Forest School: A Bridge for a Bottle

In our Forest School sessions we are still keeping focus on team work and a collaborative approach.

In Year’s 2 and 3 they were asked: How do I work successfully as part of a team to construct a bridge for a bottle?

The Rules:

you can use sticks, branches, logs, machined or natural wood
the bottle must pass under the finished bridge upright and on its side
the finished bridge must support the bottle for at least 10 seconds

What we expected to see:

Planning: all team members understand the plan and their role
Communication: should be positive and clear
Resilience: the ability to recover quickly when problems arise

It was interesting to see the progression from Years 2 to 3. The Year 3’s had a more definite definition of the word bridge so the builds went up faster and they had time for adding extras like ramps, cars and even people (Jenga blocks in this instance). The children are not shown any images of bridges or even given a definition so that we see their interpretation. Then during reflection the bridges get tested, we then discuss their sense of success and look at what is the purpose of a bridge. Children will often come back to this activity in their free play sessions honing their ideas.