Aneesa thought there would be trees.
Isobel thought it would be dark and that there might be bats and loads of leaves.
Phoebe also thought it would be dark and scary.
Joshua agreed thinking it would be dark with wolves in it.
Freya wondered if the Gruffalo might be there.
While Annie thought there would be little cottages.
Phoebe thought there would be a golden box with diamonds in and that dragons would be in the wood.
Elizabeth thought there would be a fox hole and also a bear and some honey in the wood.
We showed photographs of the route to the woods the day before the walk and in the morning before we set off. We wanted to encourage the children to look for landmarks.
We also wanted the children to be aware of the risks involved in the walk and how to keep safe.
We sat in a circle with Barnaby Bear who often accompanies us on school visits. He had a woodland game for us to play.
The children closed their eyes and made a fist. Every time they heard a sound they had to put up a finger.
The next game was a hunt. The children had to find; something soft, something sharp, something that made a noise, something beautiful and something round.
Rebecca said that she liked playing this game, “My favourite game was picking up soft things.”
Nathan said, “I liked it when we played find something sharp and soft.”
The final game was called “Meet a tree.” The children were blindfolded and led to a tree. Once they had touched the tree many times the children were led away from the tree and the blindfold was removed. The challenge was then to find their tree.
Joshua said, “I liked playing the blindfold game and feeling the tree.”
Back at school we had two small circle times to talk about the children’s likes and dislikes about the walk.
The children were encouraged to draw maps of the walk.
