Our Week in the Forest...
Recycling, creative collages and learning to use a hacksaw!
The children started the week by organising our recycling in the nursery room. We had boxes and boxes of paper, cardboard and plastic, and our Little Forest Folk-ers wanted to help us sort and separate all of it so that we could recycle properly! The children were quick to be able to identify the difference between cardboard and plastic and we talked about why it was important to recycle in order to care for our planet and environment. This led to questions from the children asking whether it was bad when people drop litter on the floor, as we sometimes see this in our forest. It was great to have these conversations with the children and is an activity we will carry on in the future, headed up by our new Environmental Leader, Jepha!
This week we have also been using a hacksaw in the forest, to cut elder! This activity has the goal of making beads due to the foamy centre of the elder branches. Using children's hacksaws, each child was able to have a turn using the tool and learnt how to safely use it. This activity was led by Otis, who supported each child as they took it in turns. The children were able to choose how many beads they wanted to cut and together would count them out. Elder grows in abundance therefore it is a great material for the children to learn tool work with and also helps maintain the forest by using it every now and then.
There was a lovely moment this week when the children were playing with the wooden shapes we sometimes put out for them. We tend to have some laminated images of animals and things the children can make from the shapes, however, one child decided to make their own collage, creating a flying boat flying/sailing across the choppy seas. It was lovely to see as she explained her ideas to her educator. At one point, she assessed that the plane/boat was too far from the sea, therefore she shifted all the blue shapes (representing the sea) up against the plane/boat. Her collage was constantly changing but had elements of a stop motion film as she changed the narrative through her imagination. It is in these moments we see the value of child-led learning and allowing children to interpret the resources we provide them. The activity was unguided, with only simple suggestions to fuel the child's curiosity. With that freedom, the child was able to truly create, imagine and explore!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick