Our second session of forest school this year was a bit colder than the first, as the sun stayed behind the clouds. The trees are still bare (although the buds are there if you look), but the ground is now carpeted with lesser celendine, and patches of wood anemone are flowering - the flowers closed, because of the lack of sun!
The children set themselves the task of moving a huge tree trunk that had washed into the stream, and organised themselves into a tug-of-war gang using a rope, and a few of them using leavers on the trunk itself. It was a great job, with awesome teamwork!
One boy wanted to find out about fire lighting methods, and experimented with a bow drill, and flint and steel. He had been reading about how to do it, and was clearly surprised at how hard it actually is, although he did get sparks from the flint and steel! Meanwhile, a few of them decided to make use of the fire we'd already made, and cook themselves some popcorn - always fun to do, and you get to have a warm by the fire at the same time!
It was noticeable that whilst everyone enjoyed having the company of real people, in person, after months of having to be apart, people were still taking time to be alone for periods of time. A number of the children had brought books, and would sit up a tree or in a comfy spot to read. This is a really important thing to do, to have that time with your own thoughts, and not to feel that you have to be in the group all the time...but everyone was happy to come back for hot chocolate!