Forest Walks

[Guest]

Hi all,

I am very lucky to work in an area where there are many woods within little people's walking distance. I only have 12 chn in the afternoon and thought I would make the most of this by taking a walk to the woods and having some fun.

I thought we could do a range of things from rhymes, exploration, finding plants from their pictures and a leaf collecting exercise onto double sided sticky tape as well as making mini-beast houses from twigs. But was wondering if anyone else had some more fabulous ideas? We are not a forestry sch as cannot afford it, but would love to have the opportunity to try some of the activities.

Many thanks in advance

Amanda

[Guest]

Definitely go! I took my whole class (28) on Tuesday to our local woods and we had so much fun. They were convinced we were going on a bear hunt and were disappointed we didn't find any bears! We did go through the swishy swashy grass, climbed over under and through the stile, stamped through the thick oozy mud... you get the idea!

 

It's a great opportunity just to explore the environment: we collected heaps of leaves, pine cones, bark etc that we brought back to school for our investigation table, adding a few plastic bugs for comic effect! They love looking through magnifying glasses.

 

We took lots of pictures and asked the children to think of captions for them, it's made a lovely display along with their leaf prints we've done since.

Snack was fun - there's a big tree we all sit on to eat and we talked about how we could leave our apple cores behind.

Generally they just loved being there - the conversations between the children are fab and they behaved perfectly.

 

Have a great day whenever you go!

[Guest]

I am a pack away setting with a mix of children from 2/1/2 to 4 1/2 years

we go to the forest and have done for the past 2 years. We go once a month, have our own waterproofs and wellie boots

 

we go without an agenda, the children are free to do as they wish, we go to areas that have water, huge and i mean huge muddy hills, trees to climb, fungi to explore. The children build dens, play at being stars wars sand people!, they work together as a team as well as independantly. They bring back thier learning and use it in the setting. We have some amazing photo's, videos and recordings. Sometimes we provide information/factual sheets so they/we can look up stuff. Sometimes we have magnifying glasses, rope, spades with us, but it is always the childs agenda. We have also used peelers and saws to whittle sticks and saw wood. We have made (over a fire) hot chocolate and popcorn.

 

We protected only by red tape around an designated area, the children do not go beyond this tape. We go in all weathers.

 

It has been the most amazing experience, the learning is incredible, the language and vocabulary vast.

 

The data we collected showed, that by the time most of my children were due to leave to go to school they had reached the ELG's for PSED and CLL, really fantastic achievement when most of these children were boys.

 

 

So i would say dont go with a learning intention or an agenda just go and let them do

 

but be dressed for the weather nothing worse than cold toes and ears

[Bigsue]

I am a pack away setting with a mix of children from 2/1/2 to 4 1/2 years

we go to the forest and have done for the past 2 years. We go once a month, have our own waterproofs and wellie boots

 

we go without an agenda, the children are free to do as they wish, we go to areas that have water, huge and i mean huge muddy hills, trees to climb, fungi to explore. The children build dens, play at being stars wars sand people!, they work together as a team as well as independantly. They bring back thier learning and use it in the setting. We have some amazing photo's, videos and recordings. Sometimes we provide information/factual sheets so they/we can look up stuff. Sometimes we have magnifying glasses, rope, spades with us, but it is always the childs agenda. We have also used peelers and saws to whittle sticks and saw wood. We have made (over a fire) hot chocolate and popcorn.

 

We protected only by red tape around an designated area, the children do not go beyond this tape. We go in all weathers.

 

It has been the most amazing experience, the learning is incredible, the language and vocabulary vast.

 

The data we collected showed, that by the time most of my children were due to leave to go to school they had reached the ELG's for PSED and CLL, really fantastic achievement when most of these children were boys.

 

 

So i would say dont go with a learning intention or an agenda just go and let them do

 

but be dressed for the weather nothing worse than cold toes and ears

 

Wonder how you became so knowledgeable ????????? Joking Suer

I agree woth Suer we do the same and my daughter is in a school and is begining to do the same things she has a great wooded area in her grounds But hey she doesn't always have the resources I wonder where she come to borrow things????? It was Hot chocolate and flaskes today

 

Big Sue

[Guest]

I recently did some training with Insideoutnature .the lady introduced us to trolls who apparently came to our country on viking ships and were living in the woodland area

before we arrived she had created a troll (a face) from pine cones ,leaves ,stones and twigs etc which was tucked in beside a tree trunk and she had an elaborate story to go with it about her adventures .we then had to go "find "our own trolls ,name them and create a story around them.this activity could be used for any age children.The idea is also to keep going back to the trolls .see what they re up to ,are they still there,change them,add to them etc -encouraging the children to use their imagination and be creative .and all with the natural resources surrounding them

 

 

 

Ive put the website address below

 

http://www.insideoutnature.com

[Guest]

fabulous! thanks. I was really looking forwad to it anyway, but am even more so now.

Im thinking of taking loads of wet wipes and a bottle of hand gel. should that be enough re accidentally touching stuff they shouldnt?