Week ending Friday 26th May 2023
As the weather continues to shine on us, Forest School has reaped the rewards by springing into bloom. The previously reweaved living willow tunnel is growing at a rapid pace and will be ready for another tidy in the forth coming months.
On Tuesday the whole school participated in a ‘Communication Day’ where pupils looked at how we communicate with each other and the different forms of communication. In Forest School, the Zones of Regulation are already play an important part of our ‘warm up’ session and the pupils are always encouraged to express how they are feeling and how they can manage their emotions if the need arises. We also use Makaton and symbols as part of our communication strategies in sessions and the children are also encouraged to participate in using them also.
In the Early Years morning sessions pupils were given fun activities to begin to show an awareness of emotions, by using their creative thinking skills and natural resources to show different facial expressions. They matched the four different coloured wooden discs linked to the zones of regulation, using the symbols to identify and match different emotions. They also colour matched the different emotions to being to show an awareness of the colour they were feeling, which is a common phrase used in the zones of regulation for example “I am feeling green today”.
Turtles class also engage in making different faces using natural resources to further their understanding of emotions and facial expressions. They also used a salt free dough to make a tree boggart to highlight the different emotions used throughout the school day.
Lobsters class also took part in creating the tree boggarts and also participated in another activity, which was to go on a blind folded walk with a partner. This was to highlight the need to communicate with each other, giving guidance where to walk and what to do i.e step, jump. The children worked with a partner and then swapped over to give instructions to the other person.
Seahorses Class continued with their minibeast topic and made their own minibeasts using clay. They also used their creative skills to make a ladybird using a potato masher and red paint to create the body. Finally, we looked at shapes of different minibeasts using silhouettes to recreate them using natural resources.
Rays Class were kindly donated some tomato plants so the pupils were team workers to plant the tomatoes in the raised beds which are located in Forest School. They were learning about the different parts of the plant and what they need to grow and establish themselves.
