Secret Safekeepers of the Forest

The children have become Safekeepers of the Forest.  They are in charge of keeping the secrets of the forest and what really lives there hidden.

The humans are not aware that there is magic within the trees.

There are many trees in the forest, but the tree of knowledge is the biggest and oldest tree in the forest.  It must be kept safe.  

The team started their Mantle story by searching the school grounds.  They found many areas:

• the wooded area

• the track

• playgrounds 

• quad

We looked on Google Earth and search Woodrow First School.  They saw the school and the surrounding areas as an ariel view.

In small teams the children worked together to label all of the areas they saw on their walk.

We then looked at part of a poem as an introduction to the forest.

In a wood

That I know,

There's a place

Where the bluebells grow.

The team then drew pictures and made paper bluebells to add to our forest.

We saw the tree of Knowledge right in the heart of the forest.  It told us that there are many trees in the forest and they all have a job to do.

The children went into role as the trees and had to think of a job.  They came up with some lovely ideas, take a look at the pictures below!

The next part of the poem was:

Near the bluebleels

there's a stone,

Underneath

There's a home.

We discussed who's home could be underneath the stone and then the children drew pictures of what animal they thought lived there.

We then explore the wooded area in school and looked underneath the logs and stones and found out what animal would live underneath a stone.

The children then looked at the difference between the countryside and the seaside.  

They used a map of the UK to identify the seaside and then looked at other maps showing wooded areas in the UK.

They then shared the pictures and put them together discussing what they found out.  We discussed:

• What people do at the seaside/in the countryside?

• What jobs do people do in both? 

• What are the similarities and differences?

We then created our own map of the forest.

Once we became the 'Secret Safekeepers of the Forest', it was important to find out what animals lived in the forest and understand how to protected them.  We needed to:

• Identify forest animals.

• Sort them into their animals groups.  

• Know what they ate (carnivores/herbivores/omnivores)

The children had to compare data from August and October and give reasons why the numbers had increased or decreased. 

Whilst the team were exploring the forest they found tracks.  

The tracks led them to an owl, a fox and a rabbit.  The animals had also left something behind...some droppings.

It was the teams job to dissect the droppings to work out if the animals were carnivores, herbivores or omnivores.  They found:

• fur and bones in the owls droppings

• seeds and berries in the rabbits

• fur, seeds, bones and berries in the foxes.

From their findings they could work out what each animal ate.

The team set up cameras in the forest to keep track of the animals.

When we looked at the footage they saw images of a new creature.  It had ...

It was a Centaur!

The forest had mythical creatures living there!

The team also met a wolf.  He had a strong sense of smell.  
The wolf told the team he could smell illness coming from the tree of knowledge.   The team kept an eye on the tree to see what was happening.  They saw people hammering coins into the tree to make a wish.  This was making the tree sick!
 

The team decided to make a blanket for the tree with pockets in, so people could still make their wishes without hurting the tree.

First they designed a pocket to go on the blanket and then carefully joined the felt using staplers, glue and safety pins. 

They then added their design by cutting out pieces of felt.

For the blanket we made a leaf print out of foam tiles and then printed our leaves onto the blanket.

Our completed blanket.