Forest Schools
2nd Class
Irish Forest Schools AGM Fota Wildlife Education Centre Cork 2019
Niabh and I attended the annual AGM of the Irish Forest School Association in Cork at the weekend. We had an amazing time surrounded by the most wonderful people. We had so much fun learning new skills and immersing ourselves back into our own Forest School practice, which is so important. Here's a few photos to show you what we got up to.
Week 10: Our Final Session - We are now custodians of the woods!
So today we said goodbye to the woods and to forest schools for second class. We opened up the space between the two sites and the children had the chance to free play throughout the forest. We had hot chocolate and marshmallows for our treat and to finish we made a group mandala. Everyone gathered a stick and placed it in a circle. Each child then got a stone and placed it in at the center to represent themselves. We then divided our mandala into 5 sections and in each section the children worked together to make something that represented forest schools: mud play, trees and the natural world, a mini insect hotel for bugs, a section for den building and finally a section for gratitude. Joanne and Niabh then crowned each child and each volunteer as a custodian of the woods. To finish we expressed our thanks to the woods and each other for such a special time together.
Week 9: Bealtaine Blessings and summer leaves
Summer has certainly arrived in the woods - the trees are in full bloom. We did some mud painting and printing in the woods today. We had lots of free play, chats and den building. Thanks as always to our wonderful volunteers - Esther, Tommy and Siobhan, we couldn't do it without ye.
Week 8: Spring Sunshine - the bluebells have arrived!
We spent lots of time investigating bugs today using our of scientific equipment. The sun shone in abundance and we learned more about Lords and Ladies and native Irish bluebells - we even spotted some primroses. We did some blindfolded activities, sit spots, clay and free play.
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Week 7: Rain, Mud & Clay
The rain didn't deter us and we had lots of fun digging pit-fall traps for bug collection, making clay figures on the trees and decorating them with leaves, moss and sticks! Another wonderful day.
Week 6: Spring Has Sprung
A rainy day in the woods today full of fun and playfulness. Our last day together, before Niabh and I swap groups. I'm very proud of this little group of forest schoolers they embrace the elements and make the most of every forest school session. A truly magical bunch. Sky gazing and rainfall for our sit spot today, hot drinks and chocolate biscuits under the tarp, games of tip the can and hot lava, identifying spring buds and looking for signs of spring.
Week 5: The Mud Baths Were Open
Willow and dream catchers. Mud monsters, mud hugs, mud, mud and more mud. We had great fun!
Week 4: Winter Sun and Hot Apple Juice in the Woods
Unfortunately, we missed a week due to high winds but thankfully the winter sun shone for us this morning. It was a crisp, cold morning in the woods but we had warm bellies thanks to Marion and Paul who prepared delicious cookies and hot, spiced apple juice - Christmas in a cup! Today we worked hard lifting logs and preparing our fire circle. We went through the rules of the fire circle and the fire triangle. We had a look at the Kelly kettle, which we will be using in our next session for heating the water for our drinks and we collected kindling, which will be dried during the week for lighting our fire. Fergus put a winter web together for us, which we scrambled through. The children put up the tarp, we did leaf and bark rubbings, read the first part of a story by Hans Christian Andersen called The Fir Tree to be continued in our next session and we had plenty of time for free play. Today I took some videos to show you what free play looks like. It is the most important part of any Forest school session and I think the videos show you why. We also awarded two Wow cards one for Daisy for care and to Amy for respect. We had a fantastic session yet again full of spontaneous bouts of song!
Unfortunately, we missed a week due to high winds but thankfully the winter sun shone for us this morning. It was a crisp, cold morning in the woods but we had warm bellies thanks to Marion and Paul who prepared delicious cookies and hot, spiced apple juice - Christmas in a cup! Today we worked hard lifting logs and preparing our fire circle. We went through the rules of the fire circle and the fire triangle. We had a look at the Kelly kettle, which we will be using in our next session for heating the water for our drinks and we collected kindling, which will be dried during the week for lighting our fire. Fergus put a winter web together for us, which we scrambled through. The children put up the tarp, we did leaf and bark rubbings, read the first part of a story by Hans Christian Andersen called The Fir Tree to be continued in our next session and we had plenty of time for free play. Today I took some videos to show you what free play looks like. It is the most important part of any Forest school session and I think the videos show you why. We also awarded two Wow cards one for Daisy for care and to Amy for respect. We had a fantastic session yet again full of spontaneous bouts of song!
We had our first Forest School session with 2nd Class today. We were blessed with a mixture of sunshine and showers. Niabh's group headed to her old site. Joanne's group visited the "Cuckoo's Nest" a site beside the walled garden, used by the children in Muddy Boots, as her usual site had a number of felled trees and was not safe for play. We hope to be back there soon.
We had a busy morning meeting the Grandmother Tree, playing games, finding the boundaries, practising our wolf calls, reading a beautiful story The Giving Tree and mapping journeys with leaves and getting our friends to copy our trails. We painted mud on our faces, played and climbed, shared warm drinks and cookies, practised using our talking stick, chose special trees for our sit spots, sheltered under the kishu during a particularly heavy rain shower and had lots of fun.
Thank you to our volunteers for all their help. And a big thank you to the children of 2nd class who made the morning so special with their impeccable manners and enthusiasm.
We had a busy morning meeting the Grandmother Tree, playing games, finding the boundaries, practising our wolf calls, reading a beautiful story The Giving Tree and mapping journeys with leaves and getting our friends to copy our trails. We painted mud on our faces, played and climbed, shared warm drinks and cookies, practised using our talking stick, chose special trees for our sit spots, sheltered under the kishu during a particularly heavy rain shower and had lots of fun.
Thank you to our volunteers for all their help. And a big thank you to the children of 2nd class who made the morning so special with their impeccable manners and enthusiasm.
Over on Niabh's site we were blessed with bright (mostly) dry weather! Like our sister group we had great fun too. Here are some of our pictures...
Week 2: The Cuckoo's Nest
This week we all went to the Cuckoo's Nest. We don't ordinarily do whole class sessions but Coillte were servicing our sites and we didn't want to cancel so we changed the format. We had such a great time together. There were camp fires, climbing, building forts, lots of capturing parents and bringing them to jail, songs, leaf identification, art, story time, mud play, crown and bracelets, leaf chimes and fun. Again thank you to our amazing volunteers for helping out. And a huge thanks to the children for being so kind to one another and so full of fun.
Week 3: Back Home
Week 3 saw us all back in our own Forest School sites. It was so lovely to be back and to finally introduce my little group to my site. We had lots of new balance beams, see-saws and a rather spectacular den to eat our lunch in. I am absolutely humbled by the magic of the woods and how it brings out the best in all of us. We did some blind-folded walking, built 5 star fairy accommodation and I mean 5 star, played games, sang songs, buried Sue under lots of leaves (photo to follow) and got to learn about our blood bubble and use the mallet and secateurs.
