Unlock the Power of Forest School Problem Solving Activities

Forest school problem solving activities can provide a great opportunity for early years educators, primary school teachers and forest school leaders to engage children in meaningful learning experiences.

Problem solving skills are essential for young learners as they help them develop their creativity, critical thinking and communication abilities – all of which will serve them well later on in life!

In this article we’ll explore what exactly forest school problem solving is, how to prepare and facilitate such an activity with your students or participants, assess the outcomes afterwards and point you towards some resources that may be helpful if you’d like to go deeper into this subject. Let’s get started!

Solving problems the forest school way

Forest School is an approach to outdoor education that inherently encourages learners to explore and engage with their environment in order to solve problems. It focuses on developing problem-solving skills, risk taking, critical thinking, collaboration, communication, creativity and resilience.

It involves providing learners with opportunities to work together as a team or individually to identify and solve real-world challenges they encounter in nature.

This could include building shelters from natural materials or creating tools for specific tasks such as fire making or food preparation. How will we do this? How will we divide the work? There are multiple problems to be solved!

Forest school problem solving activities (although you don’t have to lay on special activities: just being outdoors often presents problems to solve) help children develop important life skills such as creative thinking.

What activities show problem solving skills?

Problem solving skills can be developed through a variety of outdoor activities. These include building shelters, orienteering, knot tying and fire lighting.

Through these activities, learners will gain confidence in their own abilities to problem solve and think critically. They will also learn how to work together as a team to find solutions and complete tasks successfully.

By offering the opportunity to take part in these kinds of activities, forest school leaders are able to create an environment where children feel safe enough to take risks while developing important life skills that they can use both inside and outside the classroom.

The ‘problem’ children are solving in these activities is to clarify what they are trying to do, how they are going to do it, to work out what support they need and to establish how to divide the labour. They are using their negotiating and influencing skills and being leaders in their own right to get results.

What are problem solving activities for preschoolers?

Problem solving activities for preschoolers can help them develop their critical thinking skills and creativity. These activities should be fun, engaging, and age-appropriate. Examples include:

• creating obstacle courses with natural materials such as logs or rocks
• setting up a scavenger hunt to find items in the environment
• building structures out of sticks or stones
• puzzles like jigsaw puzzles or mazes and making their own out of leaves, for example
• role playing scenarios that require collaboration between peers
• using nature to explore concepts like math, science, art, and language.

All of these activities are great ways to foster problem solving skills in young children!

Gaining confidence

Children also gain confidence through overcoming challenges and develop an appreciation for the natural world around them by engaging with it directly.

Outdoor learning can be used to support other curriculum areas such as science or geography by allowing students to explore topics in more depth through hands-on activities outside the classroom setting — turning theoretical problems into practical things to engage with by being outdoors.

Examples of activities that involve an element of problem solving include:

• constructing shelters using natural materials found in the environment
• creating tools for specific tasks such as fire making
• identifying plants and animals native to the area
• orienteering with maps or compasses
• tracking wildlife movements
• exploring different ecosystems (beach school, anyone?)
• designing water filtration systems using rocks and sand.

Helping children engage with problems

So you want the children in your setting to focus on solving problems? Well, as I mentioned earlier, you don’t really need to create specific activities.

Most of what they want to do or gravitate towards doing will incorporate an element of identifying a problem and then finding ways to get around it (even if their solution is, “Jon, can you whittle this for me?”).

Instead of trying to create moments for problems, or even talking about problems, focus on creating an environment that encourages learning and exploration.

This includes ensuring that the space is safe and secure, as well as providing materials such as logs, stones, sticks and other natural items for children to use as their solutions. It is also important to provide appropriate clothing for all participants so they can stay warm and dry while engaging in outdoor activities: reiterate this to parents if you run an afterschool club.

Managing what children wear

In my experience, club participants do tend to have the right clothes — it’s the preschoolers who come to forest school wearing items that really aren’t warm enough for the temperatures we have been having recently.

Planning ahead is essential to ensure that your forest school session runs smoothly from start to finish. Make sure you have all necessary supplies on hand before beginning, including any tools or materials needed for building structures or completing tasks during the engagement.

If you’re doing a long day with multiple activities (for example as part of an outdoor learning day intervention for a class or year group) have a think about how long each task will take so you can keep track of progress throughout the day.

This will help you adjust if needed based on how quickly (or slowly) groups are working through activities if timing is important to you.

Facilitating activities

Yes, I know forest school is child-led, but that doesn’t mean they go all Lord of the Flies on us.

Before beginning a forest school session, it is important to establish ground rules and expectations especially for tool use or if you have a fire circle. This will help ensure that your time together runs smoothly and that everyone involved understands what is expected of them.

It is also important to explain why these rules are in place so that participants can understand their importance.

For example, you might explain that cooperation between team members is essential for success or emphasize the need for safety when using tools or exploring unfamiliar areas for new group members who have not been to your setting before.

Encourage participation by helping where necessary. Provide instructions and guidance where it matters (like tool use) and ensure people are staying safe.

Be sure to provide positive reinforcement throughout the process; celebrate successes with high-fives or cheers and encourage when they hit roadblocks or become frustrated.

Reflecting on the session

If your forest school session has had the goal of problem solving in mind — even if you didn’t particularly frame it that way for the participants — then you’ll want to reflect on how it went. Regardless, as a practitioner, you’d want to reflect on how well you led the session and what you might do differently in a similar situation.

Your observations could include things like noticing individuals developing communication skills over time, working as a team or understanding cause and effect relationships.

There are many ways to gather evidence of learning and behaviour such as observing student interactions and conversations, taking photos or videos or asking questions throughout the process.

It is also helpful to ask students for feedback on their own experiences so that you can get an idea of how they felt about participating in the activity and if they learned anything new from it.

Ready to lead the session?

Forest school activities normally require individuals to understand a problem and then think of ways to get around it. And that goes for leaders too!

By preparing for the activity, facilitating it effectively and assessing the outcomes, forest school leaders can ensure that these activities are successful and beneficial for all involved. We’re building confident and resilient young people who learn every day, and it’s fantastic to watch.