The Great Outdoors

 Last Wednesday, when Mrs Lewis and I were attending our 'teacher meeting' in Bielefeld Mrs Nulty was left with the enjoyable task of taking all of the Otters and Foxes on a Spring walk around camp. We knew Mrs Nulty had a far greater knowledge of flower names and bird song and were proven right when we were bombarded with facts about catkins and different petal shapes as soon as we came back to school.

Listening for sounds of Spring.

The children were left prepared for the next day's Walk in the Woods to launch our Summer term whole school topic. They were armed with ipads and cameras ready to capture any interesting signs of Spring....or anything else that sparked their fascination. It was a misty start to the morning which gave an eerie quality to the light. This was remarked upon by Reese who told me that the trees looked "spooky"..."just like Scooby Doo." said Mateo.

A fallen tree certainly sparked some fascinating discussion with Cameron making links to our dinosaur adventures. This of course was another clue that dinosaurs do indeed still roam the Herford woods, "they aren't extinct here!" A brilliantly meteorological conversation about storms and lightning was heard at the back of our line and we all shared our stories of having garden toys and furniture strewn across our gardens during the recent storms.

Mrs Scarisbrick led us all on a minibeast hunt. We found many wood lice and tiny spiders.

This sign had us all looking skywards...

On Friday afternoon in Forest schools Mr Gill took the children outside to see the Willow tree on the football field. He told the children that they would be making their very own dream catchers from the pliable willow branches. As the children sat on their 'magic carpets' they carefully used their funky fingers skills to cut the branches and tie the string. 

Collecting just the right branch for their very own dream catchers.

Racing back to the outdoor classroom.

Alternative uses...

And finally...

Two heart shaped Tulips to sum up the enthusiasm and engagement seen during this very 'outdoorsy' week. What a start to our whole school topic...'The Great Outdoors'.

uh oh! It seems I am not a very good guard...

So this blog post has been sitting unpublished waiting  for me to find a time to sit down and do it justice....here we go.

On the last day of term the children hurriedly clambered off the bus and rushed to the rainbow fence, peering over the top they spotted what they had hoped for. Dinosaurs!

Their traps had worked, in fact they had worked so well that some of the dinosaurs had even taken shelter underneath the expertly built dinosaur hide. Finlay was elected as the brave solo explorer who would recce the area and radio back what he saw. He tiptoed through the quiet area and into the 'dangerzone' so as not to disturb the dinosaurs and send them stomping away again.  As he crept around the dens and traps he gave us hand signals so we knew what he was seeing, thumbs up were a very good sign. He very quickly beckoned us all to join him but put his  fingers to his lips.....shhhh.

It must have been a chilly night as we stumbled across some very toasty looking dinosaurs keeping warm around a burning fire. We had recently built a fire with Mr Gill in Forest schools so were happy to see that the dinosaurs were keeping safe and staying a safe distance away just like we had been taught.

Our makeshift telescope had survived the windy night and proved very effective in spotting the faraway dinosaurs such as the one hanging on to the fence by its claws.

Chloe's bow and arrow worked very well but didn't need to be used as the dinosaurs seemed very friendly. Perhaps they just wanted to see what the otters were learning at school?

The paper dinosaur trap that the children had made with Mrs Sturrock in funky fingers must have seemed very inviting during the chilly night as when Paige lifted it up she very excitedly called out that she had found three more pesky dinosaur, including a very tired looks triceratops.

A chocolate wrapper found on the ground became another ''clue''.The only logical explanation was that Mr Gill had been feeding the hungry dinosaurs. I don't know about you but I didn't know that dinosaurs were as partial to chocolate as five year old otters! The image of dinosaurs midnight feasting on smuggled chocolate while huddled around the campfire certainly lit our imaginations even further. The children were keen to draw pictures of what they had found and write it all down so that they wouldn't forget.

After finding a stranded dinosaur trapped in a high branch, the children were quick to think of ways to get him down. It required lots of creative thinking and sharing of ideas. After a few discussions and ''team meetings'' it was decided that with our limited resources we should all go with  Kerron's idea of constructing a ladder with collected twigs and our remaining string.

The string proved difficult to tie (we have since used this as a teaching point in our daily funky fingers provision...we are now expert knotters!) so we went back to our trusty blue tape that assisted us so well in our marble run building. Much easier!

It didn't quite take the weight of our otters...but as Reese pointed out that didn't matter ''It's not designed for children! We are too heavy. The dinosaurs are not so heavy.'' Quite right.

Mateo volunteered to keep watch in his camouflaged hide. As far as I know he was a very vigilant guard and stayed there for the whole Easter holidays....with his emergency chocolate deliveries from Mr Gill!