Reception had a superb day at Forest Friday!
The girls worked hard to start the fire and collected the best sticks for the job while learning all about how to stay safe with a campfire.
Once the fire was lit, they went on a bug hunt, whilst the water heated up on the fire. Just before lunch, they used the heated water to wash their hands and then enjoyed a picnic lunch around the fire, with great excitement about the planned pudding! After a play around the big field and making daisy chains with friends, the girls came back to the campfire where they took turns to roast their marshmallows, with a little help from the teachers, and then make them into delicious s’mores! There were lots of very sticky hands and faces and lots of discussion about the best part of the s’more.
After another wash, it was time for the final activity. Miss Carmody took them on an adventure to find a very special item hiding in the forest. With great excitement and expectations of fairies, they found the hidden bird nest and carefully examined the structure of the nest. The children were then tasked to make their own nest with soft materials found within the forest.
Once the soft items had been collected, they quickly realised they needed something to bind them together to strengthen the walls of the nests. Miss Carmody gave each child a blob of clay and after experimenting with manipulating the clay to get it into the desired shapes, the children moulded the clay around the collected soft items and shaped their bird nest. They then used more clay to make eggs for the nests.
To finish off, the girls learned about how to put out the fire and used the water buckets to extinguish the campfire still following the rules of going around the campfire circle and not through it.
A wonderful day of learning where each child used all of the learning powers (resilience, collaboration, independence, creativity and curiosity) and had great fun with friends.
