Planning what planning

 Each week I put a plan together for the session and within ten minutes its been thrown out the window as the session becomes child led.  I usually take the FS truck down to the FS site before the session but today the sports field was being used so I took the truck around the back of the hall where we meet and parked it next to the door we come out of.  As we left for the site a couple of volunteers pushed and pulled the truck and seemed to enjoy it so guess what next week I will be parking the truck outside the hall again so a new FS activity is created.  Today we divided again into two groups as the elder boys finished their first A frame ladder and got the second one cut up ready for tying together next week.  It was tested up against a tree and once we have three we will see if we can climb over the top as they become free standing.

The younger group continued with building their den with sub groups preparing the cups for hot chocolate, making buttercup chains and tree hangings.  One of the members of the younger group had isolated himself from the group and was playing with a stick away from the rest of group.  I went to ask him about the game he was playing and to make sure he was okay after he explained his game I asked him if he would like to share it with the rest of the group and so ‘Wacker Stick’ was born.  The aim of the game is to stick a long stick in the ground then standing behind a line about 2m away you throw a stick at the Wacker Stick the winner is the one who gets their stick the closest to the Wacker Stick and you get bonus points for knocking it over.

After hot chocolate we had our first game of thicket this term with a lot more leaf on bushes and trees there are many more places to hide.  The game ended with the last person being about a metre from the square and having to surrender otherwise we would still be there! The hiding place was behind the Forest School truck underneath a tarp.

The great thing about Forest School is the freedom children have to explore and invent.  On the way back to the school hall one of the boys asked if he could roll down the bank its not a long or steep grassy bank with no obstructions so I said yes go for it and in the end there was about six of them rolling down the bank having a great time.