Forest Friendship

So this week the weather gave us all a lesson in respect. A Forest School programme constantly monitors its ecological impact and works within a sustainable site management plan agreed between the Headteacher, the Forest School Leader and the learners themselves. The children know that no-matter the weather Miss Rowe will try and make sure the children are outside if it’s safe to do so. However after the 24 hour deluge the site needs some time to recover, even the ground under our trees was sodden. One of our three school rules is Respect and in Forest School that means not just respecting each other but respecting the living environment, so we did our activity inside today.

All about the Team is our term topic and this week that meant learning about friendship by creating Friendship Soup. The children were put into their Forest School teams and as a class we discussed what friendship means to us. Every body had different priorities and it was really interesting to hear what aspects were important and why. They were honest about arguments they may have had with friends, but how, through trust and forgiveness they could resolve disagreements. Some talked about shared interests whilst others liked friends who were different and brought out a different side of their personalities.

They then had to create their own recipe for friendship. Thinking carefully about what quantities they would need to get the right balance. Everyone on the team had to agree so that meant some discussion and negotiation. Once they had formulated their recipe they then had to draw it out deciding what shapes and colours they would use for each characteristic. Usually this is done outside using natural materials and some children used textures that related to things like pine cones, shiny leaves, fluffy seed pods etc. Others used emojis which made a really vivid design. One team decided to use a rainbow of colours to make their pan to represent all the wonderful things that friendship means to them, this really brought their design together.

When they are back in the forest School they will be able to create their friendship soup properly in our Mud Kitchen.