Noticing, Wondering, Making Connections

As mud oozed up around their boots, Dogwood & Whitebeam Groups headed to Forest School set with a challenge…..to discover a Woodland Welcome that invited them to Broad Oak and made them notice nature.
Noticing nature will help us with the entries for our new nature diaries.
We looked at nature diaries that had been published over the years and discussed how writing a nature diary can help your brain to learn more AND help you feel happier….what’s not to love? Find out more next week!!

I also set the challenge of a Broad Oak leaf hunt. How many different shaped TREE leaves could they find…..The record was in Whitebeam Group and was 14!! We allowed an ash key as all the ash leaves have disintegrated.

There was lots of time for free play. Dogwood developed Tiny Town complete with crop fields, cattle (sweet chestnut) fields, skyscrapers a fabulous infrastructure of bark roads and exquisitely built houses. Meanwhile another group were busy creating magical, fairy houses around the base of a sycamore tree which they were involved in for the majority of the afternoon.. On Thursday,  Whitebeam helped with the lopping of some kindling, as well as making a fairy kingdom hotel in an ash tree complete with seasonal storeys and a restaurant and balcony. They also made a mud slide and then put on a Battle of the Bands concert. A real treat apart from the fact that we had to vote for our favourite which was tough because we thought both acts were FAB-U-LOUS! Whitebeams are also building an adjacent village to Tiny Town.

At the end of the session, we talked about how a new year can give us a chance to reflect and make changes. Each child thought about something they would like to try a little harder at. They found a special leaf and ‘turned over a leaf’ (admittedly not a new one) to write down their idea. We shared the ideas with the group. Here are some of them

Less screen time, help mummy more, fight less with my brother, make my bed, try new things, read more books, spend more time outside, come down to supper first time, exercise more, carry my own bag, eat more vegetables, look out for things in nature, complain less, smile more, give my family hugs, less video games, enjoy each day.

At the end of the session we took the leaves and let the wind in the meadow take our leaves away. Hopefully we will hold on to the good intentions!

Dogwood & Whitebeam - Noticing, Wondering, Making Connections