7 October 2025 – Conker People (Forest School Club)

Conker People
We started this session in our usual way by recapping the main Forest School rules and then proceeded into a very thorough and comprehensive discussion about the important safety rules when using tools, specifically hand drills as today the main lesson was making conker creations.
Next, I explained and demonstrated the hand drill safely:
– Wear a glove on the hand that is holding the clip.
– Hold conker firmly on a flat surface inside a clip.
– Keep drill vertical.
– Slow, controlled turning.
– Swap turns and share tools.
– Reminder of tool rules: sit down to drill, either both knees on the ground or on bottom, no pointing drills at others, sit at least an arm’s distance away from others and wait your turn.

I then showed the children a stimulus page with examples of conker people and utilized the opportunity for a group discussion around where chestnuts / conkers come from. Children then collected their conkers and worked 1:1 with a member of staff to use the hand drill to drill holes in the conkers which would allow them to put tooth picks into the conkers to connect their structure. Once they had finished connecting their creations, the children used various resources to decorate them and add personality, including pipe cleaners and googly eyes. The children then showed their creations to their peers.
As this was my last session with the Forest School club, we evaluated the 4 weeks to identify what the children’s favourite lesson had been. The favourites were the mini rafts, followed by the painting, then the conker people and finally creating the bird feeders. The children also shared some valuable feedback which will help me to enhance these activities in future.