Year 3's Last Woodland Session

Forest School is drawing to a close for this school year and the Year 3 class thought it would be fun for them all to head out to the woods together for the final session.

The weather wasn't quite what we would expect for this time of year, but that wasn't about deter us. Clad in our trusty waterproofs, we headed down to the woods. Subhaan, who came to Forest School in the autumn term noticed how much more shady the woodland was now the trees had all their leaves.

On reaching one of our favourite spots in the woodland, we gathered round to play a few warm up games. We began with a game we hadn't played before that would work particularly well with a larger group. The game was called Head Honcho.

How to play

• Stand in a circle
• Choose one person to be the detective who leaves the circle and closes their eyes and covers their ears.
• Choose one person from the circle to be Head Honcho. When the detective returns to the centre of the circle, the Head Honcho performs an action (such as clapping his hands) and the rest of the circle has to copy. 
• Each time the Head Honcho changes action, the rest of the circle have to copy.
• The detective has three guesses to work out who the Head Honcho is. 
• If the Head Honcho is correctly picked out, they become the detective.

The game could be adapted to include woodland sounds instead of actions and the Head Honcho and detective could perhaps be given a more woodland themed name.

We couldn't possibly play warm up games without at least a few rounds of 1,2,3 where are you, which worked really well with the large group as they all knew the rules from playing before (even though a few of the usual suspects strayed a little past the boundary line - you know who you are guys!)

The children were then free to choose what activities they would like to do. Hafeeza, Mayeda and Anisa chose to continue with the braiding activities from a few weeks ago.

Rhianna decided to create a rope swing, though Saad was somewhat dubious about her choice of tree. Luckily, it held out.

Tayibah and Elaina chose to climb trees and take in the view over the valley.

Neve and Ruby played meet a tree.

Kieran, Charlie and Adrian set to work collecting litter so that we could leave the woodland better than we found it (one of our key Forest School aims).

Sabina, Tatiana and Saad created a shop of woodland treasures.

Ruby used sticks to make a den in the base of a tree.

Marwah and Marwah created a rope den then joined in with some limbo dancing with Minhaz, Hinfzur, Usman, Subhaan and Ausar.

Raynah, Ausar, Charlie and Hifzur tested their balance with a spot of slacklining. Kieran took the challenge a step further and attempted it blindfolded!

Time flies when you are having fun and it was soon time to draw our session to a close with a well earned cup of tea biscuit and a piece of fruit.

It has been so rewarding over the past year watching the children become familiar with the woodland surroundings, following their interests and gradually building on a whole range of valuable skills.

Jul 12th (3) from Fagley Primary Forest School on Vimeo.

Jul 12th (2) from Fagley Primary Forest School on Vimeo.