It's been another great week of our Forest School Holiday Club, with the exciting addition of the very first Forest Skills course to boot!
Despite the weather threatening to dampen the spirits (and everything else), it luckily held off for the 4 days we ran our course and opened up the days to some excellent play opportunities. We explored near and far, both in the surrounding farm and paddock as well as trips down to Otter Brook Woods and the brook to extend the children's interests.
It's always warming to see the different friendships that form through Forest School, and we have many that have been made solely here. This only adds to the enjoyment of the children, knowing that they'll be seeing a friendly face, especially as it's the only place they know them! Makes the play all the more special. Children came and crafted, and there was lots of clay used across the week. Similarly, Vince has been maintaining our Willow hedge so we had plenty of whips for the children to weave and bend into different designs. I was particularly impressed with a pair of 'fairy wings' I helped one little Forest Schooler create! Sticks were sharpened, fires were carefully lit, dens successfully erected in gale force winds, marshmallows deftly toasted and hot chocolate swigged. Happy faces all round.
Our Forest Skills course we ran on the Thursday went really well also, and I was pleased with the results we achieved. The idea behind the course is to offer the children who were know too old for the younger groups to come back and focus their skills that we had taught them, as well as hone the abilities they might bring with them. I had made a shave horse, a pivotal piece of equipment for many greenwood working applications and it proved very popular, evident by the amount of wood shaving we had to clear up afterwards!
The link below will take you to Flickr, where you can see a range of photos I took from across the week. Thank you to all for booking on, and I look forward to the next instalment and what it will bring!
Flickr Link - Easter Forest School Holiday Club
I hope you all had an great Easter,