The Green Adventure Forest School

14/06/2026

I love creating staff training for enthusiastic practitioners that want to embed the outdoors into their setting. Can’t wait to see their action plans come to life! 💚🙏🌳

This one was created for the school to deliver themselves during an inservice day. Saving them a small fortune from their budget that they will put towards outdoor resources….win win!

If your school or nursery are looking to enhance your outdoor provision, have outdoor learning as an outcome on your improvement plan or want to give your staff confidence to deliver then get in touch! I’d love to support you 🙌

14/06/2026

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The Green Adventure Forest School published a post on Ko-fi

13/06/2026

🌿 Object Play, Learning Through Curiosity 🌿
Have you ever watched a child become completely absorbed in examining a stick, turning over a pine cone, or taking apart a natural object to see how it works? This is known as Object Play.
Object Play involves endless, fascinating sequences of hand-eye movements and manipulations as children investigate, explore, test, and discover. They might rotate an object, compare textures, balance items, open and close containers, sort natural treasures, or carefully examine how different parts fit together. Object Play allows children to follow their natural curiosity. Through hands-on exploration, they develop:
🍃 Fine motor skills
🍃 Hand-eye coordination
🍃 Problem-solving abilities
🍃 Concentration and focus
🍃 Scientific thinking and inquiry
🍃 Confidence in independent learning

There is no right way to play. The value lies in the process of discovery, asking questions, experimenting, and finding out how and why things work. A simple acorn, feather, stone, or stick can become a source of endless fascination when a child is given the time and freedom to explore.
I believe the most powerful learning happens when we slow down, observe, and allow curiosity to lead the way.

🌿🍂

12/06/2026

If you are over on Ko-fi, give us a follow 🙏 this is where I’ll be uploading activities, crafts etc and things for you to do at home 🌳🙏💚

Become a supporter of The Green Adventure Forest School today!

11/06/2026

Today is International Day of Play, a day dedicated to recognising the importance of play in every child’s life. Play is so much more than just fun. Through play, children learn about themselves and the world around them. They develop creativity, problem-solving skills, confidence, resilience, communication skills, and emotional wellbeing. Whether they’re building dens, climbing trees, making mud pies, inventing games, or exploring nature, play is one of the most powerful ways children learn and grow.

Did you know that play is a right?

Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) states that every child has the right to rest, leisure, play, and to participate freely in cultural and artistic activities. This means that all children should have opportunities to play, explore, imagine, and enjoy childhood.

You can celebrate International Day of Play at home too, here’s some ideas -

🌿 Let your child lead the day, follow their interests and ideas rather than planning every activity.

🌿 Spend time outdoors, visit a local park, woodland, beach, or green space and simply explore together.

🌿 Build a den, use blankets indoors or sticks and natural materials outside.

🌿 Create a mud kitchen, mix, stir, and serve imaginative creations.

🌿 Go on a scavenger hunt, look for different colours, textures, leaves, insects, or natural treasures.

🌿 Play old fashioned games, hide and seek, tag, hopscotch, or skipping.

🌿 Have a screen free hour (or more!) and make space for imaginative play.

🌿 Get creative with loose parts, cardboard boxes, sticks, stones, fabric, and recycled materials.

🌿 Climb, balance, jump, and run, active play supports both physical and emotional wellbeing.

Most importantly, make time to be present, have fun, and enjoy play together. I see every day how powerful child led play can be. When children are given the time, space, and freedom to play, they develop skills that will support them throughout their lives. Today, let’s celebrate play, champion children’s rights, and make space for a little more adventure, imagination, and joy 💚🌳🙏

09/06/2026

Rough and tumble play is often misunderstood as fighting, but it’s actually something quite different. It’s a joyful form of close contact play where children explore movement, connection, and their physical abilities together.
Through gentle wrestling, tickling, balancing, chasing, and playful contests of strength, children learn to gauge their own capabilities and those of others. They discover how strong they are, how flexible they can be, and how their bodies move in different situations. Just as importantly, they learn to read social cues, negotiate boundaries, and develop trust with their friends. It should be child-led, consensual, and full of laughter. There is no intention to hurt; instead, the focus is on fun, exhilaration, and shared enjoyment. You’ll often hear giggles echoing through the woods as children tumble on soft ground, test their balance on logs, or engage in playful displays of agility and strength. These experiences help build confidence, resilience, self-awareness, and positive relationships, all while enjoying the freedom and adventure of the natural environment.
Learning through laughter, movement, and connection is all part of the Forest School journey.

🌲💚

09/06/2026

🌿 Social Play 🌿

Social play is a valuable part of the Forest School experience. It’s the kind of play where children discover, test, and adapt the rules of social interaction as they play together. Whether they’re inventing a game, building a den, creating a piece of woodland art, or working together on a shared project, children are constantly learning how to communicate, cooperate, negotiate, and solve problems as a group.
In social play, there is often no fixed script. Children decide how to organise themselves, share ideas, resolve disagreements, and adapt plans when things don’t go as expected. Through these experiences, they develop confidence, empathy, resilience, and a deeper understanding of how to work with others.
The natural environment provides endless opportunities for collaborative adventures and creative teamwork. A pile of sticks might become a shelter, a pirate ship, or the start of a new game, with each child contributing their own ideas and helping shape the experience.

🌱 Social play helps children to:
• Build friendships and a sense of belonging
• Develop communication and listening skills
• Practise cooperation and teamwork
• Learn negotiation and conflict resolution
• Grow confidence in sharing ideas and taking part in groups

By giving children the time and space to play together freely, we support the development of important social skills that will benefit them throughout their lives.

🌳🍃

07/06/2026

Have you ever noticed children creating a family camp, running a woodland café, caring for a poorly teddy, or assigning themselves roles such as parent, shopkeeper, explorer, or chef?
This is known as socio-dramatic play which is the enactment of real or imagined experiences that reflect personal, social, domestic, and interpersonal situations. Children often draw on their own experiences and imagination to create rich storylines, negotiate roles, and collaborate with others. A fallen log might becomes a family home, a mud kitchen transforms into a restaurant, and sticks become tools for everyday life. There are lots of benefits to children playing this way. It develops communication skills as children practise speaking, listening, questioning, and expressing ideas as they interact with others in role. Social skills are developed as they share, cooperate, take turns, negotiate rules, and resolve conflicts which are all important parts of socio-dramatic play. It also supports emotional development as children explore feelings, relationships, and experiences in a safe way, helping them develop empathy and emotional understanding whilst encouraging creativity and imagination. Natural materials and open-ended environments inspire children to create their own worlds, stories, and solutions. It enhances problem solving skills as they encounter challenges within their play and work together to find solutions, strengthening critical thinking skills. It promotes confidence and independence as they take on different roles, allowing them to experiment with identities, make decisions, and develop self-assurance. During play children expand vocabulary, storytelling, and conversational skills. Playing this way encourages self-awareness, confidence, empathy, and relationship-building and it supports planning, sequencing, memory, and flexible thinking. It involves movement, manipulation of natural resources, and fine motor skills and helps them to make sense of their experiences and the roles people play in society.
Socio-dramatic play emerges naturally through child-led exploration, giving children the freedom to create meaningful experiences that support holistic development while connecting with nature. 🌲✨

They are not ‘just playing!’

🌿🍂

06/06/2026

We had a wonderful morning in Roslin Glen, and lucky that the rain stayed away!
We began our session by reading Jack and the Beanstalk, which inspired lots of discussions. The children then explored counting and quantifying through a variety of activities before planting their own bean seeds to take home and care for.
There was plenty of opportunity to practise cutting skills too. Using scissors helps children develop hand strength, hand-eye coordination, bilateral coordination (using both hands together), concentration, and fine motor control - all important foundations for later writing and everyday tasks. The children showed great focus and perseverance as they carefully cut and created.
Part of our adventure took us down through the glen, where we watched runners making their way along the trails. The children enthusiastically cheered them on as they crossed the bridge over the river, bringing lots of smiles to both runners and spectators alike!
Back at base camp, the children’s imaginations took over as they created all sorts of potions using water, rice, and bird food. There was lots of mixing, pouring, scooping, and filling, with plenty of opportunities to explore concepts of quantity and capacity as bowls became full, overflowed, and occasionally spilled! These moments sparked some fantastic conversations about more, less, full, and empty.
We also enjoyed some hammering activities, with children practising hammer control as they carefully tapped nails into a log. This type of activity supports fine motor development, hand strength, hand-eye coordination, focus, risk assessment, and perseverance.
As always, there was lots of child-led free play, exploration, and discovery throughout the morning. The children followed their own interests, built friendships, solved problems, and enjoyed the freedom that outdoor play offers.
And while the children were busy adventuring, the grown ups enjoyed a good blether too! 😊
Thank you to everyone who joined us for another lovely Forest School session, can’t wait to see how those beans grow over the coming weeks! 🌱🍃