#CountryKids Using our senses to find signs of Winter #ForestSchool

It was quite a relief that the snow flurries last night didn't cause me any problem getting to work this morning or stop us having Forest School! There was plenty of snow on the mountains that we can see from the school grounds though:

As it was bitterly cold we had to be both well wrapped up and active whilst outside. So I explained our mission inside before we even went out into our forest area. We were going to use four of our senses to find signs of winter:

• hearing
• seeing
• touching 
• smelling

We omitted taste for obvious reasons!

The first thing we noticed was that the birds had eaten most of the food we had left out the previous week. We had to collect in the pipe cleaners to make more to put out next week.

The children sat quietly for a short while so that we could see if we could hear anything... There was very little bird song and mostly just the sound of the wind! Then the children set off to use their senses to find something for all four:

Seeing

The youngest children had to climb trees to see the snow on the mountains high up and far away. They could also see that the leaves had fallen off the trees.

Hearing

As well as the wind they heard the sound of leaves crunching.

Touching

For a brief time they took off their gloves to feel things. Most of which were very cold or even freezing.

Smelling

There wasn't much to smell, although one local farmer had obviously fertilised his field! With a lot of snotty noses it probably wasn't the easiest sense to use..

We then took a tub of fallen leaves into school for a project to be done after lunch.

Reasons to be Cheerful: School, Views, Sofa and more! #R2BC

It's December so that means I am back to hosting the linky to give Michelle a well earned rest! Please join in to share your happy moments from the last week. Then visit the other linkers and comment on their blogs. Let us all share the love!

1) Forest Fun

I had a great first day teaching forest school and its a real mood boost to be out in the great outdoors with enthusiastic children:

2) Filming on the Helm

We had a fabulous afternoon up on this hill to create our first Fell Running film. How could this view not make you smile:

3) Free Sofa

We were very lucky to be given a free preloved sofa that fits in our limited space. I have had to rearrange a lot of furniture but its worth it to have a place that we can be cosy whilst watching TV:

#CountryKids Simple Bird Feeders for Forest School

This week I had my first day leading Forest School with young children. I needed to have a simple activity that we could all do from age 3 to 6. So we first of all made simple bird feeders by threading cereal. Obviously I could only film myself making one but the ones in the trees were made by the children:

Then out in the forest we took bread, spread peanut butter on and dipped them into bird seed:

All the children really enjoyed making the feeders and we just have to hope that when we go out next week we can see whether they have eaten them all!

Forest School: Bird Feeders

As I am just starting out to teach forest school with children from Nursery to Year 1 I have been researching simple ideas of things that they can make to incorporate into our sessions. We are going to be looking at winter as a topic from this week so I have been looking at simple bird feeders that we can make. These look easy enough for them to do (as long as they don't eat the cereals!):

These look good too as long as no-one is allergic to nuts: