Resourcefulness was the key word this week as Elm Group used tools made from natural materials to dig and mix the mud they needed to make forest faces.  Harry chose to base his mud face on a portrait of Samuel Pepys, who he had been learning about in topic work on the great fire of London. 

The children noticed that the trees were now quite bare, so they set about decorating one tree with the most colourful fallen leaves they could find.  “It’s our camp Christmas tree!” they decided. ...

The first job for Oak Group when they arrived at the woods was to build a shelter!  Samuel spotted a suitable fallen tree and the children worked as a team to lay branches across for the roof, and cover it all with a tarpaulin. “It’s lucky it’s waterproof as it’s keeping us dry” remarked Frankie.  In between downpours the children made ‘forest faces’ using natural materials, and enjoyed sharing a woodland story while drinking some hot chocolate under the shelter. Mrs Burton

Oak group became woodland mathematicians this week as they investigated ways to measure the logs and trees using a variety of natural materials.  Toby and Davontay estimated how many leaves long the log was and recorded their ideas. They then measured it – it took many more leaves than they had thought!  Some children linked arms to discover how many children it took to go right around the biggest tree.

Oak Group enjoyed a rather muddy visit to the woods this week.  Iqra noticed that it seemed quite dark as the many trees were blocking out the Autumn sunshine.  We had great fun experimenting with using a variety of natural materials to paint with ink on paper.  We tried sticks, feathers and leaves, but the most unusual pattern was made with a cluster of seed pods which Elsie used to make a scratchy pattern – the children thought the marks looked a bit like a bear’s claw! Mrs Burton

Elm Group enjoyed a sunny but chilly morning at the 2nd base in the woods. They pretended to be squirrels and hid nuts (pasta) in the dry, crunchy leaves. At the end of the morning they tried to find them again and only a few squirrels were left hungry!

Now that the temperature is dropping, please make sure your child has appropriate clothes for the weather, and brings a named water bottle.  Mrs Burton

Oak group spent the morning at the second base in the woods, finding different ways to cross the huge fallen tree trunks.  We lay on our backs and watched the patterns in the sky made by the clouds and passing planes, and used our information sheets to help us identify the trees by looking closely at their leaves. Mrs Burton

What great teamwork by Elm Group at the woods this week!  Some children found it tricky to climb the fallen tree as it was still damp from the rain, so Benjamin had the idea that we could construct a ladder.  The children tested the branches to find ones that were long enough and strong enough for the job, and Mrs Burton helped to tie the knots.   Although it was a bit wobbly, the ladder worked brilliantly.  Some of the logs were too big for the ladder so the children decided to use them to m...