For the first Forest School session I decided to make sure that the children understand all of the rules while being outside.
The main three rules in Forest School are:
- Do not pick (flowers or plants that are growing)
- Do not put anything in your mouth
- Remember the boundaries
Once they understood the rules, we began the session by having a time of listening / mindfulness. During this time the children sat on the grass with their eyes closed and listened to different noises in their environment. They were then asked what different things they heard, and they all gave their feedback to us.
After this the children had some free time to explore the Forest School area and see what different things they could find.
As a lot of them were interested in all the leaves on the floor, we did an activity where the children had to find 3 leaves that were the same colour, size and shape. They all enjoyed doing this so once they all collected their leaves we added a twist to the activity and told them that they had to find 3 leaves that are different shapes, sizes and colours. They all did really well!
The children noticed lots of red currants on the floor so we decided to see who can collect the most and talked about colours and practised our counting!
Once they finished their various activities with the leaves the children did a treasure hunt!
They could choose what their treasure was.
When they all had their own treasures we all sat down on the grass and had show and tell; where the children could tell us what their treasures were and what made their treasure special.
Viktor Sakifio