Our Week in the Forest...
This week the forest has been alive with children making things!
We took clay, paints, crayons, card, twine, scissors and tape into the forest and the children used these resources to make and create their own wonderful pieces of art. With the clay, the children experimented with different ways of manipulating and moulding. They made snowmen, dinosaurs, dolphins, pirates and a whole range of different minibeasts. We provided the children with pots of water and, left to their own devices, they quickly went about exploring the effect it had on the clay. One child said, “I wonder what will happen when I put the water on… look its gone slimy!”
We also put some cardboard and paints down for the children to explore and they really enjoyed using paintbrushes made with sticks and leaves. They investigated colour mixing and delighted in the results as red and yellow made orange. Without any adult questioning the children, so proud of their accomplishments, came up to friends and adults alike explaining what they had made – “this is a fire engine so we can put out all the fires!” One child spent a very long-time painting, sticking leaves with double sided sticky tape and cutting using scissors to create a map. He told a friend “this is the treasure map! This sparked a whole hour of pirate role-play where the children clambered aboard a pirate ship in search of the hidden treasure. Some, after taking a look at the map shouted, “I see it's this way… land ahoy!!” Unfortunately, many of the pirates kept falling into the shark infested waters and were in need of saving. The children took turns to hoist each other out of the water. The communication and social interactions during this play were wonderful to watch. Each child had a role and was fully engaged and in character!
We have also many children wanting to create their own aeroplanes this week with Mar. They went off to find some suitable sticks before putting them in place to make wings. Mar then supported the children to wind twine around the sticks to fix them in place. Some then went to paint their planes red and yellow whilst others couldn’t wait to fly their new creations around the forest making wonderful engine noises as the swooped and roared around.
Some of the children this week went on an amazing ‘jungle adventure’. We went through the thick part of the forest where we had to climb over and under fallen logs covered in ivy and push our way through thickets. The children ventured on excited by the challenge ahead and in awe of the natural landscapes. They commented on what they saw and helped and encouraged each other through tricky parts!
Have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes