Our Week in the Forest...
This week the children have undertaken their own projects. Tom has inspired the children to explore some different uses of elder branches.
The children used peelers to whittle down the bark before using tent pegs to push out the soft pith in the middle of the branch. These hollow tubes then became wheels for cars, trains and tractors. They became beads for necklaces and bracelets. One child decided to make his own ‘fire maker’. The possibilities were endless. It was incredible to see the levels of concentration that the children maintained in order to create their masterpieces.
The children have shown a particular interest in minibeasts recently so we discussed ways of helping find them without hurting their environment. With the children, we came up with the idea of making minibeast hotels. So, the children whittled more elder and removed the pith to make lots of tubes. The tubes were then bound together using twine to make incredible hotels for the minibeasts. The children were very excited and discussed what minibeast they thought might come into their hotel.
The next day the children set about placing their minibeast hotels in different habitats around the forest. They used a wonderful map of the forest that Sylwia created to mark out the position of hotels. The pictorial representation of the forest enabled the children to navigate the area amazingly well using the map. Some children even decided to take this a step further by using the map to work out the way back to the indoor site. They even drew their own compasses!
We can’t wait to find out what minibeasts we will find residing in the hotels next week!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes