Good morning everyone,
Hope you all have had a good week.
Below are some activities you may like to try at home when the weather improves.
Germination experiment
This is a great experiment to try if you want to find out how a seed grows.
Natural hammered leaf printing
You will need:
- A selection of leaves
- Kitchen paper
- Art paper
- A hammer
- Chopping board
1. Working on your chopping board, position your leaf on the art paper, covering with 2 sheets of kitchen paper.
2. Start hammering (but mind your fingers)
3. You will know when it is working as the natural pigment from the leaves will start to show through on the kitchen paper.
4. Gently remove the kitchen paper, and peel back the leaf - it should leave a beautiful print on the art paper - some leaves work better than others, experiment, it's fun!
Nature Weaving
1. Collect sticks for your loom.
2. Lash the sticks together with string/wool to create the base of your loom.
3. Make the loom any size or shape you want ... you can maybe make a rectangle or a triangle.
4. Tie a piece of string/wool around one of the corners and begin wrapping it around the loom. Wrapping it around the stick twice will keep the string/wool taught and prevent it from sliding on the sticks.
5. Tie the string/wool off on the corners when you reach the other side of the loom.
6. Time to decorate your loom. Collect interesting grasses, flowers, leaves, seed pods and pieces of bark that you find on the ground.
7. Weave your treasures through the strings of the loom.
Have a lovely weekend and have fun with these activities.
Mrs Cherry and Mrs Turland
Good morning everyone!
This week's blog is all about the rainy weather. Below you will find some fun experiments you can do at home that relate to the weather.
Making Rainbows
Rainbows are made when there is both sunlight and rain at the same time. As the white light that we usually see passes through the water droplets, it bends (refracts) and separates into the seven colours of the rainbow. White light is really made up of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. You can only see the rainbow if the light is behind you and the water is in front of you.
Equipment:
- Water
- glass container
- light coloured surface/paper/sheet
- cd / mirror
- a sunny day or a torch
- water hose / watering can
Instructions:
Here are a few ways to make a light rainbow.
1) Stand with the sun behind you and spray a hose of water or pour a watering can to make a fountain. Look for a rainbow of light with the water.
or
2) Hold up a container / glass of water so the sunlight goes through it. Place a white sheet / paper onto the ground the other side and spot your rainbow.
or
3) Place a mirror / old cd partially submerged in to a container of water. make sure the mirror / cd is angled to face the sun and place your paper / sheet in between the water and the sunlight.
or
4) Hold a glass of water in front of a window where sunlight is passing through. Hold your paper underneath and watch the rainbow appear.
Challenge:
a. How can you make the biggest / brightest rainbow?
b. Does changing the angle of your mirror or height of the water, make a difference?
c. Can you think of any other ways to make your own rainbow?
Have a play !!!
How much does it rain?
Take a plastic drink bottle and cut around it about 10cm down from the cap, remove the lid. Turn it upside down, pop it back onto the bottle and tape in place. You now have a rain gauge. Pop it outdoors and see how much rain you can collect in a day!
Evaporation Investigation
What happens to the rain after the rain? Find out for yourself ....
Sprinkle water on a hard surface in the sun, and a hard surface in the shade. Chalk a line around the damp patch and time how long it takes to evaporate in each area.
Knot of the Week
You will need two pieces of string for this knot.
Wildlife in Mrs Cherry's garden
Below are a couple of pictures taken of some of the wildlife that Mrs Cherry has found in her garden this week.
If you have any pictures of wildlife in your garden, send them in and we will put them on the blog.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Cherry and Mrs Turland
Good morning everyone,
Hope you have had a good week, despite the weather change.
Below are some more activities that you may like to try.
How to work out the age of a tree
Did you know, the oldest living tree is the bristlecone pine in the USA? It is almost 5000 years old!
You might know that counting the rings on a tree stump will give you the approximate age of the tree, but we do not want to cut trees down to find out how old they are! However there is another way ....
What you will need:
A tape measure
A calculator
What to do:
1. Face the trunk of the tree and measure 1.3m from the ground. This is the point at which you need to measure the circumference of the trunk.
2. At 1.3m from the ground, use the tape measure to measure the circumference of the trunk in cm. Make sure you avoid any lumps or branches.
3. To get the approximate age of the tree, convert the measurement of the circumference in cm, to inches. Here is an example of the calculation.
1 inch = 2.5cm
Tree circumference = 110cm
Calculation: 110cm divided by 2.5cm = 44
Age of the tree = 44 years
See if you can find out what is the oldest and youngest tree in your garden or local park.
Go butterfly spotting
Butterflies are all around at this time of year - but which ones can you spot?
Below are pictures of some of the butterflies you might find in our area.
See how many you can spot!
Brimstone
Comma
Holly Blue
Peacock
Red Admiral
Once you are back inside, why not research them and have a go drawing your favourite. Send them in to your teachers, we would love to see them.
Wildlife yoga
Our last bird update
As you can see the young blue tits have grown quite big now and since this picture was taken they have flown the nest. Mum and Dad have done a good job.
Hopefully next year there will be a new family.
Finally, just to let you know the Forest School blog will only be posted on a Friday from now on.
Have a lovely weekend,
Mrs Cherry and Mrs Turland
Hello,
It is fantastic Friday again and half term next week.
Below are some fun activities you may wish to do over half term.
Where's Wally?
Mrs Cherry and Mrs Blackall have had great fun this week hiding Wally and his friends in the Forest School area.
Zoom in and see if you can spot them?
Weather Diary
Are you a budding meteorologist?
We have the perfect activity for you. Grab a notebook to use as your very own weather diary and have a go at predicting the weather.
Did you know that pine cones are brilliant for predicting rain as they usually close up before rain and open when it's dry. Some flowers do this too.
Use your notebooks to predict and record the weather and temperature each day. You could also draw pictures and add photos to your diary and even have a little competition with your family to see who predicts the weather correctly.
Knot of the week
This knot helps to cause tension on a rope and is particularly good for putting up a tarp. Mrs Turland and Mrs Cherry use it all the time.
Bird Update
Our baby blue tits are growing fast.
Also Miss Chick sent these pictures this week. She had a little visitor in her kitchen.
Update on Forest School area
We have been busy this week developing another area in our Forest School for you to enjoy.
Lastly one of our teaching assistants sent in a self portrait this week. Can you guess who it is?
Have a lovely half term and enjoy some rest as you all have worked so hard at home.
Mrs Cherry and Mrs Turland