Welcome to our forest school page
Hi my name is Mrs Ellis! I am a qualified practitioner for Forest School. All children will enjoy Forest School’s during their time at Welshpool CIW Primary School.
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Autumn 2021
Autumn time is here! The children have been busy clearing areas, weeding and planting new trees to grow. To celebrate harvest time all of the children took part in lots of activities using pumpkins. These activities covered many areas of the curriculum whilst having great fun!
SPRING 2020
Year 3/4 children have had a busy half term in Forest Schools. On times, the weather has been quite challenging but we have made the most of the dry days to get outside and explore! Children have completed a range of activities-
Describing and writing a poem about a tree
Telling a story using story stones
Discussing and recording the weather
Buying and selling mud pies
Measuring natural resources
Using our senses to find the right tree
Learning the names of trees in our garden....... and loads more!
Describing and writing a poem about a tree
Telling a story using story stones
Discussing and recording the weather
Buying and selling mud pies
Measuring natural resources
Using our senses to find the right tree
Learning the names of trees in our garden....... and loads more!
Autumn Term 2019 at
Forest Schools
It’s national tree planting week!
This week the children have had a fantastic opportunity to work alongside the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust and Welshpool High School’s Eco Committee. Children planted Hazel, Roman, Silver Birch and Oak trees. They learnt about the life span of the trees and how planting these trees are helping future generations. Thank you to the Wildlife Trust for an amazing day🌲🌳
Years 5/6 Are helping to keep welshpool tidy
Remembrance week
Bringing our Maths learNing into the outdoors
The children have been busy creating tree Elves. They enjoyed describing their Elf to their friends and answered questions.
it's 'our favourite things' week
This week the children have enjoyed finding their favourite natural objects around the garden. They have also created their favourite thing from home using natural resources and found and painted their favourite leaf.
Another book inspired our learning this week- The Stick Man! The children were eager to make their own stick families after listening to the story and even created a stick dog! Even though the weather has been wet the children have really enjoyed the sessions. On Monday the children had to spend time under the shelter that we have built on the Gungrog site. This led to much excitement with children catching hand fulls of rain as it poured of the tarp!
Also this week some children have used sticks to help them with their times tables, made and labelled a giant skeleton and created stick games.
The younger children had fun making their own paintbrushes from natural resources and created beautiful pictures to hang in the classroom.
Also this week some children have used sticks to help them with their times tables, made and labelled a giant skeleton and created stick games.
The younger children had fun making their own paintbrushes from natural resources and created beautiful pictures to hang in the classroom.
The children have had a lovely first week at Forest Schools. The weather has been amazing and we have spotted lots of butterflies in the gardens of both foundation sites. This week we have been inspired by the story of 'The Very Hungry Caterpillar'. Children have been nature detectives hunting for signs of Caterpillars in the late summer. They have created their own butterfly using natural resources, made a caterpillar using leaves. They have hunted for caterpillar numbers, learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly and lots more! What a busy week!
Year 6 children visited our new school site to explore the Spinney area.
They measured the area, counted the trees and inspected the grounds.
The children recorded their findings and ideas back to school and created a plan of the area including ideas of what they would like to see at the new forest school site. This information was then presented to the Governors at their meeting last Thursday.
They measured the area, counted the trees and inspected the grounds.
The children recorded their findings and ideas back to school and created a plan of the area including ideas of what they would like to see at the new forest school site. This information was then presented to the Governors at their meeting last Thursday.
OUR ALTERNATIVE CHRISTMAS TREES
Our roman shields
YEAR 4'S VICTORIAN GAMES
Year 4 have also been linking their Forest School work to their class topic "The Victorians", by making and playing Victorian games. The children had an exciting session playing marbles, passing the ring on a string and even made a bat out of wood and a rag ball! They tested and compared the bat and ball to toys they would use now and were surprised how sturdy their own creations had proved to be. As our rag ball did need a bit of help by the end of the game, we decided it was best to put our fabulous toys on display for all to see in the Forest School classroom and not use them on the school yard at playtime- a wise choice!
dON'T FORGET TO FEED THE REINDEER!
On our Oldford and Gungrog sites children have been busy getting ready for the arrival of Father Christmas by making their own Reindeer food.
CHILDREN- Don't forget to sprinkle your Reindeer food as soon as it gets dark on Christmas Eve so that the Reindeer's can spot your house!!
Sadly our time has come to an end in Mrs Mill's class for this school year. We ended our sessions with a whole class Forest School party. It was great fun playing crafts and pinning the star on the tree! The children then had an extra special treat of Hedgehog biscuits and toadstool cakes, made by our Year 3 Forest Schools group.They looked delicious. Well done Year 3!!
CHILDREN- Don't forget to sprinkle your Reindeer food as soon as it gets dark on Christmas Eve so that the Reindeer's can spot your house!!
Sadly our time has come to an end in Mrs Mill's class for this school year. We ended our sessions with a whole class Forest School party. It was great fun playing crafts and pinning the star on the tree! The children then had an extra special treat of Hedgehog biscuits and toadstool cakes, made by our Year 3 Forest Schools group.They looked delicious. Well done Year 3!!
Forest School's will be continuing in the New Year with Miss Barnes' class on the Oldford site, and with small groups from all years on the Howell Drive site. We will be starting to take out groups from Mrs Evans' class on the Gungrog site. Please make sure your child brings warm clothes, gloves, scarves and wellington boots if they are participating in Forest Schools. Thank you
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!
HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!
JANUARY IN FOREST SCHOOLS
As the weather has been very cold and, on times, too dangerous to venture outdoors, the Howell drive site have taken the opportunity to spend time brightening up the Forest School indoor classroom.
Children from the oldford and gungrog site have been archaeologists carefully tapping through the ice to see what they can find.
Keeping the birds happy over the winter months
Some children in Forest schools have been busy making bird boxes to take home and also put up around all three sites.
We would like to say a huge thank you to Welsh Borders Wildlife Group and all its volunteers who came along to help the children with this activity. The children now know the best spot in the garden to place their bird boxes and are eagerly awaiting their first bird to nest in the boxes. |
Our new Forest School room is ready for the busy term ahead!
Our First planter is done!!
The children have been hard at work this morning on the Howell Drive site filling their first planter with top soil. This was really hard work as the soil was so wet!! They then worked together reading instructions, measuring and planting two varieties of lettuce. Well done Year 5!
see how your garden grows.........
Children across all three sites have prepared areas to grow wild flowers. They cleared grass from small patches of land and made seed bombs to throw over the area. This activity proved very popular with all children who participated! Watch this space to see who's flowers grow first!
Well we are now into May and the children have planted a variety of vegetables on the Howell Drive site. So far we have Chillis, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, marrows, broad beans, beetroot and peas. We are hoping to have an open day in June for the community to come to see how our garden is progressing, enjoy some refreshments and have a chat with our gardening experts!!
We also have some exciting news about our bird boxes. They have only been up for two weeks and already two boxes are occupied. One with a Great Tit and the other with a Blue Tit (we think!)
Well we are now into May and the children have planted a variety of vegetables on the Howell Drive site. So far we have Chillis, potatoes, carrots, parsnips, marrows, broad beans, beetroot and peas. We are hoping to have an open day in June for the community to come to see how our garden is progressing, enjoy some refreshments and have a chat with our gardening experts!!
We also have some exciting news about our bird boxes. They have only been up for two weeks and already two boxes are occupied. One with a Great Tit and the other with a Blue Tit (we think!)
Pond dipping in the sunshine
All children in Forest Schools were very excited to try pond dipping on the Howell Drive site this week. This was the first time that some of the children from the Gungrog and Oldford sites had visited the garden and they thoroughly enjoyed having a tour around the vegetable patch. The pond is full of Tadpoles at the moment and the children were able to see them thriving in their natural habitat. We tried to count how many Tadpoles were in the tray but kept losing count as there were too many!! We are hoping to have the children visit again to keep a progress on the Tadpoles growth and their transformation into frogs!!
Our first crop of Rhubarb is Ready!!
Year 4 were very excited to pull their first crop of Rhubarb out of the ground today and were even more excited to taste it. The children made a lovely Rhubarb crumble which all the children tasted. Miko and Bobby thought it tasted delicious though some of the girls had mixed views but at least tried it.
sUMMER IN THE GARDEN
The vegetable patch is coming along nicely! The children on the Howell Drive site have had a full time job keeping the weeds at bay and on Monday children from year 6 took a selection of their produce outside to sell to parents at the end of the day. This was extremely successful and we raised an amazing £24! Thank you to all people who came and bought items from the stall. All money raised will go back into resources for Forest school. We hope to have more vegetables ready very soon.
Maths in the garden!
Making delicious pickled onions and chutney
The children in Forest Schools have been very busy preparing and cooking their wonderful produce out of the garden. There were a few tears during the peeling of the shallots but these were soon forgotten once the children saw how wonderful the finished product looked. They can't wait to taste them!
Our Forest school band
The children were very excited to create their own band using natural resources and up-cycling old tools. We managed to play a few tunes and even had a sing-song!
MATHS IN THE GARDEN
Planting time has arrived!
The children concentrated on measuring the correct depth and distance between the seeds.
Our Year 3 Forest School group have been learning about British wildlife and their habitats
Year 5 Forest School group visit the woods!
forest school assembly
Thank you to all the parents who joined us today for our Forest School assembly. It was lovely to see so many parents supporting the school. The children spoke beautifully talking about the importance of maintaining trees and woodlands for future generations. Da iawn blant!