Our Week in the Forest...
This week in the forest the children have delved deep into a wide range of themes. They have been investigating volcanoes, the Jurassic period, tectonic plates and the explosive nature of volcanoes!
At Rocks Lane, the children made use of our forest theatre and quickly set about dressing themselves up to perform to their audience. Some chose to act out their own stories with a lovely creativity as they quickly got into character changing their voice and moving about the stage with confidence. Others chose to sing a song they had made up or did a dance to some music played on the guitar!
One day this week the children listened to music by ‘Captain Bogg and Salty’ on our bus journey to Putney Heath. Inspired by the pirates’ music they decided that they would all become pirates! They started by building themselves a huge pirate ship using the fallen tree, some sticks and some rope. They showed fantastic communication skills as they worked together to build each section. Once complete the children then needed swords and eye patches. They used twine and leaves to create eye patches and two sticks which were bound together to make their swords. Soon the forest was full of pirates and shouts of ‘walk the plank’ and ‘ahoy there’ could be heard right up until lunch! The pirate theme continued as we had a lovely storytelling session where children and educators shared their own pirate stories.
Dinosaurs quickly became the theme for the next day. One child had brought his own dinosaur book in from home and was teaching the other children about the Jurassic period explaining that not all dinosaurs lived at this time. This sparked a big discussion about different types of dinosaurs as the children shared their own knowledge. We discussed each dinosaur in turn talking about whether they were herbivores, carnivores or omnivores. The children explained which dinosaurs were fast, small, huge, fast or slow. Inevitably a dinosaur role-play ensued with a whole host of different dinosaurs roaring around the forest!
As the Jaybird project on volcanoes reached its explosive climax the children wanted to learn more about how they form and what happens when they erupt. We then used books and the internet for research and we found that volcanoes can form under water when tectonic plates move apart. Some of the children quickly explained that this is how some islands are formed as the lava solidifies and builds up from underneath the surface. We learnt about the destructive nature of pyroclastic flow and how people who live near volcanoes sometimes have to evacuate their homes to stay safe.
We also had some wonderful mathematics in the forest this week as the children built their mini houses and large dens comparing the length, weight and durability of different sticks. Numbers was also a key feature of many of the physical activities in the forest. The children recorded their own tallies of how many steps it took to make it across the slack line and how many swings back and forth their friends had before it was their turn.
Next week we are really looking forward to welcoming back lots of our Little Forest Folk alumni for holiday camps and we can’t wait to share stories of what we have all been up to and to go on our own new adventures. We hope you all have a lovely long weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes