Coningsby St Michael's Church of England Primary School

Believe. Aspire. Succeed.

Badgers

Welcome to our Forest School page.

This school year we will be working on our Oak Tree wild passport level.

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

Wednesday 30th September

Wednesday 18th September 2024

Forest school 2023-2024

3rd July 2024

24th June 2024

In Forest School today Badger class created some fantastic den structures. Some of these dens used wooden poles tied together to create supports, showing not only excellent building skills, but also an understanding of how their structure will be supported and using some of the knot tying skills they have been learning over the years. Badger class also explored the new pulley sets, creating pulley systems over tree branches that could lift up their drinks bottles as well as creating miniature zip-lines between trees that carried pots of pine cones. Badgers also enjoyed creating insect homes using the loose-parts resources such as foam bricks, sticks and pinecones.

3rd June 2024

Badger class had a wonderful first session, exploring and getting to know our new Forest School site. Badgers were very busy with different activities, making nature concoctions and mud recipes as well as trying some weaving. Some of the children made fishing rods with the sticks they found around our site. Others enjoyed some quiet time in the peace garden area, exploring nature journaling with paints and we had our Forest School birds and some nature books out for the children to look through.

Our past Forest School sessions.

25th May 2023

18th May 2023

11th May 2023

Badger class enjoyed creating leaf prints today using hammers. They created some amazing, vibrant and clear prints. We were super impressed with their work!

4th May 2023

Week 2

This week badger class were challenged to use the flint and steels to see if they could start the fire pit fire. They showed great perseverance and determination - supporting each other while they waited . The class followed the fire circle etiquette, behaved beautifully and showed great understanding and maturity about this topic.
Some of the class continued to practice their knot tying skills and made a bridge swing (completely independently) and a laser bridge crossing.

Week 5

Badger classes final week of Forest school for this term was all about them and what makes them unique. The children therefore led their own session and created games and learning experiences that were unique to them and their class. We had lots of experiences happening within the mystical garden such as: time to talk with one another, survival games, a Sushi mud kitchen bar, obstacle courses and of course relaxing time in the hammocks.

week 4

This week Badgers got to create their recipes that they had worked on during their first week of forest school. We had s'mores, kebabs and one group even created a forest school first - cakes cooked in oranges! The children then evaluated their cooking thinking about what worked well and what they might do differently next time. After the children had eaten (and washed their very sticky hands and faces) we played some team games on the playground while enjoying the glorious sunshine.

Week 3

This week during Badger classes forest school it was all about working together. Everything they had out would require them to work together in small teams. We used our Knot skills and learnt to put up a lean to den using den building poles and rope. We went woodland skiing, made an obstacle course, we hunted for insects and identified them in books and practised our archery skills.

Week Two

This week badger class had a very frosty forest school session. The children spent their morning exploring ice and trying to find ways to melt it in the cold weather conditions. They experimented with crushing it, holding it in their hands and using water that they had collected from breaking frozen puddles. Some of the children found evidence that an ''ice dragon'' had visited the mystical garden and left a couple of his giant teeth behind. Towards the end of our session the children found three almost frozen butterflies this led to conversations about the life cycle of butterflies, identification - the children discovered they were Peacock butterflies, and finding ways that we could help them. They put down some sugar water and moved them into the sunshine. We then watched as the butterflies slowly started to grow stronger and start to open their wings. Due to the cold weather we finished our session in the classroom - where we practised our knots and perfected our den making skills.

Week 1

Today was Badgers first forest school session of the term. Today the children were asked to get in to small groups and plan and create a recipe that they can cook on the fire later in the school term. They had some really creative ideas and the children can't wait to get cooking and see how their creations turn out. We also had a go at doing some close knit weaving, this really challenged us but we persevered and will continue to work on them throughout the term.