Wellbeing Wednesday – Forest School

The first group this morning enjoyed a wonderful session all about animal husbandry. To begin with, they visited the food shed and learnt about different types of animal feed before mixing some sugar beet with water in a bucket for the goats. We then left this to swell (as the sugar soaks in the water then expands into a sweet sugary snack) and began looking at the animal enclosures. The children discussed the importance of them being clean and clear of rubbish and potential hazards that could hurt the animals. Then, they all donned a pair of gloves and armed with litter pickers, buckets, plastic bags and a wheelbarrow we set off to inspect all the enclosures and clear anything that shouldn’t be in there. Finally, we revisited our sugary beet mixture, scooped it out into a feeding trough and watched as Nigel and Doughnut feasted away! The older pupils explored trees and began with a blindfolded activity where a partner had to guide their blindfolded friend to a tree. Once there, they had to feel it, hug it and describe it. They were then escorted back to the starting point where they removed their blindfold and had to work out which tree they’d been led to. After that, we continued to look at trees by discussing the benefits of planting them. We then headed down to the playground to plant some new saplings in our school grounds with the aim of providing more shelter, shade and habitats in the future.