Here at St. Michael’s we are blessed to have expansive and picturesque grounds tucked away behind our buildings. These grounds provide the perfect setting for exploring nature.
Once each week we pull on our wellies and coats and head off to Forest School. As we venture down to the bottom of the field we pass the pond and allotments, where we look at frogs, flowers, insects, and if we’re lucky, catch a glimpse of our protected species of newt.
Benefits of Forest School
Through these activities, children have the opportunity to:
- Comment and ask questions about aspects of their familiar world
- Talk about some of the things they have observed
- Talk about why things happen and how things work
- Develop an understanding of growth, decay and changes over time
- Show care and concern for living things and the environment.
Forest School not only develops children’s understanding of the world, it also links to communication and language, maths, physical development, writing, social and emotional development and expressive design.
This may include building habitats for animals, size ordering found objects, making stick monsters, or going on treasure hunts. We sing songs and play circle games, encouraging children’s enjoyment of the outdoors.
Our children relish Forest School days, getting outdoors and observing nature.
“I like when we find new things.” – Luca
“I like it when we make all the stuff and we find the stuff we need.” – Ioan