Forest School Year 3 Newsletter Week 2

Year 3: Survival
Week 2

This was the second Survival session for Year 3, but it was the
first time that these children had been out in the morning, so we
introduced them to dew bathing.
Despite having the
benefit of wearing the
school’s wet weather kit
some children had to be
ordered to roll in the
dew. Keeping clean and
healthy is an important
part of surviving in a
‘hostile environment’.

During the Risk Assessment
walk we talked about how you
might name something if you
didn’t know what other people
called it. The children called
the Oak, ‘Grand, Old Wrinkly’
because of its size and bark.
Oak bark

Unfortunately, some of the children forgot the rule about not
touching fungi of any kind. They wasted Forest School time by
having to go and wash their hands.
Parasola auricoma
Hericulum coralloides
Dr collins used an App and a
book to identify the beautiful
and interesting fungi we found
on site. Can you guess which
we called the ‘fried egg’ fungus?
(Dr Collins wanted to call it the
‘old porridge’ fungus but bowed
to the majority opinion).
In a survival situation it is
important that you don’t
endanger yourself or the
people around you. If you
can’t identify a fungus you
should look but not touch.

The children were set a ‘stealth’ challenge. They had to silently
creep up to the blindfolded listener, pick up a bunch of keys and
pass them to Dr Collins. If the ‘listener’ heard the ‘creeper’ they
were allowed to squirt the water pistol. If the ‘creeper’ was
squirted they were out!
The children used
different
strategies, some
approached
straight to the
listener and some
approached from
the side.

Some children stepped between the
leaves and some children crawled
towards the bunch of keys.
These were the stealthiest children in the class.

We spotted a Red Admiral
butterfly. When you see a common
butterfly it is easy to take it for
granted. But the impressive fact
is that this butterfly could have
flown to Mrs Lowman’s coat from
France. If the winter is mild this
individual could hibernate and visit
Mrs Lowman in the spring.
The children continued to develop their confidence around the fire.

The children practised managing their breathing...
... and their
knots, useful
skills for a future
survival incident.