Forest School - Winter Update

Well, Winter certainly let us know that it had arrived! Not only did we have ice and snow but we also had some very, very, cold days with temperatures well below zero! BBBBRRRRRRRRRRR!! It was SO COLD!

No need to worry! Miss Curry, our wonderful Forest School leader, had already made sure that our children had been practising their fire lighting and fire building skills!  Naturally, this included learning how to keep themselves and others safe when making a fire.

Very like our ancestors of long ago, the children first had to learn how to make sparks using a flint and steel – two bits of metal that you strike against each other. Even for adults, this is a far from easy task! If that wasn’t challenging enough, next they had to tackle fire lighting (turning the spark into flames) and then fire building - creating a stick structure that would become a fire!

The big treat at the end of all this hard work was to sit around a fire, toast marshmallows and drink hot chocolate! We saw lots of very contented children - not only because they had a marshmallow and hot chocolate - but also because they had achieved something very special. They had learnt how to safely light their very own fire!

Our children not only loved these fire lighting activities but gained a lot personally through the great perseverance, resilience and determination they showed in tackling the range of challenging skills required to safely make a fire! Just the sort of things we want all our children to get from visiting Forest School here at Canning Street.

The Forest School Team