Holy Cross Pre-School Nursery 

Snowy day in January 2023

Forest Friday Fun.

Autumn Fun 

Tree Climbing!

Our little monkies just love hanging around! 

Our forest school week saw a strange space craft land in our forest area!, the children were very excited to explore but first they needs to gain their special agent clearance badge. Once the group had their badges they took to exploring the UFO with great curiosity and enthusiasm. We then ventured further into the forest where we discovered an injured alien! yes that's right a real alien, who held some instructions on how we could help to save the babies! Pre-school were quick to get to work, listening intently to what they needed to do and soon the babies were found and all actions carried out. Once completed we split off into groups and the children took part in various outstanding space themed activities such as "space themed" clay models using found objects and finished the day building waterproof shelters ready for the rest of the week.

Throughout the rest of the week Pre-School prepared and created space soup to help fill up their busy bodies. Fantastic friendships were made though the week as the children worked together as a team to build hammocks, dens and search far and wide to find more aliens who were hiding, in the sand no less! (they must have thought it was a holiday)

Monday 27th February 2017 

We have had a lovely start to our Forest school week.  The day started with registration and Mrs Pullen talked to the children about being safe in the Forest and boundaries. She then read the children a story called Underpants Wonderpants.  In the story aliens visited earth and they were catapulted back to space in a hammock made of underpants! Mrs Pullen told the children that the aliens had left us some alien eggs to hatch and we had to look in the Forest for them, they were tiny but to find them they had to be placed in water.  The aliens had left them by underpants so they could be found! The children got ready in their waterproof suits and went outside on an alien egg hunt.  They discovered many and placed them in a bowl of water as instructed.  The children then had fun putting up some shelters and some hammocks, they enjoyed trying to learn how to tie knots and also testing if their shelter was waterproof! We thought that at some point during the day we was definately going to need to keep out of the rain.

  It was then snack time so the children made banana boats.  They sliced open the bananas and stuffed them with chocolate drops and rainbow candy drops.  The children then wrapped them in tin foil and Ms Gordon placed them on the fire to cook.  The children loved eating their snacks with spoons scooping out the yummy banana, it was such a special treat!

After lunch and rest time, the children went back outdoors, they checked if their shelters were okay and then set off on a task to make a nature crown. They had to find a bendy twig and they could decorate it with anything they wanted that they could find.  They used leaves of all different shapes and colours and some special fairy glitter which they found by the fairy house.

It was then time for our maths lesson.  The children were sent on a scavenger hunt to find objects in the forest that was: thin, fat, tall, small, heavy, light, big, small, soft, hard, prickly, smooth, wet and dry.  They had great fun looking for them and then went under the shelter to compare them with Miss Blunt. 

It was then snack time and the children enjoyed toast cooked on the fire and hot chocolate with marshmallows in.  The children then enjoyed washing up their cups. 

Finally it was the time a lot of the children had really been looking forward to, tree climbing! They all did really well and want to keep on  practising! They also enjoyed chilling in the hammocks.

The children have had an awesome day and I am sure will sleep well tonight!

Tuesday 28th February 2017 

We were all very excited for day 2 of our Forest school week, the children all came prepared in their warm clothes and couldn't wait to go out to the Forest.  We reminded the children about being safe in the Forest and the boundaries. We talked about Shrove Tuesday and pancakes and told the children they would be making some today. The children got ready in their waterproof suits and went outside to check on the alien eggs!  They discovered they were bigger than yesterday and some had cracked, they also noticed there was ice on top of the bowl and said this may have been placed on top of them by the aliens to keep them safe!  First job for the children was to check on the shelters and make the large shelter more comfier. The children worked together to set up our camp for the day. Miss Harper helped the children and we had to remove a few dead branches which was in our way.  Ciaran and Martha loved using the loppers to do this.

The children checked on the fairies and then Emily arrived for the children's french lesson and they all enjoyed taking part under their shelters in the forest.

Mrs Pullen helped the children to make pancakes and they cooked them on the fire with Ms Gordon.  They really enjoyed making and eating them. The children also threaded sausages on to sticks to cook on the fire, this was a bit tricky but they had great fun doing them and eating them!

We made lovely pictures with charcoal.  The children learnt that charcoal comes from the fire and enjoyed drawing alien pictures.

Miss Blunt took the children on a moon walk and they found it was really funny trying to walk like a spaceman.

Today the children used one of the many tools we use in Forest school.  We needed wood for the fire, so the children collected fallen branches and used the loppers to cut them into smaller pieces for the fire.

We finished the morning session with hot chocolate and toast and then we washed up our cup and plates and some of the children went home and the others went for lunch.

After rest time the children were excited to go outside. It was raining but that didn't dull their enthusiasm! They loved going under the shelters and tipping the water of them.  This afternoon's snack was to make pineapple parcels.  The children chopped up cake and pineapple placed it into some tin foil and added golden sugar and butter.  Ms Gordon put them on the fire for them to cook.

The children planted some vegetable seeds in our veg patches and sorted out some sapling trees to plant tomorrow.  They also enjoyed using the flint and steel to light a fairy blanket. 

Our day ended by warming ourselves by the fire and eating our lovely pineapple parcels washed down with more hot chocolate.  

We had a really fun, wet and muddy day!!

Wednesday 1st March 2017

Day 3 started with dramatic news! Following the bad weather last night an alien spaceship had crashed in the Forest, it is believed the ship was carrying materials for the children to make space rockets to send home the aliens when they hatch from their eggs.  There was space debris all over the area!  The children went outside and first checked on the eggs, carefully holding one.  Orlaith said it was bigger now and very soft. The children decided they had to collect all of the debris and try and make the rockets.  They also discovered that they had been sent a special gift from the aliens, they unwrapped them to find oval shapes which they could mark make with.  The children enjoyed drawing pictured of aliens and writing their names.  Miss Blunt helped the children to gather up the debris and make some rockets.

Some of the children wanted to use the flint and steel and practice lighting fairy blankets.

Mrs Keeley and Miss Harper helped the children to plant some saplings in the Forest.  Andrew loved digging the holes in preparation for the sapling beech trees to go in. 

For snacks today the children made quesadillas, Ben enjoyed grating the cheese and Bella worked really hard in chopping up the ham. The children spread tomato puree over a tortilla and put on ham, cheese, sweetcorn, tomatoes and onions.  They rolled them up and placed them on the fire with the help of Ms Gordon.  They were delicious when they were cooked and toasted and went down very well with hot chocolate!  Once again the children loved the independence of washing up their own cups.

Ms Gordon and Mrs Pullen talked to the children about St. Davids day. The children discussed the patron saint of Wales and Ciara knew that the Daffodil was the emblem of Wales. The children painted some daffodils using their fingers. 

The most popular thing today was the mud! oh how the children have enjoyed our natural play resource.

After lunch and rest the children were back out to the Forest.  They had more planting to do and really wanted to continue playing in the mud!  We had our PE lesson and the children pretending to be rockets zooming around and flying around space. the children made some glittery stars and continued with their daffodil pictures.

The children needed to use the loppers to cut up some more fire wood and Ben used the knife under supervision to make some tinder to that we could start the fire for this afternoon's cooking.  Snacks this afternoon was toasted marshmallows and banana boats as they enjoyed them so much on Monday, they drank hot berry juice and loved it. 

Relaxation time and some of the children chilled in the hammocks, others had an exciting time pushing their friends in them!

We all had a lovely muddy day!

Thursday 2nd March 2017

Day 4 began with the sun shining! It was another busy day planned in the Forest and the children were also celebrating World Book Day.  Many of the children came in costumes so it was a quick change into our snow suits and boots and off we headed outside.  We also had some moms joining us today.  The children went outside and first checked on the eggs, carefully holding one they all said it had grown so much bigger.  The children sat around the fire circle and had a story read to them by Olga's mom. She read them the story Walking through the Jungle in Polish.  The children discussed the animals in the story and Olga's mom told the children the polish words for them and they all had a go at trying to say the polish animal names. 

The children then set up camp and then went off and enjoyed their activities.  Ben and his mommy helped to start the fire and prepared the scrambled eggs, Noah also helped passing the eggs carefully.  Ben enjoyed making the scrambled eggs and the children most definatley enjoyed eating them!

Mrs Pullen led the silly soup activity with the children, whilst Miss Blunt and a group of children prepared some vegetables to cook on the fire to make real soup.  They worked really hard and carefully with the peelers and chopped up potatoes, onions and carrots. Ms Gordon placed them all in the big stock pot and put some stock and herbs in and placed them on the fire to cook.  

The children enjoyed practising lighting fires and even toasted their own marshmallows on their mini fires.

The morning ended with hot berry drink and the children washing up their cups and bowls.

The afternoon was all about The Gruffalo party! Early Years came over and joined in with us and we all had great fun.  The children made Gruffalo crumble! They peeled the apples, measured out the raisins, flour, sugar and mixed spice.  It was placed in a big pot and put on the fire to cook, it was delicious!

The children made some Gruffalo crowns and went on a hunt to find the Gruffalo and his friends.  We had a lovely day which was made really special as some of our lovely mommies were able to join us!

Friday 3rd March 2017

Day  5 and the end of our fabulous Forest school week.  The final day was a wet one, but the rain certainly did not dampen the children's enthusiasm so go out to the forest and explore. The morning's first job was to set up camp again and to empty the rain of shelters, it was then time to explore the different activities.

The children enjoyed putting up the shelters and then went on a treasure hunt to find all the nursery bears, they had to follow number clues to find them.

    The children painted moon rocks

The children thoroughly enjoyed planting more trees

snack was orange cake today, the children scooped out the oranges, make cake mixture and poured it into them and then baked them on the fire, they were delicious! 

Our day and our Forest school week came to an end with Martin coming in for our music lesson 

"We have had the most amazing week outside at Forest school, we have encountered all sorts of weather from sleet, wind, rain to sunshine! The children have been awesome and embraced everything we have offered them including the elements.  They have smiled, laughed and been keen to learn new skills, they have achieved so many of the EYFS ELGs this week and have had a thoroughly fun and educational time!  A massive thank you for all the lovely positive comments we have received regarding this week, thank you for all our lovely parents who were able to pop in during the week and as always thank you all for supporting us to enable the children to experience a full whole week of Forest School.  Remember,every Friday morning is Forest Schools so if your child does not normally attend on Fridays and they have enjoyed the week, we do have a small number of available sessions if you would like to book them in. We will be repeating another full week of Forest School in the Summer term so look out for further information in the near future."   Kindest Regards  Ms. Gordon.