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Rec & Year 1 Invite Parents to a Forest School Picnic

27th June 2014 | Year 1, Reception, Forest School

The second annual Forest School Picnic took place on Wednesday 18th June. The fun started when parents had to find their way to the Forest School site by following ribbons and clay faces placed at strategic points on trees, without which, they may not have been able to locate us. Once all parents had arrived, the children began with a safety talk to their parents, which allowed them to understand the process followed if, for example, one were to be stung by nettles and how to safely carry large sticks. Following the safety talk, an exciting challenge was set. Parents were divided into two teams: parents of children in Reception and parents of children in Year 1. The teams had 15 minutes to build a shelter that was to be judged by very strict criteria at the end of the task. The judge, Miss Bridget, was looking for effective team-work, the use of suitable materials and a finished product that was structurally sound. The teams worked very well together and the final decision was a difficult one to make. The Reception team won the competition for very effective team-work and the Year 1 team were recognised for outstanding ingenuity. After the team challenge, parents took part in a variety of activities, led by their children. Parents enjoyed making ivy crowns and mud pie faces, creating elf houses from woodland materials, listening to traditional tales in the story-telling tent and taking part in a game of capture the flag, which saw Reception children and their parents once again challenge Year 1 children and their parents. The picnic culminated in an abundant feast, largely thanks to the generosity of parents, with a wide variety of sandwiches, quiches, salads and some very popular white chocolate brownies. The thoroughly enjoyable day was designed to give parents an insight into the types of cross-curricular learning opportunities encompassed in our Forest School curriculum and to which children are exposed on a weekly basis under the careful supervision of Miss Polly, Miss Jess, Miss Sheena and Mr Matt.