Ssssnake Stories and Seed Heads

Super-sized seed heads

In Talking Partners our Year 3 group have been focusing on the story 'The Tin Forest' by Helen Ward. The story tells of an old man who lives amongst rubbish discarded by other people. He dreams of living in a tropical forest surrounded by tropical birds, animals and trees. He uses the discarded metal to build his own tin forest complete with tin flowers, insects and birds. One day, a real bird flies into his forest and drops a seed. The seed begins to grow and gradually, real trees and flowers spring up all around him, followed by tigers, toucans and monkeys. When looking at the beautifully detailed illustrations in the story, Dylan remarked how some of the animals were camouflaged among the trees.

This time of year is a great time to collect seeds from the garden ready to sow next year. On our way past our butterfly border, we spotted some beautifully skeletal allium seed heads. We collected a few to study the seeds more closely. The children were fascinated how such a small seed can grow into such a huge and impressive flower.

In literacy, the children have been enjoying reading and performing a range of animal themed poems. One poem which proved very popular was 'Sssssnake Hotel'  by Brian Moses (click on the link to hear it performed: http://www.poetryarchive.org/childrensarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=50

Snake inspired storytelling

Our replica snake joined us at Forest School for some poetry and storytelling fun. The children decided to use some willow branches to turn our fire pit into a snake pit and lure the snake with some 'juicy purple berries.' Dylan said when the snake was in the pit hidden in the branches, it looked like the animals that were camouflaged in the tin forest.

As we enjoyed our snack and elderflower cordial, we read The Tin Forest again together and noticed even more creatures hiding among the leaves.

Camouflaged snake

In Forest School this week our groups have been learning more about the different properties of willow and elder trees. Dylan said the leaves of the willow branches reminded him of bamboo. Silvie liked how bendy the wood was. She curled a branch into a loop to create a crown before announcing proudly, 'Look Miss, I'm a Queen in my crown!'

We decided next that we would search the school grounds to see if we could find any more willow and elder trees. We took some branches with us to help us identify the right leaves. As we walked, willow branches held aloft we noticed how the long swaying branches reminded us of long giraffe necks. Our herd of giraffes made their way to our old goat willow tree at the entrance to the school. Muskan snapped a picture of our tree. The nursery teacher spotted our willow herd swaying by and enquired has to where we were heading on our journey. The children explained that we were on a willow hunt. She invited the children to explore the nursery garden. Lo and behold, the children spotted the delightful little willow den that had been built by the nursery children last winter. They also discovered the mud kitchen. We couldn't resist a bit of muddy play before the end of our session.