Forest

This week in Reception, we were all ready and raring to go on our school trip to Hatfield Forest. However... the winds predicted for the day were so strong that the Forest had to be closed to the public. The children were all so ready for their trip, that we decided to visit another forest... Windhill21's secret indoor forest! 

With our packed lunches, 'raincoats' and 'wellies' in tow, we set of on a new Forest adventure! What we found was magical! The forest was so chilly and windy. There were noises of trees rustling and birds chirping. Animals could be seen all around the room, darting from tree to tree. Minibeasts scuttled around on the forest floor beneath the wet leaves and fallen twigs and branches.

As soon as we arrived, we explored the area, spotting snails, spiders and even the odd snake or two! All this exploring had made us peckish, so we all sat down together and ate our packed lunches on the forest floor.

 

After our picnic, we sang songs around the campfire, including a very silly song called "Ging Gang Gooli"! Miss Lawrence played her guitar and Miss Clarke kept the beat with her djembe drum.

After a few campfire songs, the children retold the story of "We're Going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen. You can watch the narrated version below!

In the afternoon, the children were able to venture outside into the rainy playground, geared up in their welly boots and rain coats. We had a lot of fun splashing in puddles and playing circle games. After drying off, we went back to our secret forest and completed observational drawings of the minibeasts that we could find, and ticked off the ones we spotted on our checklists.

Although the day didn't go to plan, the children had an amazing time in the Windhill21 Secret Forest! Nathaniel even commented "I just love our pretend forest so much!"