Getting to know Common Hogweed This week we were noticing and exploring Common Hogweed. We smelled it. We looked closely. We asked questions. We drew it. We didn’t touch it though as its sap can irritate some people’s skin. Hogweed’s flowers are pollinator’s friends. The 
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Getting to know the elder tree We met the elder tree today. We smelled her flowers and leaves. We touched her smooth young bark and her older bumpy woody bark. We wondered. We heard stories and had a letter from the elder tree via the 
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Noticing In Forest School, we take time to really notice the beauty of nature. Playing Playing hide and seek in Forest School isn’t just fun — it also helps the children develop important skills like spatial awareness, proprioception, camouflage problem-solving, patience, and cooperation, all while 
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The journey up to base camp is full of learning and movement. We stopped off in the meadow. On the edges was lots of stickyweed (aka cleavers, goosegrass, stickybacks etc). We started by looking closely and noticing interesting things about the stickyweed plant. We noticed 
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The hawthorn tree or fairy bush or May tree was our focus this week as we were celebrating Bealtaine, one of Ireland’s fire festivals celebrating the start of the summer. The bluebells are also known as a fairy flower and some stories tell of the 
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This week in Forest School, our 1st class had a fantastic time exploring nature and learning about the environment through various engaging activities like foraging, cooking, ropes, mapping and building dens! Some of the children foraged for three-cornered leeks. They inspected the plants, learning to 
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Today was an exciting day as we were filming the forest school sessions. We are doing this to help others understand what forest school looks like and what the benefits could be so that more children might have access to this type of learning. This 
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They were given the opportunity for free play upon arrival at basecamp and most ofthe children were excited to build their nests. They naturally divided themselves intosmaller groups or individuals. There was clay for the nests to those who werelooking for it. Apart from that 
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So much happens in a forest school session. Each group has a different experience as the environment, the leader, the resources and the children themselves all co-create what happens. We also had a drawing sit spot where we could draw what we noticed during our 
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It’s always a treat to observe how classes who have been to Forest Fridays engage with the environment. Our main role is to remind them of the structure, provide opportunities for learning and connection and creativity, and to keep time! We are also very lucky 
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