Ellwood Community Primary School

Curriculum

Forest Adventures

Mrs Gail Rees

PPA cover teacher
g.rees@ellwood.gloucs.sch.uk

I qualified as a teacher in 1994 with a BEd. Art. I taught in Chippenham before moving to the Forest of Dean in 2005 where my 4 children attended Ellwood Primary. Having set up and run the garden for many years I am a Level 3 Forest School Leader.
Click on the documents below to see the photos. Scroll down to see old photos of past groups.

Forest School Handbook Ellwood 2024.pdf

Risk Assessment for FS updated.pdf

FS school curriculum strand links

Progression of Skills Ellwood

Oak Class 2023/24 enjoy Forest Adventures throughout the year on a Friday afternoon. We experience the changes in seasons and photos are put on Tapestry weekly.

fun with AUTUMN LEAVES.

Mud, glorious mud!

Pouring water down the guttering.

Conkers and gutters.

Spotting micro habitats.

Composting our fruit waste.

Digging over soil ready for replacing our raised bed.

Lots of worm fun.

Great teamwork playing games.

Making stick men using knots.

Our stickmen.

We always play a run around game. this one is Youre Only Safe if.....

Tree climbing in the woods.

We made birds nests and pretended to be chicks.

Cone bees

Stick caterpillars

Bug hunt

Muddy kitchen

Puddle jumping

stick caterpillars

Chestnut had their sessions in Spring 2 . The first week was very wet so we practised tying knots inside before we went outside. Week 2 and 3 we went up to the log circle and enjoyed climbing trees, making min dens, stick creatures and whittling.

We practised tying knots before braving the weather.

Muddy kitchen

Stick creatures.

Climbing the tump and looking at Heather.

Duplication game.

Whittling

Stick creations.

Oak Class have been exploring Winter.

A swing that the Year 6 buddies created for Oak Class.

Dens inspired by the story 'Bear's Winter House'

Spotting frogspawn

'Whomping Willow, Whomping Willow, Can I cross to the Wild Meadow'

Great fun !

Tree climbing

Spell casting

Potion making

Whittling, the two different positions for safe whittling.

Before.

Before

Some of the finished wands.

Chestnut Class 2022 read 'Bears Winter House' and the children made mini dens

We worked on the school site

The children loved making larger dens out in the local forest.

Great fun and challenge was had climbing a newly fallen oak tree.

Another fabulous time in our amazing surrounds. We walked to the old quarry and found materials produced in the Forest of Dean.

Spotting plants on the way to the quarry

Finding hidden items

Feeling and guessing items before unwrapping

Discussing the wool, wood, iron, coal and stone.

Thinking about what these raw materials can be used for.

Chestnut enjoyed 5 more sessions where we explored British Flora and fauna.

Week one onsite making mini dens for an animal.

Our shelter over the log circle.

Week 2 making larger dens up at the log circle.

Lots of tree climbing on the fallen oaks.

Bird spotter sheet

Observing the roots and soil type around them

Week 3 we walked to the old quarry spotting native plants on the way.

We searched form hidden packages and in teams found one of each colour negotiating with other teams until everyone had all 6

We guessed what was inside and then opened them.

We found wood, iron, coal, charcoal, stone and wool all materials found in the Forest of Dean.

We played 'Tinyaki' also known as 40:40

We drew with charcoal.

Finally we walked to another part of the woods and had some free time to run and play.

Week 5 we made a fire and put in a tin of willow sticks to make charcoal.

We played 'Tinyaki' again in a different environment.

Some whittled sticks to toast marshmallows.

Some creative stick people were made.

Toasting marshmallows

Stone sculptures

When we got back to school, the tin had cooled and we were amazed to find that the sticks had become charcoal.

Week 6 began with using the charcoal we made and it worked really well.

Whittling

Lots of expert whittlers in Beech Class.

Super slides.

The Year 5's had a short play time and came and helped out for a few minutes under the instruction of Kuba.

Fun on a slide.

Creating slides for the animals.

Getting creative in the muddy kitchen with lavender, lemon basil and petals.

Safely moving pallets

Collecting seeds

More shelters, developing and trying out ideas.

They found a bag of string and bits and made caterpillars and stick men that we had done last year.

Finding seeds and seed cases.

We found a hazel nut which a sneaky creature, probably a squirrel had eaten the nut.

We collected and labelled seeds.

Shark attack was back by popular demand.

The boys were thrilled with their shelter. There were a lot of knots!

Dry grass made a cozy shelter

Kobi made three shelters improving it each time.

Final shelter created by Kobi.

A good spot for hammering wood pegs in.

Great use of knot tying

This shelter had many layers.

Curriculum

Forest Adventures

Mrs Gail Rees

PPA cover teacher