describing a settingWe went off for our first trip to the woods at Chandlers Rise today – fantastic! I knew it would be very cold so we had spent some time preparing and the children had taken home an illustrated diagram to show what clothes they would bring to school today. Most came very well prepared and I lent out 3 spare pairs of gloves. One girl used a pair of our new school waterproof trousers.

We had an early lunch and set off at 1;00, taking only 15 minutes to get to the woods. On arrival we did ‘sticky feet’ and the children suggested risks they might encounter in the woods. I showed them the boundaries and allowed them to go off and explore for about 10 minutes before gathering them back with my whistle.

Our next task was to work in trios ( I had pre-decided the groups) to complete a site -description sheet. We will write up the descriptions in our writing lesson on Thursday and use them as a basis for a story.

After that I gave each group a small toy animal to go and build a den for – they had been observing and running around the ‘big picture’ so I thought a tiny den would help them to become more familiar with soil level etc.

We held a final circle plenary then returned. A very successful day. I enjoyed walking to and from the woods with a child who can be very annoying in a group situation – it was great to spend some one -to-one time with him. In the woods it was obviously fantastic to see children running free!