Little Woodland Explorers

This morning we attended the Little Woodland Explorers Forest School in Castle Gardens, Malton.

Little Woodland Explorers, which has been going for a year now, takes place on Wednesdays 10am to 12pm and is extending to include Fridays 10am to 12pm.

What a lovely place, an idyllic clearing in the centre of Malton beautifully laid out with different things to do at different stations. I went with 3 friends and their little ones – we had a lovely time, albeit a very chilly one!

Firstly we picked up a “journey stick” to collect some things as we wandered around. By the end it included feathers, Moss, sticks, various leaves and perhaps naughtily, a snowdrop.

We worked our way round, taking part in the various activities:

• The mud kitchen was a big hit where we made some mud pies and did a little bit of digging.
• We also made bug hotels, it was surprisingly easy and the kids loved it. Tins (like tinned tomato type tins), pine cones, sticks, rolled paper and some moss tied with string and now in pride of place in our garden, let’s see if we get any occupants?!
• Other stations included bird watching, it was quite evident we had a keen twitcher in our team! See photo!
• Mud painting and a potato catapult! The latter was a massive hit! Something different too.
• We also joined Boris the Teddy Bear for a teddy bears’ picnic! Eliza loved this, however, I am not sure about pushing the teddy’s face into the plate to ensure he eats everything to leave a clean plate – we haven’t done that at home I promise!
• Donna had also mixed some turmeric, cocoa and paprika to create natural paint which we used with a stick for a bit more painting in our booklets (that also had pouches for collecting things).
• It was all finished with a lovely cup of hot chocolate courtesy of Kelly the Kettle.

It’s a lovely setting with lots to do; wrap up warm – it’s a great way to spend Wednesday morning.

A friend (LS) said:

“I wanted to take my little boy to a forest school as he loves the outdoors and nature – I knew he would really enjoy this kind of setting. A friend suggested we came along to try it out and it was fantastic! Being “free” to choose your activities was a bonus as the children led you to what they wanted to do first. I loved seeing my little boy explore new things and use his imagination which was all encouraged through little things like dressing up as an explorer and searching for birds. The hot chocolate and delicious cake at the end was a perfect way to round off the morning; we will be back!”