Forest School: Bow Saw and Forest School Medals

We began the lesson with our movement game; Beetle Tag. Everyone is on, and only the limbs can be tagged. When a limb is tagged, the child 'looses' that limb. They put the tagged arm across their chest/ hop on the opposite foot that was tagged. When all limbs are tagged, the child lies on their back like an upside down beetle. Another person can touch their forehead to release them.

Next we solved our leaf puzzles. Each child was given a leaf that had been torn, they out them back together. Some children wanted to bring the leaf to the tree it belonged to!

Mr. Earthworm

We have had the theme of a visiting earthworm throughout the whole Forest School experience! One day, long before I has started the framework, the boys came in from break with a earthworm on their football. They were disgusted and asked me to remove it! 

On our first Forest School lesson, an earthworm appeared in the centre of the circle. There were shrieks. I explained that we need earthworms for the soil and birds and that they were just trying to get back into the soil.

Last week the earthwork appeared again. The children were reminding others where the earthworm was and not to stand on him. 

Today, the earthworm appeared as we were putting our leaves together. The children decided to cover him with their leaves to protect him from the sun! What progress!! :) 

For the construction strand of visual arts we focused on constructing Forest School medals as this was our final session. 

We then used the bow saw to cut wooden discs or 'cookies'. We did this slowly and carefully as a group. I had some cookies prepared for the medals as I knew we wouldn't have time to cut enough in the session.

The children then used palm drills to create holes in the cookie. These are made from drill bits that have been secured in a solid wood (Holly).

They were then decorated with markers. Berries are a great natural dye if they are available! The medals were worn with pride! :) 

Blind Folded Painting

A colleague and a good friend took these photos and this is her lesson idea, but it was so good that I had to share with you all! Thank you Teresa! :)

Teresa did this lesson with her Senior Infants, but it can be used with other ages, my 1st Class loved it! 

One child is blindfolded and the other guides the painting. It puts the child back in the process and it's a very sensory experience. This lesson is great for Oral Language as well as cooperative learning.

Teresa displayed her work with these "Can you see what I see?" booklets. I love this idea to respond to visual art! 

Forest Schools, Whittling and Fire Making

This week we looked at whittling using food peelers. This is the introduction to knife use in Forest School. Until the children are older and more competent with how to use these they are not given knives. When they are, it is also introduced in a highly structured way.

The children found this process tricky, it was more challenging, but they enjoyed the process as you can see in this video!

My thoughts were that these 'tent pegs' could be used in creating construction projects in visual arts down the line...

I was conscious that I was balancing the curriculum objectives with the main principles of the Forest School framework. I'd like to have this skills spread out a bit more, but needed to include them in my 6 week sessions as part of my Forest School Leader qualification.

Fire Making was also created in a very safe environment- safety was of utmost importance, and the correct procedures were followed as learned at Forest School Leadership training. 

We used a fire steel, cotton wool and a scallop shell to light our small fires. 

Summer Art Inspiration

Whooo! The summer term is here! :) It's always an enjoyable term, the standardised tests are done, books (nearly) finished and there is more space to incorporate fun lessons into the timetable!

Here are some ideas that may be of use!

Underwater projects

This can be completed as a group on a noticeboard, or individually in shoeboxes. The children painted the shoebox and created the background. Mermaids and coral were made with plasticine and fish were hung from the top of the box with thread. 

Beach Scenes

My favourite thing to do is beach-comb in the summer. Sand, shells and seaweed can all be a great addition to any art project!

I gave each child a section of a photograph. They stuck it on the page- wherever they liked and added to the photo.

Here are some ideas I found online:

https://www.pinterest.com/bloglovin/

http://kidsartists.blogspot.ie/2010/07/sunglasses.html

I loved the idea of imagining the reflections in the sunglasses! This would be great to link with sun safety. My first class loved learning about how their eyes work! 

The Ocean

http://hative.com/handprint-footprint-crafts-for-kids/

While these are made with prints, the children would really enjoy painting pictures of mermaids- especially if you have some metallic paint to add some shimmer. 

How about making mermaid tails and/or shark fins and incorporating it into a drama lesson?! These could be really simple- cut out from large sheets of paper.

http://kidsartists.blogspot.ie/

Tearing paper is really effective when creating a sea scene.

http://www.homeschoolingmom4two.com/2014/03/TissuePaperFishCraft.html

Link fish art with the book "The Rainbow Fish".

Here's a cool project based on sharks!

http://www.sharkguardian.org/shark-and-whale-expo-at-harrow-international-school-with-the-year-2-children-4th-april-2012/

Bees

Summer is a great time to teach the children about the importance of bees. There are some great resources about the life of bees. 

http://msbarbarasblog.blogspot.ie/2013/04/beesa-preschool-study.html

I liked the hive/ shape of the beeswax in this one!

http://cahierjosephine.canalblog.com/archives/2014/03/27/29445283.html

Forest Schools, Responding to Calder, Constructing Mobiles

Back to Forest Schools after a week off school! This week we responded to the artist Alexander Calder and his mobile style art.

We began the session with an active game and then a plant identification circle. Each child had a blindfold on. These were cheap ones from an Ebay store. They are slighty see-through, but I think this is perfect for 7 year olds. The children were given a leaf each and concentrated on the lines, shape and texture of their leaf. 

Then the children took off their blindfolds and found the tree that their leaf belonged to.

To link Forest School with the construction element of the visual art curriculum, we looked at examples of Alexander Calder's work. I decided not to mention the artist's name or any details about the art- I just let the children talk about it.

They saw rainbows and shapes. They discussed the colours and lines.

We used soft wire that I had purchased from Cork Art Supplies. It is easy to bend and manipulate. The children then made their own response to the structures. It was quite a process based lesson as the plants were so delicate, there wasn't much product after they played with them. 

Some wanted to put their creations in their hair- it had taken a different meaning from Calder's and become their own.

One child told me that he wasn't making a 'thing' but just 'doing it'. I was delighted to hear this! Process, yes! 

Something I am finding a struggle is to let go of the structure of the classroom when outside. Obviously they still need to be safe and meet the curriculum objectives, but I want to try to encourage the child-led learning. The hour outside just flies by!

A slug crawled out of the flowers later on when we were back in the classroom! There was great excitement. It was decided that the slug should be put in with the Innocent 'Sow and Grow' Spinach plant!! I spend most my summer keeping slugs out of the garden, but the plant was sacrificed all in the name of child led learning! :D 

Forest School, Constructing Bird Feeders

The weather today made Forest School a bit more challenging- for the adults, the children didn't mind at all!! :D

We began with a recap on last week's game "palm tag". Tuesday's group also played a game where half the group hid and the other half had to find them while blindfolded. To find them they had to call "1, 2, 3 Where are you?" While the other group responded with "1, 2, 3, I'm over here". This encourages the use of other senses.

We began to think about the birds that live in the trees above the school. The children acted out common bird behaviours- young birds when hunger/ birds under threat etc.

To say thank you to the birds for letting us use their area, we decided to create simple bird feeders. We covered pine cones in margarine and pressed bird seeds onto them. We then hung them from the trees.

One of the staff in the school took this picture of us all huddled under the shelter making our bird feeders! :) 

According to the feedback, the children really enjoyed using the messy margarine! It was a good process to press the seeds into the margarine as some children tried to loosely pour them onto the cones. Thankfully no clean up required! :) 

Pritt Glue Review

I was kindly gifted some Pritt glues to review. The children in my first class were so excited to see the parcel arrive to the school!

When I first began teaching I remember thinking I had found a great bargain in picking up some budget glue sticks; I quickly learned that you get what you pay for! Pritt is always great quality, as a teacher this is important, the last thing you want is to have to re-glue 25 pictures that are now hanging off the wall!

I began to think about the lesson I could use them in. The bag of Pritt glues reminded me of creating art as a child and the big craft sets I would get for Christmas and birthdays. As I was looking through the internet, my friend Aoife tagged me in an article.

http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/04/why-typical-preschool-crafts-are-a-total-waste-of-time.html

It is based on preschools, but really at 6 and 7 years old it definitely applies to my 1st class.

"Kids at this developmental stage benefit from messing around with paints, or clay, or crayons; they gain little, on the other hand, from assembling together some construction paper shapes that their teachers cut out ahead of time."

That was the lesson decided. I cleared a table at the top of the room and left out craft materials, including the Pritt glue. I loved this freedom as a child- no right or wrong, just process. 

Included in the parcel were these glitter glues- these went down a treat! Less messy than glitter glue pens and dry much quicker.

These coloured glues were great to write with and the children enjoyed experimenting with these.

The squeezey pen was great to get the fine motor muscles working! 

I loved the total immersion in process!

This was a rainbow- you had to look into the cup to see it!

The coloured squares were scraps of paper left over from the pig races from the Heart of Ireland Festival! This boy figured that if he glued two pieces together it made a hat.

A favourite car was cut out- I was amazed at the cutting skills, the high interest subject definitely affected the engagement here.

A crown for the king! He also made a matching snake for around his neck- it was excellent!

Co-operative exploration of materials here. These boys decided to do group work and it was their own decision! 

The class really enjoyed the freedom today. They were so busy and focused on creating their own pieces. I have put a lot of energy into creativity with them and I was delighted that they were all just so happy to experiment without any reluctancy! The selection of materials really added to the lesson and the variety of glues brought a fun element to the creativity.