Wild Woods-Forest School

This year, our Reception and Year 1 children will spend every Friday afternoon exploring and learning in the Wild Woods with Mrs Leaf, Mrs Polley the Parrot, Mrs Ladybird and Mrs Hedgehog. The other classes will all enjoy some sessions later in the year.

"The best classroom and the richest cupboard is roofed only by the sky." Margaret McMillan

If you go down to the woods today...

Summer Term 1

26/4/24
F was very excited to show us an animal skull he had found on the way to school during opening circle-we all had a close look and made a suggestion as to what type of animal it could be-most thought squirrel.
During the session, some of the children were keen to learn how to safely use a folding saw.
Other children happily climbed, dug, swung, cooked, chilled and played their way through a lovely sunny afternoon in the Wild Woods.

19/4/2024
This week, we remade our name cookies and safely used the hammer to make the hole in the top. We also enjoyed some den building, relaxing in the hammocks, baking yummy treats in the mud kitchen, swinging and climbing. Some of the children created a catapult, seesaw and a slide for the woodland creatures to play on-super creativity guys! Another wonderful afternoon in the woods.

Spring Term 2

22/3/24
It was Reds v Blues in our tug of war this afternoon with a fair result of 1 win each! Then lots more team work spreading the bark chippings throughout the woods (with some bark angels for good measure), pushing each other in the swing and chilling together in the hammock. We really are having the best time being back in the Wild Woods.

15/3/2024
Happy St Patrick's Day everyone! Another sunny afternoon exploring and playing in the beautiful outdoors. Planting the hedgerow, building bug hotels, cooking in the mud kitchen, den building, climbing, swinging and lucky shamrock wands; a perfect afternoon.

8/3/2024
What a beautiful sunny afternoon in the Wild Woods-so many signs of spring to be seen. This week the children enjoyed digging, reading, climbing, swinging, building obstacles, talking on the bush telegraph and creating dinosaur kingdoms. Some of the children created a beautiful woodland gift for their mum for Mother's Day.

1/3/2024

It was SO good to get back to a full Wild Woods session this week. We have all missed it more than we realised! It was amazing to be greeted with a rainbow and a robin singing to us from the climbing tree. The children worked really hard to tidy up the woods and clear base camp by picking up rubbish and raking the leaves. Some of the children enjoyed wheelbarrow rides whilst others had lots of fun jumping in puddles, climbing, swinging and concocting in the mud kitchen.

Spring Term 1

2.2.2024

Following The Big Garden Bird Watch last week, the children in Ruby Class have taken on the plight of the garden birds. They have decided that they are going to be the official Hintlesham Bird Watchers and Bird Helper Team! We spent some time thinking about what we can do to help the birds and have decided we will make more bird feeders and ensure that our current bird tables and birdfeeders are full of yummy seeds. We created a beautiful display with our bird drawings to teach the rest of the school about British birds and why we want to help them.

26.1.2024
The Big Garden Bird Watch 2024

We found out some information about the types of birds that live in our region and that we might see around school and in our gardens at home. The children enjoyed sketching a bird and using watercolours to colour it in the correct colours. Super observational skills everyone.

We spent some time outside in Ruby Garden and in the Wild Woods looking for birds. We spotted 1 blackbird, 1 pigeon and a flock of rooks (A and J counted 19 in the flock). Just before home time, our robin friend landed on the tuff spot to say hello. I wonder how many birds you will see in your gardens over the weekend Ruby Class?

5.1.2024

Today we have enjoyed exploring the ice, planting some daffodil bulbs and wading through the 'lake' that has appeared in the Wild Woods.

Autumn Term 2

24.11.2023

This week, we enjoyed some real-life geography in the Wild Woods. Ruby Bear challenged us to make a map of the Wild Woods using natural materials. All of the children were keen to take on Ruby Bear's request and worked together successfully to create a super map. We were excited to find an 'x marks the spot' that had appeared during the session. The children worked out where it was and found some delicious birthday treats hiding there to share.

We also enjoyed leading each other on routes around and through the Wild Woods, using positional language to describe where we were going. Some of the children were interested to use the compasses and were able to use the words North, South, East and West to describe the direction they were going. They were also successful at working out how many steps N, E, S or W between features of the Wild Woods (eg. between Grandma Oak and Grandpa Oak). Due to Nativity rehearsals and Christmas events in school, this was our last visit to the woods in 2023. We are looking forward to making more memories in 2024.

17.11.2023

We were surprised to see such a beautiful yellow carpet covering the woods today-so many more leaves have fallen to the ground. The children enjoyed raking in base camp and collecting the leaves in the wheelbarrow-an even bigger leaf pile could be found today (perfect for jumping on and hiding in!)

There were some more games of tug o'war and lots of climbing and swinging too!

10.11.2023

To start our session this week, we worked in teams to try to build the biggest bonfire using the fallen autumn leaves. As the teams worked together SO co-operatively, they all earned a treat-toasting marshmallows on the fire!

We also remembered our fallen soldiers by sharing in moments of quiet reflection whilst weaving poppies-red ones for the soldiers and purple ones for the animals.

Some of the children instigated a fun game of tug of war...lots of giggles could be heard!

3.11.2023

After creating autumn leaf wands, sceptres and crowns, we coronated a new king and queen of the Wild Woods!

We also looked carefully at Grandpa Oak and talked about how he looks in autumn. We took this photo so we can monitor how he changes over the next 3 seasons.

"The leaves and branches are moving in the wind because it is autumn."

"I can't see any birds in there..."

"The leaves are changing colour."

"I can see green leaves and yellow leaves".

"Some of the leaves are on the ground."

"Some of the branches are empty, there are no leaves on them."

Autumn Term 1 highlights...

A new crew entered the woods for the very first time...welcome to the Wild Woods Ruby Class...you are going to have so much fun here!

Ruby Class and the Year 1's have had lots of fun and adventures together...the swing and hammock are firm favourites but the children have also enjoyed bug hunting, trap and den building and painting. There was lots of excitement when we found a little friend in the compost heap...can you spot it?