It was a dull and wet start to forest school today, but in true Cart Mill style we didn’t let that dampen our enthusiasm! We popped on our waterproofs and off we set! As we are such experienced explorers, we were able to navigate our way there, remembering the busy roads we had to cross and to look our for “the white house with the rainbow flower in the garden we saw last week!” so that we knew where to turn to find our forest. Being our usual inquisitive self’s, we spotted some signs along the way. At Field Grove we were able to spot “that’s an L for my mummy’s name.” “My mummy has an L too, and my brother has a r”.
When we arrived at our site we remembered all the hazards we had chatted about last week and were able to carry out our own risk assessment and set our boundaries.
Bug hunting has been a real area of interest and we have been doing lots of research on bugs. What better place to search for “real” bugs than in our forest! Off we set with our magnifying glasses 🔍. It was so much fun to search under logs, on trees and even in the mud to see what we could find!
We were amazed to find “sammy snail”, “super slug”, “colin” who was a millipede and a whole family of woodlouse! Who knew we would find a baby worm that “looks like an angry eyeball”. Dr Doolittle had better watch out! 🐛
“It’s a C for my name”.
“Look it’s crawling on my arm!”
Of course as it was so wet we decided our bugs would need a bug house! After lots of discussion we collected our building materials. Working together we built a “super special” house for our bug family.
“This can be the roof.”
“This stone is big. They can sit or sleep on it.”
“This can be the food. They might be hungry. I’m hungry, when can we have snack?”
After a quick snack and a wee recharge we noticed the sun had appeared! Off we set to find some sticks! This sparked an impromptu game of forest “freeze” and “unfreeze” using our “Harry Potter wands” while “Harry Potter” himself flew above us on his “broomstick” along with “a flying car that goes invisible”.
“I’m Harry Potter flying on my broomstick”.
”I’m flying. I’m in a flying car. I can spread my wings and fly over you”.
Before we left we had a wonderful mindful moment, sparked entirely by a cry of “stop talking and listen”. “I can hear the birds. They’re making a woo hoo sound”. “I can hear the wind blowing through the trees”. We even spotted a pigeons nest high up in the trees.
Our tired legs got us back to Cart Mill safely, even spotting a number sign along the way.
“It says 20”.
This week we have been navigators, explorers, bug hunters, builders, flying cars and our favourite of all, Harry Potter! We truly do have fabulous forest schoolers at Cart Mill and we can’t wait for another amazing adventure next week!
Article 29 – I have the right to an education which develops my personality, respect for others’ rights and the environment.
