We continue to learn about the trees we have in our Forest School and the more we know about them, the better we can understand why they have such importance. The trees and hedgerow that the children have recently planted are already starting to bud and blossom, this is very rewarding and immediate for the children to witness.
This week we used blindfolds to really elevate our other senses and help with tree identification. The children worked in pairs, one is blindfolded and lead to a tree. The blindfolded person then has to examine that tree whilst their partner used questions to try and help with focus. How does the bark feel under your fingertips? Can you feel the branches? Are they starting to bud? Are the buds sticky? Can you move the tree? and so on. Then the blindfolded partner is lead back to the start, turned around a few times to disorientate them, then off with the blindfolds! Then they have to try and find and identify their tree. If they succeeded they could then use a variety of Woodland Trust resources to identify and label it.
