Coningsby St Michael's Church of England Primary School

Believe. Aspire. Succeed.

Foxes

Welcome to our Forest School page.

This school year we are working towards our Sycamore Tree wild passport levels.

Follow this page to see and hear all about our progress.

20th March 2024

In Forest School today, fox class put their shelter building skills to excellent use by building a tarp shelter for us to work under. They were given a selection of musical instruments and our soft toy birds and were asked if they could listen to the sounds the birds made and recreate this using the instruments, they were then challenged to create their own bird songs - foxes really impressed us with their wonderful songs, matching the rhythm and the melody of each bird beautifully. Fox class also practised their knot tying skills today and thoroughly enjoyed finding lots of snails and worms and making homes for them.

13th March 2024

In today’s Forest School session fox class were set a challenge to tie a timber hitch knot as part of their Wild Passport level, seeing if they could then use this to put up their own hammocks. Foxes were also able to do a weaving activity, using colourful wool to create a teepee structure. Fox class enjoyed searching for insects, finding lots of snails and worms and then creating hotels and homes for them, using the natural resources found within our site. They found lots of signs of Spring around our school field, noticing that the tree leaf buds were starting to unfurl and finding more plants and flowers around our site.

6th March 2024

In our World Book Day themed Forest School session, Fox class enjoyed being able to read our selection of wonderful nature inspired books outside under the trees. They were challenged to create their own Stick Man and enjoyed sharing and retelling the story of Goldilocks and The Three Bears, using porridge oats to create the three bowls of porridge. Foxes created some fantastic insect hotels and found lots of different insects, they also spotted more signs of Spring with the leaf and blossom buds growing bigger since they last visited our site.

28th February 2024

In Forest School today fox class were given the opportunity to identify our soft toy birds using our bird ID books, once they had correctly identified the bird, they were then challenged to build a nest for it using the natural resources around our site. Foxes had the rock collection to look through, this included some very beautiful and interesting specimens from all over the world. They also played team games, made nature soups and teas at the potion station and enjoyed some quiet time in the hammocks.

21st February 2024

Fox class had a very enjoyable first session back at Forest School, we played a game of ‘trees and leaves’ outside before the rain bought us back inside, where we finished our session in the hall. We played lots of team games, working on our Forest School movement levels and coming up with new ideas on how to adapt our games.

16th October 2023

Today in Forest School Fox class were set a challenge to see what different things they could do with a stick and they really rose to the challenge! We had sticks being used as a bridge that was strong enough to support bricks, games were created, bug hotels were built and lots of art and pictures were made, it was lovely to see the different ideas the children came up with. Foxes also finished making their wooden pigs today, using palm drills to make a hole for the tail and sticking the eyes on, the pigs all looked amazing. Fox class were also given some nature prints to study and make drawings of and we had some absolutely beautiful pictures being made, with lots of detail. We also had a look at what is inside a pine cone and made little creatures with conkers and acorns.

9th October 2023

Today fox class continued working with tools to make their wooden pigs, using a hammer and nails to attach the snout to the body of their pigs, as well as using palm drills to create the hole for a tail. Foxes also had the opportunity to sketch some trees with different types of pencils and charcoal, creating some absolutely beautiful and very detailed works of art. They also created different games with sticks, including noughts and crosses using leaves and stones as well as a hide and seek game.

2nd October 2023

Today in Forest School, Fox class were given some different activities to help them reach their wild passport level, these included identifying trees by their leaf shapes, using tools to create a wooden animal and sketching items from nature. Foxes worked in pairs to hammer the noses onto their wooden pigs ready for the final details next session. They sketched natural items such as pine cones, conkers, acorns and chestnuts and looked in our nature books for interesting facts about these. Foxes also had the opportunity to build their own dens and learn to tie different knots. As always, Foxes were also engaged in playing in the mud kitchen, mixing potions and searching for insects to make homes for.

25th September 2023

Today in Forest School Foxes were set a challenge to see if they could make some different knots using the knot kits, they enjoyed discovering different ways to tie two ropes together and seeing how they could join two sticks together as well. Foxes were given some of our flower postcards to study and make drawings of, these pictures were absolutely beautiful and full of detail. They also had lots of fun searching for insects, finding a huge caterpillar, a centipede and lots of snails, they then used the insect ID books to correctly ID these.

18th September 2023

Fox class have had a very busy morning at Forest School today. They took turns working with a partner to saw some wood for their wooden animal project, showing their excellent team work and listening skills, they worked in their pairs to use the bowsaw to cut their logs. Foxes enjoyed the archery set today, creating a game with a scoring system, whilst another group created a team game that involved the different elements. Foxes found some very interesting insects today and used the ID books to correctly identify these, discussing the differences between centipedes and millipedes. We also had some wonderful potions being created as well as a snail mansion and some beautiful art work at our drawing station.

11th September 2023

Foxes have had a wonderful morning in forest school, they loved being back in our Mystical Garden! The children had the opportunity to create some leaf impressions with clay, this was a fantastic way of studying the different types of leaves on our site and they discussed which leaves made the best impressions. Foxes also enjoyed searching for the different insects that live within our site, they found lots of snails and used the insect ID books to identify the types of snails and other insects they had collected. Some of the children enjoyed making homes for their insects, whilst others had lots of fun creating mud kitchen recipes and pots of dandelion tea at the potion hut.

Our past Forest School sessions.

10th May 2023

Foxes enjoyed creating leaf prints today, we think they created some amazing artwork using the Hapa-zome leaf printing technique. We even had time for a spot of gardening.

3rd May 2023

Week 2

Week six

Today foxes had a forest school first and cooked banana chunks on the fire with chocolate sauce, they were a huge success enjoyed by all.

Week 5

It was a very windy forest school session today for Foxes, that involved consolidating all our previous forest school skills and learning how to adapt these for the windy weather. We had den building, role play, kitchen play, coffee shops and the hammocks to relax in.

Week 4

This week during Fox classes forest school it was all about working together. Everything they had out would require them to work together in small teams. Working with the Forest school leaders the children used their Knot skills and learnt to put up a lean to den using den building poles, tarps, tent pegs and rope they then decided that they would leave them up for the younger children to play with this afternoon. The children had a go at woodland skiing, archery and continued to perfect their mud kitchen recipes.