Let’s see what we do at Forest

School and can do at home ……….

2

Forest School you can do lots of different activities:

• Den building

• Tree Climbing

• Fire lighting

• Kelly Kettles

• Willow fence building

• Compass work

• Survival skills

• Tree and plant identification

• Team building

• Knot tying

• Pioneering

• Conservation and understanding the area.

• Creating games and playing games.

• Creating artistic creations with natural

items.

• Cooking on fires

We often find ourselves in our own gardens, (Not everyone has a garden) and wonder if we can

do the amazing things we do at Forest School. Let‘s have a look at the possibilities:

….But if you can, and able to get them in the garden for a period

of time. They can start researching ways of bringing Forest

School into the home.

We appreciate that our Young People will have lots of

homework and other opportunities to do different

activities on the computers …….

Record and

practice

art skills…..

Make music with

natural items …..

Get scientific and record the

weather …..Weights and pulleys ……

Have fun

creating

bubbles. All

ages love to

make

bubbles……

There are various activities that could be linked with the

Curriculum:

• Pulleys and weights, moving things around the garden and how

weights can move the pulleys.

• Create different shapes and sizes of bubbles.

• Create a survey of how many different types of birds come into

your garden.

• Carry out a small scale survey. This survey could be inside a

1metre square. List how many things appear and how many

times they appear in the square.

• Scavenger hunt, look for different things on a list and then make

a den out of them.

More ideas:• Literacy:

• Different books available to inspire Forest School fun. Some books listed

later.

• Learn about nature in your back garden. Research via internet or

rediscover books you have at home.

• Scrapbook of discoveries in your back garden.

You could put many things into a scrapbook.

• This is a more tactile form of recording

which can really draw on the imagination of a

Young Person.

• Allow them to dry out leaves and flower,

then stick them in.

• Find out what the species are that they

have found.

• Then write a piece to go with it.

• Environmental:

• Weather :

• Do a forecast for each day. Become a weather reporter.

• Weather in pictures, possibly photos.

• What is the most common type of weather……? A survey.

• Look at the changes as the seasons change from Winter spring.

• Record in different ways:

• Photos

• Drawing:

• Look at something in your garden and see what the

details are like, maybe with a magnifying glass.

• Use different materials to draw with, pencil, crayons,

charcoal, felt tips.

• Descriptive writing about something that has caught your

attention.

How do we do the things we do at Forest School…… at home?

We will go through each of the Forest School activities, and see how we can do them at home. It’s surprising how many

wonderful things you can do.

There will be some links you can go to and find out more ideas. They usually do not need to have many resources to do at home.

Think about the following things:

• Recycling, there is probably some things in your recycling bin that could be used to make something.

• Find out what lives in your own back garden.

• Do you have a garden? If not you could adapt and look at your local park.

• Do you have a shed?

• What plants grow in the garden? Are they native to this country or are they from an another country?

• Do you have play equipment in the garden for younger siblings?

• Is there a pond?

• Have you seen anything amazing in your garden?

• What does your garden look like in the different seasons?

• Is there a space you can be allowed to light a fire?

• Do you have a compost bin or area?

Metal trays… can be used when doing cooking on small

fires or BBQ.

Recycling….Start to look at rubbish differently, and create wonderful things. What are the

possible uses of the things we throw away.

Toilet rolls, cardboard egg cartons ….. can be used to

start growing seeds

Old tights can …… can

become cress heads or

storage for onions

Plastic bottles being used to protect new

plants

Plastic milk bottles can be…….. Pencil holders, watering

cans, scoop, spade

Vegetables and plants you can compost…….. If you don’t do this already in

your garden you could start a compost area. Or you may start to use

properly the food waste bin and your bins for garden waste.

Why don’t you ……… take

pictures of the different uses

of rubbish you come up with.

What actually lives in your garden? ………. Let’s look at ways of

discovering what wonders lurk in your garden.

Do a survey of a small area of your garden …….

1sq metre, 5 square metres

Record what you can see and check it every day.

See if there are new insects and different plants

flowering. Use graphs to record your data

possibly

Take photos of the different plants in the garden

and see if you can identify them……

• See if you have the ability to become a talented

photographer too.

• Don’t’ just limit yourself to plants especially if you

see different creatures lurking about in the

undergrowth too.

Make a calendar/diary of what you observe in your garden……

• this could be a very factual account.

• How about improving your creative writing and go for the full descriptive script.

• Be artistic and draw what you see and keep the drawings as a Journal, with a piece of writing to accompany

it.

• How about joining up and registering with the Woodland Trust. They have asked for people to record what

species they see in their area. Here’s the link for you:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/things-to-do/natures-calendar/

• You could record what activities you did in the garden.

Books that could be useful:

• The Wild Weather Book, Going Wild.(Danks, Fiona, Schofield, Jo)

• The Stick Book (Danks, Fiona, Schofield, Jo)

• The Wild Year Book. Things to do outdoor through the seasons.

(Fiona Danks, Jo Schofield)

• 101 Things for kids to do Outside. (Dawn Isaac)

• Bushcraft 101. A field guide to the art of wilderness survival.

(Dave Canterbury)

• Play the Forest School Way. Woodland games, crafts and skills

for adventurous kids. (Peter Houghton, Jane Worrol)

Links you can use to find out more about what you can do in the

garden and local area:• National Trust is allowing the general public to enter free at their gardens and parkland.

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/press-release/the-national-trusts-latest-statement-on-

coronavirus-covid-19

• Twinkl has lots of different resources free and some you may have to pay for.

https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resources/keystage2-ks2

• https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/https://www.muddypuddles.com/blog/free-outdoor-lesson-plans-

children/

• https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/things-to-do/natures-calendar/

• https://www.pinterest.co.uk

• https://www.bbowt.org.uk/

• https://www.theschoolrun.com/diy-forest-school-activities

• https://www.animatedknots.com/

• https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/3661

• https://members.scouts.org.uk/supportresources/3655

Please appreciate all that you manage to do will be

valuable…..

• It is difficult to go to the places we need to play, and discover at

the moment. We will in time be able to explore wider areas.

• But we can find different ways to make contact with nature and

enjoy the joy it brings. This is time to take advantage of

appreciating what is on our own doorstep, no matter how small.

• If you would like more like this feel free to let the School know

and we can see what we can do.

March 2020

15

Most of all if you want to continue the fun had at Forest

School…..

Let’s spread a little Forest

School magic, and have

fun………

Try to have a little

less screen time tooTry to work to positive

time together