animals and trees there, with friends and family. They also know about using a fire pit and keeping safe. The story for them has only really just started. A new beginning …
It has been a privilege to work alongside this fantastic group of young people. They have come so far and learnt so much: listening to boundaries to keep safe, lighting and cooking on a camp fire, to use a variety of tools, looking after and caring for our environment and identification skills of plants and animals.
Every single one of them has grown in confidence and they have really improved their communication and social skills. I wouldn’t be surprised if we have some future chefs, carpenters, craft people, survival experts, environmentalists and even Forest School Leaders from the group.
