Author: jennyf74

🌳🌲🌳PERFECT week to introduce The Bog Baby 😂💚💚

🌳🌲🌳A great introduction to the ‘wild’ and what lives in our Spinney, making habitats for our toy woodland friends 🐰 🦡 🐿️ 🦔 💚

🌳🌲KS1 outdoor learning using my trusty cardboard shape cut outs to make and spot similar shapes in nature and then for some to decide to make their own patterns. Love it!! 🌲🌳💚

🌲🌳🌲AN awesome time discovering wonderful worms 🪱 this week … playing woolly worms, sharing our worm facts (I’m
learning more on a daily basis!!) AND making some wormeries, just to keep an eye on before we return them to the Spinney 🪱🪱💚💚

🌳🌲🌳MINDFULNESS activities just kind of thrown out there … scavenger hunts and wool wrapping. 💚

🌳🌲🌳SO impressed with the focus of my group who I didn’t think would go for this … but they did and now they want to do more! 🌲🌳💚

🌳🌲🌳🌲WHAT a beautiful afternoon to celebrate Imbolc with thoughts as to its origin and meaning. Recognising the growth under our feet and using the nature centric circle to look at ourselves coming out of wintering, making plans and looking forward to the light and feeling warmth. ☀️

🌳🌲🌳BIG thanks to everyone able to attend this community session, and to Claire for all your help and fab pewter casting 🥰.

🌲🌳🌲WATCH this space for the next event … will hold off until the site is drained and spring has sprung to celebrate a rather significant turning of the wheel for me …. 🌳🌲🌳🌲

Love Jenny and Claire xx

🌳🌲🌳SUCH muddy joy this week!

🌲🌳🌲THIS week hedgehogs 🦔 telling tales on magpies as they found a BIG mess in the Spinney. Lots of gasps of ‘what a mess’ as we looked at what should and shouldn’t be in our Spinney with a BIG litter pick. This was for our reception classes – hopefully paving the way for a respect of nature for our youngest caretakers. 💚💚.

🌳🌲🌳LOTS of mini beast interest this week 🪱 🐜 , with Imbolc past and some milder temperatures here (then possible snow storms the next 😆), it feels like there are signs of Spring emerging. Shoots and sap, buds on trees. Can’t wait to not have to keep taking my shoes on and off as I come and go from the school to the Spinney 🌱🌱. Already wishing for the ease of JUST getting outside without a full on change of clothes. I am sure I am not the only one, particularly after today 😆😆 🌧️ 🌧️ 🌲🌳🌲💚

🌳🌲🌳LOTS of interesting questions asked this week when we found the remains of a pigeon. Conversations surrounding what happened? Another bird, cat or fox? Shall we bury it? Does it go to heaven? Lots of thoughts in decorating the grave, later inspected by an older year group and we then talked about soil, decomposition and nutrients.

🌲🌳🌲Child led learning and conversations YET linked to the classroom. Perhaps a more hands on visual way of seeing and learning. I reported back to the teacher who was very impressed on how much had been observed and reported from her input.

🌳🌲🌳The Forest School Associstion has defined six key principles of Forest school and supporting children’s learning falls within this, whether intentionally curriculum linked or not, learning outside the classroom has its place in mainstream schools – we just need to work out what this looks like. 🌳🌲

🌲🌳🌲I can’t help but wonder why all things ‘soil’ are being taught in the classroom. Better links need to be made with outdoor learning to sit within the curriculum and not just as an add-on. 🤓🤓🌳🌲🌳💚

🌲🌳🌲A real mix of weathers this week for the children to explore – shouts of joy and ‘it’s Christmas!’ as the seasons all got a bit mixed up 🌬 ❄️ 🌞. WE enjoyed swinging in hammocks, making our own rope swings – fantastic knot tying!! – den building, hide n seeking (ideal for a sneaky rest in a hammock), team playing, friendship firming, dandelion pancake making, tree climbing, whittling, wand making, Easter egg hunting and whatever else we could come up with! 🌲🌳🌲

🌳Photos taken before school 😊🌳