Session 3 - Home for Lila

Great weather again today for session three of Forest School for my pilot group.
Our session centred around the theme of habitats. The children are becoming more familiar with the session format and were keen to carry out the site and weather assessment to kick the session off. We continued with a warm up game where children had to find different habitats on the playground such as damp and shady or dry and exposed.

 Next, the children were introduced to 'Lila the Lizard'. We passed Lila round the circle and the children took turns to describe her attributes, predators, prey and habitat. Then the children explored the playground to find a suitable habitat for Lila. The group worked together to build her a shelter where she would be camouflaged or as one child said 'cameraflashed!'

After snack time and a recap of how to tie reef knots, clove hitches and cow hitches the children were given tarps and ropes to construct a shelter. As it was sunny, the children decided to build a sun shelter. They split into two pairs. The first pair chose to use the log seating area as a base for the den and the second pair chose the hedgerow.
The hedgerow backs on to a public walkway (separated by a fence) so the area was checked for sharps and other hazards before the children entered.
The log seating group used reef knots to tie two ropes together so that they would reach between the log posts. The hedgerow group made use of the branches to attach the eyelets of their tarps to.

Both groups were very proud of their finished shelters and were keen to have some 'chill out' time in them. The hedgerow group evaluated the pros of their shelter as being, it protected them from the sun,was camouflaged and let them observe wildlife. They said the cons were there were some pointy branches and brambles and litter.
The log seating group said the shelter protected them from the sun and was relaxing but the the roof was quite low so they would like to prop it up with something next time.
The group said they would like to build their shelters again next week. One member of the group asked if she could finish her stick frame from previous weeks.