Forest School Blog

Happy Memories & Fun

1/13/2021

New Moon - New Year 2021 - Hopes & Dreams

1/13/2021

How are you all in Week 2 of Hibernation?
I'm hoping each week will get easier, more fun and more relaxing.
Did you know that today is the first New Moon of 2021!?!
That means, technically, according to nature - it's the start of the new year!
Or maybe do you think that sounds like it should be in Spring?
Let me know your thoughts.

For this weeks task I'd love you to make a poster about your New Moon hopes and dreams.
It can say just a few simple words or be as detailed as you like!
But think about what would help, your family, community, the world, to feel good.
Is there anything you'd like to achieve? Things you'd like to do better? Adventures?

The new moon is said to represent the begining of a new cycle, so it's a good time to set intentions or think about what you'd like to do in the near or distant future. The full moon is when things come into bloom or into their 'fullness,' and the dark moon is when it fades away again, a bit like winter time, before it all starts again with the New Moon and the cycle continues.

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Happy 2021!

1/6/2021

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Hi All!
Welcome back :-)
Please read my letter under the school website tab
"Our Classes - Forest School Class."
(Or please read it to your child)

I'll be uploading posts here every week with activities, thoughts and news.

I hope you've had fun Christmas and Solstice celebrations, did anyone see the giant amazing rare Christmas star conjunction on the solstice when the stars of Jupiter and Saturn appeared to join and form one incredibly bright star!? Let me know!!! Amazing!

I'm sorry you couldn't be back yet, but make the most of it! We can all be hibernating bears, animals, mice etc. What other hibernating animals can you think of? Which hibernating animal are you and why? Let me know in the comments!
Sometimes I might feel like a ladybird, bumblebee, othertimes a bear, but mostly I've been feeling like an overwintering seed, ready to sprout in the spring and flower in the summer. I haven't been on this blog for a while and it was so fun just now looking back at all the beautiful flowers and vegetables we grew last year!

I have a big treat coming your way soon in the form of many fun photos of your forest school adventures last term which I'll be uploading as soon as I can get over my technical hiccups! :-)

In the mean time, your task for this week is to go on an adventure outside (where did you go, what was it like? Tell me in the comments.) On this adventure I'd like you to find yourself a VERY special smallish stick. You can forage along the way for lovely things to decorate your stick with. Collect any feathers or nice seeds, cones, anything natural and interesting or pretty you can find. You might find some colourful string, thread or wool to decorate it with. Make the stick nice and clean so it can be bought inside.
This stick is a very special gift for your family to honour and respect. It is a talking stick! So - as you well know, the rules are, the person holding it is the only person allowed to talk at that time. Take an arranged time each day, eg at the start or end of a meal, when you're with your family, to pass the stick around the table or circle and each take it in turns to say something while you have the stick. Pick a theme like we do at forest school, it could be to do with what you're happy or sad about, a funny story to share, a dream, a worry, a story, something amazing about nature - YOU can be the creator and curator of the talking stick adventures.

Have fun! Let me know your experiences in the comments, I'd love to hear! Send me pictures of your talking sticks or describe them. Can you even find out or work out what kind of wood yours is made of? You might even choose a particular tree and respectfully cut a talking stick, carefully with a parent and the right tool (only with their permission of course) what can you find out about that particular tree or wood? Can't wait to hear all your stories and experience and if anyone has any other great things to tell me or wonderful nature expereiences you've had over Christmas, then please do, you can use the comments box below.
Have a good week! Stay safe and stay well, get fresh air and time in nature every day :-)

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Garden Magic & Calendula Seeds For All

7/15/2020

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We've had such fun every week harvesting veg and sweetpeas for the Village Larder. Have you all been enjoying the produce?
We even managed to process the hugest amazing sack of calendula seeds for the whole community which I collected from a kind garden I work at. Hopefully you all saw the task on db primary, telling you all about them ... that they're a great companion plant, like a best friend to have in the garden & they have amazing medicinal properties too. They even make wonderful skin cream! I used to grow fields of them from seed for Weleda & make tinctures from it for their wonderful baby creams. You can make your own now too! We all hope you came to collect your own envelope of calendula seeds & maybe you even managed to give some to your friends. The seeds are so interesting how they come in 3 different shapes, all which grow the same plant! Let me know how you get on with growing yours! Remember you can sprinkle the flowers on your salads and food or baking.
I LOVE the sweetpeas. Also thought you might find this picture of the lifecycle of a blackberry informative - have you spotted all the different phases on the bramble bushes!? If you start looking closely you'll be able to figure it out; the way they grow from flower to berry, it's amazing! & here's an incredible sky photo.
What amazing things have you spotted in nature recently?
Happy days. Can't believe it's the end of term! You've all been such brilliant superstars. Keep enjoying nature and the fresh air over the summer holidays, hope you can have some fun adventures. You've all done so well. Have fun & I look forward to seeing you next term!
Let me know your nature names! X

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Hard work & Rainbow Bounty in the school Garden - thankyou Ladybird Nursery! :-) Harvesting veg for the village Larder Celebrating Summer Solstice :-)

7/15/2020

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Hello!

7/15/2020

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Hi Snape Superstars!
Posts have been all put up each week directly to your DB Primary website - there is a forest school blog there with tasks for each week so make sure you check it out & have fun! :-)

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Look what Logan has Found! :-)

5/13/2020

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Magic Moths & Horse Chestnuts by Freya!

5/13/2020

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FABULOUS FLOWERS

5/13/2020

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HELLO SUPERSTARS!

Here's a fun task for this week about FABULOUS FLOWERS!
(Lots of letter F for littlies in this task, can you practice writing the word flower and spot other words begining with F?)

What's the weather been like for you? I think it's been windy and cold, lots of the plants which got so happy from all the earlier hot sunshine are now very sad and too cold, some delicate petals have wind burn (where they go brown) and some have got too cold. So I think we all need cheering up from the cold wind (flowers & families included).
Your task is to all pick a bunch of wild flowers or plants, either from your garden or on a walk (make sure you ask permission before picking any really special ones, be careful, wash hands, ask parents first!) Have fun arranging them in a vase. Please do send in a photo, a drawing or some writing about them with the names of which flowers they are. These flowers are a gift to celebrate you, as you're all Snape superstars and are doing so brilliantly, but they're also a gift to your families and parents to enjoy and bring cheer to the household. It means you'll also get to learn about flowers while you're at it!
Fun further things to do: can you count the petals and different parts or draw a labeled diagram of them?
It was always one of my favourite jobs as a kid when my mum would send me to pick flowers and make an arrangement for the kitchen table where we all ate :-)
I picked some forget-me-nots which remind me of my Dad and are such a lovely sweet shape and blue colour.
For some inspiration, here are some photos of some amazing beautiful flowers which I planted for a friend over the winter. This time last year, in their garden, there wasn't even a flower bed and now there's all these beautiful flowers in full-bloom! It's so exciting. I made a design and planted them over the winter, so it was a total joy to see the plants doing so well and flowering beautifully. They smell AMAZING too!
What other flowers and names can you learn this week? These ones pictured are rose, honeysuckle, sea thrift (the bright pink one) and thyme (shown together), my bunch of forget-me-nots and a fox glove :-) Bees love them all :-)
What names would you give the flowers? My friend in Chile says that over there, honeysuckle is called 'Mother Jungle!' what a cool name! It can grow like a little jungle, have you seen it in the forest climb up trees?
Which flowers can you spot and learn on your walks? How would you describe them? Write it as a list, it might make a fun poem :-)

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Tree Buds and Forest School Wilderness

5/7/2020

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I wanted to take some pictures for you all of our beautiful trees with flowering buds and catkins. Can you figure out which trees they are? It starts off with the walnut tree (next to the wild bit by the veg garden). It has the most amazing catkins, I'd like to find out more about how they change into walnuts and look forward to tracking their growing journey. Can any of you find out and let me know? The grandmother tree was looking so beautiful with fresh bright green leaves. I'm amazed how quickly the horse chestnut / conker tree gets its chandelier of amazing flowers, can you find one and look at them close up? They are so beautiful! I highly recommend it! There is also the pretty purple vinca flowers which like growing in the shade, some of you picked them to decorate your fairy houses. There's our baby elder tree develping flower buds next to the trading centre tree trunk, there's some lovely fresh nettles, lots of alexander weed and it's all looking so wild and wooly without you all playing there every week but the plus side is that I think it's definintely meant more wildlife is moving in, though the weeds are going bananas. Maybe we can find more uses for our weeds!?
Spot which trees are which from the photos :-)