This term many children will venture down to the woods for their first experience of a Forest School session. Forest School practitioners and teachers will be looking for an activity that captures the children’s imagination, encourages them to explore the woods, be creative and use their senses. One of our favourite introduction activities is about Blackberry and stars. We usually run this activity with children aged 3-5 years. The activity involves mini shelter building, searching around the woods, collecting natural materials and lots of imagination. For children who have made magic potions before this activity provides a new hook for a familiar activity. Fancy having a go? Here we go then.
What do you need?
– a puppet
– a bag with one shiny star in
– a shiny star for each child
– potion pot for each child
– a few rolls of sellotape
– a bottle of magic potion – mix water,
food dye and food essence. Peppermint and strawberry essence work
well.
Before the session starts hide the stars around the woods and place the puppet, the bag and bottle in the seating area where the children will meet.
What do you do?
1. The children will be naturally curious
to find out who the puppet is! Introduce the puppet and tell the children their
name. Our puppet is called Blackberry. Tell the children the following story,
acting it out and adapting as needed:-
In our wood live many different creatures.
Some are big and some are small, some are long and some are short, Some are
real. There are hedgehogs, birds and mice. Some are magical. There are elves,
fairies and gnomes. Each of the magical creatures has a special job to do and
Blackberry helps looks after the animals in the woods who have hurt themselves.
Each day Blackberry makes special potions that will help the animals. She
carefully collects natural materials and then mixes them together before adding
some of her special pink potion. Finally she takes a shiny star from her bag,
sticks it on a stick to make a wand and then waves it over the potion. Whoosh
the potion is ready.
At the end of the day Blackberry goes home
to her little house at the bottom of the oak tree. She carefully hangs her bag
on a twig, before having tea and going fast asleep. But on Monday something
terrible happened. During the night there was a terrible storm. Blackberry
curled up and pulled her leaf blanket around her ears. She listened to the wind
howling through the trees, and the thunder crackling through the trees. The
next morning she crawled out of her house and looked around the woods. She
smiled, all the trees were safe. But then she saw her bag of stars. “Oh no”,
she cried. The bag had blown off the twig and was lying on the ground.
Carefully Blackberry picked up the bag and looked inside. There was only one
star left. She turned the bag inside out and shook it. No stars left. “The
stars must have blown away in the wind, who is going to help the animals now?”,
Blackberry wept.
2. You will probably find that the children
will instantly suggest they help! Start by searching for the stars around the
wood, ensuring that every child finds a star. Next get every child to find a
stick and make a star wand. We just attached the star to the stick using
sellotape. Don’t forget to practice waving the wands.
3. Give each child a potion pot and encourage the children to collect natural materials to make a magic potion. Talk about what materials they are using. What are they and where did they find them? Which animal will their potion help? What does their potion do? Does their potion have a name?
4. Add some magic potion to their pot.
Invent some magical words and then wave your wand over the potion pot while
chanting your magic words. Smell the potion, has it worked?
5. Finally leave the potions in the woods
for Blackberry find. Encourage the children to find a special place in the
woods and build a small shelter to keep their potion safe.
When the children visit the woods next time
make sure you have left them a note from Blackberry and the animals to thank
the children for all their hard work. Have fun!
A free Forest School Recipe card for this activity is available for this activity on our TES page
Forest School Recipe - Magic Spells
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