They were really reduced...

A post-swimming trip to our local garden centre resulting in finding a couple of bargains...

Tree Spirits

Tree Spirits with Year 4

I loved making Tree Spirits with my Year 4 class - this was before I had had my initial week's training. It was great to share them through our class blog.

Sharing the vision

Attending the first aid training gave Becky and I time to refocus our plans and think about the timescales involved. Today was the day we had arranged to share our plans with our headteacher.

To immerse her fully, we decided to start by taking her down to our propsed site. Wellies on and we were off. Being winter there were no leaves on trees enabling us to have better visibility of the site. We shared the idea of where our fire circle would be and how we envisaged the area having a wilder look, where the mowers wouldn't have to come round.

Health and Safety and vandals were top of her list of concerns, especially around the idea of having fires. We discussed not removing fallen branches and leaving them where they fell - to provide materials for children to explore. Longer term, we discussed creating an open structure for an outdoor classroom.

Back inside we went through our proposal and explained the different phases we would have where we would be working with different groups of children at different times.

In relation to funding, she asked if we would be willing to present to the Parent and Teachers Association, who she was confident would provide the bulk of the funding for equipement.

All in all she was in favour of our plans.

Relief.

Happy Christmas!

Romantic present collection from my husband!

My husband is incredibly supportive of my Forest School journey and even went on the Forest School site to buy some kit for me as a Christmas present - unbeknownst to me!



*After all the family had gone and the boy was fast asleep I received an enternity ring too - I love Forest School but I think the ring wins here!

Whittling ~ Knots ~ Trees

A strange combination you may think - my Amazon recommendations are going to be a huge jumble with the arrival of three books. Just need some time to explore them now...

Week one photos

I used a billhook to split these!

Our own pegged out fire - feeling proud

Kerry using the dragon's sneeze and pixie pillow

long continuous blows to feed the fire with oxygen

Becky all wrapped up and chilling in the hammock

aiming for the hoop

Recapping our learning

splitting using a billhook

pan pizza on the fire

tying up tarps

My bow saw tool talk

shelter success

tinder and kindling collections

At last...

The time was right for me as changes within my year group and the new curriculum opened the door into the outside.

Through persistence of a colleague, Becky, we were booked on to our Level 3 Forest School Practitioner training: without having to pay for ourselves or complete during school holidays.

It all seemed to happen so fast but we were starting our journey to having a Forest School within our school grounds.