Forest School Activities 3

This is part of a collection of 5 documents available on Early Learning HQ featuring activity ideas relating to the Forest School approach. They were created by Clare Beynon, Lynnette Erasmus, Coral John and Elizabeth Rowden.

  1. Fadeless Flowers

What you need:

  • A variety of flowers of different colours
  • Jam jars
  • Sand

The Activity:

  • Fill the jam jars with sand to the ½ way mark
  • Bury flowers in the sand and fill to the top
  • Leave for approximately 10 days
  • Take out the flowers and compare the colours
  • Which have been best preserved?
  1. Becoming Insects

What you need:

  • A magnifying glass for each child
  • String

The Activity:

  • Tie the string along an ‘interesting’ path between two trees
  • Say ‘magic’ words to shrink the children to the size of insects
  • When the children are as small as they can be give out insect eyes (magnifying glasses)
  • Tell the children to explore along the length of the string, looking closely in response to questions asked such as “what does that blade of grass look like?” or “Can you find anything to eat?”
  1. Listening Treasures

What you need:

Marbles

The Activity

  • Talk about listening as a skill
  • Ask children to listen for one minute
  • Put a marble in the centre and talk for one minute
  • Choose a child to hold the marble
  • Only the child with a marble may talk
  1. Teeny Magic Pot

What you need:

Small plastic film canisters with lids, one per group of pair

The Activity

  • Begin a journey around the grounds
  • As you travel, record the journey by collecting tiny twigs, leaves etc. from areas you walk over
  • Try to visit a variety of areas and collect as you travel
  • Give a minimum number of items to go into the pot
  • As you travel, place small natural objects into the pot and seal
  • Can children visit more than 5 places? Less than 10 places? (Adapt for stage of children)
  • Compare pots in different seasons and weather conditions
  • Do all the pots contain the same?
  • Can you make and locate an area from its pot
  • Give the pots to another group and ask them to describe and locate the area from the contents of the pot
  1. Take a Spot

What you need:

A quiet place to sit

The Activity:

  • Find a quiet place to sit
  • Close your eyes and relax
  • Open your eyes and look around
  • Describe things that you might not normally see
  • Close one of the senses (sound, sight, smell, touch)
  • Think of 10 things you can either hear, touch smell or see

Try to find things that start with different letters of the alphabet and compare your list with your partner – did you notice anything that your partner didn’t?

  1. Tree Explorer

What you need:

A plastic mirror for each child

The Activity:

  • Select a tree which is clearly visible
  • Hold the mirror close to your face so that you can see the tree by pointing the mirror upwards
  • Children choose a twig and follow it to where it joins the branch, and then the trunk. Finally follow the trunk to where it meets the ground. Do this all using the mirror.
  • Lower the mirror and see if you can ‘retrace’ the steps you took from the ground back up the tree to the very twig you began with
  1. Make a Scarecrow

What you need

  • A saw
  • Two broom handles
  • Garden twine or string
  • A hessian sack
  • An old newspaper or straw
  • Marker pens
  • Old clothes

The Activity

  • Saw one of your broomsticks in two, one piece about 1 meter long and the other about 40cm long
  • Use the twine to tie the longer of your broom pieces to the intact brook stick, 20cm from the top to form a cross
  • Tie the shorted piece halfway down
  • Make the head by stuffing a hessian sack with newspaper or straw
  • Ease the head down on to the top of the broom handle and secure tightly
  • Give your scarecrow a face using marker pens and use straw for the hair
  • Dress your scarecrow by using an old shirt and trousers
  • Stuff with straw, tie cuffs, neck and waist with twine to hold the straw in place
  • Push the scarecrow into the ground
  1. Tree Ages

What you need

  • Pen
  • Tape measures
  • Pencils
  • Paper

The Activity

  • Measure around the girth of a tree approximately 1.3m from the ground with the tape measure
  • Record the girth in centimetres
  • Calculate the age of the tree by using the following guide
  • A fast growing tree grows by 3cm per year (girth increase)
  • For fast growers, like pine or willow, divide the girth of the tree in years
  • For slow growers, like ask, oak or beech, divide the girth by 2 to find the age of the tree in years
  1. Which Tree?

What you need

Tree/plant identification books or leaflets

The Activity

  • Discuss with the children tree species and the ecology of the areas where the children are working
  • Group the children and give them each an area to research
  • Ask the children to collect fallen leaves from the ground floor and ensure they are clean and free from minibeasts
  • Give the groups tree identification books and ask them to identify their trees
  • In school, laminate tree leaves and label clearly as a future resource
  • Give groups laminated sheets and ask them to use these as a resource to find areas and tree species
  • Photograph tree leaves and use these for groups to find the areas where they came from
  1. Treasure Boxes

What you need

A variety of objects and pictures, some from indoors and some from outdoors

The Activity

  • Ask the children to sort the objects into indoor and outdoor items
  • When sorted, ask the children to take the outdoor objects and locate their origins in the grounds
  • Vary the activity in different seasons and from different positions e.g. photo from ground level, knee level etc.)
  1. Touch Game

What you need

  • Drawstring bag
  • Leaf
  • Feather
  • Stone Nut
  • Stick Earth

The Activity

  • Children work in two groups
  • The groups try to name the objects in the bag
  • Try describing objects using only two adjectives
  • Other children guess the objects from the descriptions
  1. Hug a Tree

What you need

  • A partner
  • A blindfold

The Activity

  • Choose a partner and decide who will be blindfolded first
  • Put on blindfold
  • Carefully turn ‘blind’ person around 3 times
  • Carefully lead the person away to a tree (about 10 or 20 paces away)
  • Let them touch and small the tree of choice
  • Remember, trust each other and notice any unusual shapes etc.
  • Lead them back to the starting point and again, turn them 3 times and remove the blindfold
  • The ‘blind’ person now has to try and find the tree hugged
  • Swap places and choose another
  1. Moley Homes

What you need

  • Large puppets
  • Children’s books relating to puppets

The Activity

  • Read the story and use puppets as characters
  • Discuss homes for puppets and think about where they should be sited and how they need to shelter the puppets
  • Group the children and each group a puppet
  • The children decide upon an area for their puppet’s shelter and what the shelter should be made of
  • Groups make the shelter
  • Regroup as a whole class and visit each other’s shelter in turn
  • Ask for groups to explain their design and choice of materials
  • Place puppets in shelters and ask the children to give their opinions of shelters in terms of function and design
  • Ask old children for their evaluations and any improvements they could make

Welsh Vocabulary

Fadeless Flowers

Flower(s) Blodyn (blodau)

Different Gwahanol

Colour(s) Lliw (lliwiau)

Sand Tywod

Teeny Magic Pot

Tiny Bach iawn

Magic Hud

Twig(s) Brigyn (brigau)

Leaf (leaves) Deilen (dail)

Take a Spot

Place Lle

Quiet Tawel

Sit Eistedd

Tree Explorer

Tree(s) Coeden (coed)

Mirror - Drych

Tree Coeden

Twig Brigyn

Tree Ages

Age(s) Oed (oedrannau)

Pen Pen

Tape measure Tâp Mesur

Pencil(s) Pensil (pensiliau)

Paper Papur

Which Tree?

Which Pa

Tree Coeden

Plant(s) Planhigyn (planhigion)

Identification book(s) Llyfr(au) adnabod

Leaf (leaves) Deilen (dail)

Make a Scarecrow

Scarecrow Bwgan Brain

Saw Llif

Broom Brws

String Cordyn

Sack Sach

Newspaper Papur Newydd

Straw Gwellt

Old Hen

Clothes Dillad

Face Wyneb

To dress Gwisgo

Treasure Boxes

Treasure Trysor

Box(es) Blwch (blychau) / bols ( bolsys )

Object(s) Peth (pethau)

Indoor Tu mewn

Outdoor Awyr agored / tu allan

Picture(s) Llun (lluniau)

Touch Game

Touch Cyffwrdd

Game Gêm

Leaf Deilen

Feather Pluen

Stone Carreg

Nut Cneuen

EarthPridd

Hug a Tree

Partner Partner

Blindfold Mwgwd

Hug Cwtsho

Moley Homes

Home(s) Cartref (cartrefi)

Mole(s) Twrch daear (Tyrchod daear) / Gwahadden (Gwahaddod)

Puppet Pyped

Large Mawr

Book(s) Llyfr (llyfrau)