We embarked on a new venture over the Easter Holidays with our first forest school holiday club! We invited some new, and some familiar, faces into our woodland for a day of exploration, crafts, art and play. Open to children aged 6 to 10, we wanted to offer children outside our nursery the opportunity to experience a day of forest school activities and gain the benefits of being outdoors in nature.

So after everyone (along with their excited energy!) had arrived at nursery we packed our things and headed to the woodland. It was lovely to see some of our nursery alumni settle back into the woods like they had never left, remembering the trees where they played whilst at nursery several years before, and introducing others to this space.

We headed to base camp for some games to start the day, the children eager to each have a go at thinking of two natural objects for their friends to run to and touch for our game of ‘touch 2’. After running off a bit of our energy, we headed further up the hill and found ourselves at the laurel trees. A dense evergreen canopy under which to explore, the laurels provided our setting for den building, imaginative play, and climbing. But after a while, off we went in search of sunshine, finding ourselves at the fallen down tree, which would be the setting for the rest of our morning.

After setting the boundaries for our new area, we got out some resources and the children took charge of their own play. Some climbed along the trunk of the horizontal tree, others played hide and seek amongst its cascading roots. We also had time for calm and concentration with some crafts. We decorated wooden disks and stones, turning them into ‘easter eggs’ with an array of different designs.

We had a visit from the preschool forest school children, who came to say hello. We merged groups for a while and they even assisted with finding the stone ‘eggs’ hidden amongst the leaves, branches and undergrowth of our area.

In the afternoon, we headed back to base camp for some games and a relax in the hammock. Before long it was time for our closing activity of toasting some hot crossed buns, or crumpets, on the fire. During this activity, the children took it upon themselves to tell the group some stories, and I can confirm that we had some very talented performers!

And just like that, it was time to head back. After a chat about which bits of the day we enjoyed, we delivered our group of children back to their parents and carers after a day spent enjoying the outdoors.

“My son had a great time, toasting hot cross buns and painting rocks- he didn’t want to leave!” – Parent

We hope to run more of these sessions in the coming holidays, so look out for our next one!

-Daisy