Category: Unit 5

Child 1

The links below are the observational sheets for the first 4 sessions for child 1.

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

This child often finds it difficult in a nursery setting to engage with adults and other children and found Forest School sessions difficult too. Their confidence did slightly improve as the sessions went on and they became used to the environment but there is still a lot of work to be done here. In future sessions, I will continue to include activities which follow on from the interests of the child to try and help her to become engaged in the session. She responds best to exploring on her own and will come to an adult if she wants support. It is therefore important to be gentle with interventions.

Child 2

The links below are the observational sheets for the first 4 sessions for child 2.

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Child 2 is an extremely confident child but often chooses to play with adults rather than peers. During the sessions, she began to play with other children after some encouragement. This led to her taking charge of her own scavenger hunt and including her friends in this. She will benefit from plenty of group activities and from being given opportunities to create and lead her own games in future sessions.

Child 3

The links below are the observational sheets for the first 4 sessions for child 3.

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Session 4

Child 3 is a very physical child who became quite hyperactive in the first Forest School session. They love to run around with other children but can sometimes struggle with spatial awareness. When taking part in activities he preferred to concentrate and work alone until the final session where he enjoyed a role-playing game with his friends. In future sessions, he would benefit from some risky play which he seems to get a lot of satisfaction from. Through these kinds of activities, he can use up his excess energy while learning how to keep safe.

Reflection and Evaluation

During the first four sessions, the children became much more confident and embraced the rules and routines we had put in place. By the fourth session, they were able to tell each other the rules, and the children voluntarily shouted “dog!” and crossed their arms when a dog came across the path. For many of the children, the most popular activities were the physical ones. They loved running around and learning how to navigate the uneven terrain and the fallen branches or rocks. They also enjoyed challenging themselves, swinging on ropes, and trying to walk along logs. Across the four sessions, the children really developed their observational skills and confidence in exploring. They began this in the first session but struggled to search for specific items and characteristics. We built this up over the sessions and the children loved the scavenger hunt in session 4. In the third session, the children and the staff really struggled due to the cold weather. It was very difficult to motivate the children but once I got them doing a physical game, they warmed up a bit. The staff were a lot harder to motivate and this rubbed off on the children. In the following session, I provided more structure and the children and staff responded well. I also made sure that we had warm drinks and that everyone had suitable clothing to make sure the same problem didn’t happen again.

Over the sessions the children learned:

• How to be safe in the woods
• How to explore and create using woodland materials
• How to balance on logs
• How to run safely
• How to look after our woods
• The effects of the weather, especially the wind
• Fine and gross motor skills
• Social skills

I learned:

• Sessions need to have a structure in which the children can choose to participate in or not depending on their interests. The structure helps to motivate children and staff.
• To allow children to freely explore and investigate on their own terms.
• That different children are interested in getting different outcomes from their visits to the woods, whether it be physical, creative or intellectual.
• To effectively delegate to other staff so that I am free to supervise the more risky elements of sessions.
• That other staff need to understand the principles of Forest School to help the children learn and develop and really benefit from being involved in the planning of the sessions.

Ideas for future sessions:

• All sessions will be planned in collaboration with other staff members to help keep them motivated and to ensure that they can assist the children’s development effectively.
• Our group of children are very interested in more physical activities and need opportunities to blow off steam.
• In the 4th session the children began to role play during the session. This is a real interest of the girls in our group and can be built upon in future sessions.

Please see below for my first 5 session plans. Unfortunately, the 5th session was cancelled due to high winds and after this, the nursery closed because of Coronavirus so I was unable to rearrange and unable to complete a 6th session.

session 1

session 2

session 3

session 4

session 5