P2 Year Group – ‘Spring Woodland Wands’ – 6th March 2025

P2 Forest School – 06.03.25

Today I lead three forest school sessions for each of our P2 classes. The session was titled ‘Spring Woodland Wand’ and was held at the Six Mile Water River Park, Ballyclare. The weather was cloudy with sunny intervals and a fresh breeze.

 As a group we walked around today’s chosen Forest School area to establish the location and identify the animals on the Forest School site boundary signs…an exciting start! We established the rules and the purpose of the ‘base area’.

 Warm up task: We discussed the 5 senses and explain that we will be using four of our senses (sight, hearing, touch and smell) to observe our surroundings as we move around the Forest Park area – no tasting today! The children enjoyed listening to the birds singing, the breeze in the trees above us and the flow of the river below today’s chosen site.

 Spring time observations – We looked for and discussed signs of spring time nearing and found snowdrops, crocus and daffodils. The children also learned about buds on branches/twigs in the trees around them.

 The children explored the FS area to gather a stick before being introduced to todays main task – making a Spring woodland Wand. The children went on a Spring Scavenger Hunt with their lists and clipboards while gathering items for their wands. The items were attached to the sticks using pipe cleaners to add some sparkle and colour to their wands.

 We gathered together to present some wands to the class before getting out magnifying glasses / tarpaulin sheets to sit down for a while to have a closer inspection of the items found. The children were encouraged to use 4 of their senses while investigating the items on their wands. We discussed what was inside a flower and successfully found pollen in the crocuses and daffodils. The

 We celebrated success before evaluating the lesson using the Forest School faces. A great day!