Reading Outdoors

It is World Book Day on Thursday but we celebrated it 2 days early.  Pupils and staff dressed up as book characters or genres.  We did some storytelling in the woods first then we all chose a place to sit and read our books - up trees, on logs etc.

Balancing in the Woods

As we are doing gymnastics for our P.E at the moment, I took my class to the outdoor play equipment and the woods to try some outdoor balancing.  The children had a safely briefing and the ground below the trees was checked for sharp objects etc.

Mission in Woods - more photos

Mission in Woods - session 2

Had so much fun this morning up in the woods again.  Tarps were set up within 5 mins, like professionals now these kids!  Just as well as a few light rain showers.  Today we improved our maps of the wood and then each group chose a tree to measure the height of - by measuring a pupil who had to stand next to the tree then standing back and working out how many times that pupil would fit into the height of the tree.  Biggest beech trees were 15m high.

Next for the age, we tried measuring the girth of the tree 1m above the ground then divided by 2.5.  It made the oldest trees measured between 80 - 100 years old.  Probably about right as they are a protected strip of trees.

When the kids realised the biggest trees started growing in 1912 they were amazed!  One said they couldn't believe the trees had lived through World Wars 1 and 2.

A real moment of understanding!

Loved it today.

RME in the Woods

Today I told the story of Jesus in the Wilderness to explain why Lent is 40 days long. 

After telling the part about Jesus being alone in the desert I got everyone to spread out and find a place in the woods on their own but in sight of the next person (for safety).  Everyone had to be quiet for 4 minutes.  My class love to chat but eveyone was silent and I stood in the middle so I could see everyone.  Comments after varied from being peaceful, good hearing the birds sing to "It was boring...nothing to do."  We discussed where the pupils liked to go and think - from corner of the garage to inside a wardrobe!  One pupil said she went and sat in the woods near her house when she needed to think.

I asked one of the boys who loves climbing trees to climb a tree as I read the part about the devil trying to persuade Jesus to jump from the high temple.  He loved sitting up the tree (and he climbed down!)

Finally to the mountain (high point in the playground) where the devil tells Jesus he can have everything he sees from the mountain top.  We looked at the view and talked about temptation.  A Muslim child in the class told us about fasting for Ramadan (also 40 days).

And...I'd brought pancakes and jam for us all to eat before the bell went for break time! 

Outdoor Clocks

After our mission in the woods this morning (see previous post), we had break (outside) then went in for half an hour to do some indoor work before heading out to the playgound for some maths.  As we are starting some work on time, I thought some revision of telling the time using big outdoor clocks (ropes, cones and sticks) would be beneficial. 

In groups of 5 the clocks were made and each pupil made times (hard ones - no o'clocks, half pasts of quarter past/to allowed) and the rest of the group had to say the time in 2 ways - eg. 20 past 1 is the same as 40 mins to 2.  Then they repeated the exercise and had to give the time in 12 and 24 hour time.

Going around the groups I was quickly and easily able to assess who was secure with this and who needed more help.  I have a worksheet for tomorrow to check up on everyone again but hope they will all manage to complete this accurately after today's practical session.  Many commented how much fun they had.  We finished with "What's the Time Mr Wolf" to warm up!

Tomorrow we are doing an activity about Lent outside in the woods...

Oh and my inspiration for my blog name...

I put this up for anyone looking for us...

Mission in the Woods

Our P7 project is "Conflict" so today the mission was to map an area of woods we could use as a hiding place incase the school was attacked!  Each group of 3 was given a small tarp (1m squared!) to put up in case of a rain shower, then they had to map an area of woodland around 5m squared..

Putting up the tarps was a lesson in itself...what a struggle they had!  Only one child had ever made a den in the woods before.  Tying knots and selecting a sensible place proved tricky and it took over 30 mins for some groups to put their tarp up!  Some didn't even use the walls or trees to help make their shelter, just put the tarp up in the middle of their "area" with no shelter.  Great fun though and a valuable learning/team building experience for children who seldom play in the woods.

The mapping has begun but due to the longer time than expected to put up the tarps, we will need another session to complete them. 

 This group tried for ages in the woods then found this spot over the wall!  Very sensible really!

Oh...and we got great views of a very tame wood mouse (much cuter than house mouse) which completely ignored us!