St Charles, 24.02.21 and 25.02.21
Wednesday AM: Y1/Y2
A balmy 13 degrees C, a south westerly breeze, and mere sprinkles of rain set the scene for a lovely morning. We gathered round for the fire circle for our check in. Of course, the usual questions like “What’s been happening?” or “Has anyone been anywhere?” don’t get much in the way of a response these days. The only thing that anyone had to say was “I hate covid”. We all agreed that we hated it too. We listened to the story ‘Stanley’s Stick’ as a springboard for some activities. I wanted to make a Stickosaurus like Stanley did but the children had other ideas! Sticks were mainly used by the children in the traditional fashion, that is, being lugged around here and there in a way that makes little or no sense to adult eyes, but of course you can’t see what’s going on in the children’s heads. Some sticks were used as a cordon for a little bunch of crocuses that have appeared in a heavy traffic area, and the children were keen to protect the tiny oasis of beauty; or they were used to make some very well constructed dens. There was team work on show for the most part, and those that did have a disagreement over land boundaries decided to build a wall to settle it. Again, children were very happy just swinging and climbing on the trees. There were lots of different friendship groups and different games going on; and some children hunted for hidden letters to spell out a bird name. One group spotted a worm which was the longest one I’ve seen and we estimated how long we thought it was; someone wanted to throw sticks at it so we had a chat; someone else was delighted to find a baby worm; others found a centipede which seemed to cause absolute uproar (I have no idea why!); one child wanted to kill it so we had a chat; some children found fungus growing on wood; another child was looking closely at leaves and describing its texture; another child was absent-mindedly snapping the branches of the sapling cherry tree so we also had a chat. Nature connections were made but some don’t always naturally happen.
Thursday Y3/4; Y5/6
The main emphasis today was the establishment of ‘Green Team’. These are nature-based activities which we used to do in focus groups as more of a learning activity; however, the children need to be able to choose to access these things at any time. Y5/6 set up the sand trap to try to capture any footprints from animals as they use the forest school area. They also got stuck into clearing out the litter from a nearby compost bin that had been used a rubbish bin and they used litter pickers to clear it of three bags worth of rubbish. Y3/4 started Nature Watch where they can sit and draw what they see, but as things are, most of the children want to run wild and are reluctant to sit down for a moment. We played two new games today – Friends and Dens and Secret Stone but I think they’ll take time to become accepted. Some Y5/6 boys built a bird leisure centre today – with junior and senior perches for junior and senior birds, a nest area above a space for food and a bird bath at the side. Others added to the dens that were built yesterday and an immense amount of string was used to fashion a den door opening system and a decking sledge to pull debris headed for the shelter. There was also mock campfire building; tree climbing and chilling up the tree; drumming on the table frames with sticks; using the table frames to build shelters, cars and castles; and games of ultimate tig that ultimately ended in tears (the old chestnut of rule establishment again!); plus I had two Viking related activities planned as well, but we didn’t get around to them – we just didn’t have time. At check out, I asked them what they had found tricky and what they had enjoyed, and a couple of them found that they had enjoyed things which had also been tricky. I think that means that they like a challenge and that can only be good for their wider learning process.