Our Week in the Forest...
This week kicked off with our keen botanists collecting fallen flowers from around our site and re-planting them in the ground using sticks for stems. They asked great questions and came to their own conclusions amongst themselves, only needing to refer to the educators occasionally, and sharing their own knowledge and experience of growing things. They understood that flowers need sunshine and water to grow and that root systems are hidden underneath in the soil.
The flowers have been so bountiful this year and they are being incorporated into every nook and cranny of the site by the children. Our Little Forest Folk-ers collect them from the ground and transport them carefully, lining them up along planks, holding conversations to decide how many more they think they will need to fill the remaining space, showing a fantastic grasp of measurement and estimation or take them home as prized treasures.
The mud kitchen, having become quite compacted, has been worked on diligently by Harriet and some of the other children to turn the soil and loosen it up once more so that we have an abundant supply of easily accessible soil to play with. This has been especially helpful for our younger friends who were finding the hard mud a little tricky to dig into and we noticed a real increase in the variety of ways they gathered and interacted with this great, messy medium.
The gardeners have been very active around the perimeter of our base camp which has provided fantastic opportunities for the children to watch them and ask questions about what they can see unfolding in front of them. Always impressed by the children’s friendliness and confident questions, one of them closed down and covered up the blades on her hedge trimmer so that the children could gather round and inspect it close up. They commented on it being heavy and they understood that great care was needed to use machinery like that so that was “why the grownups were using them and not the children”. The children that stayed to watch cheered each time they completed a section so I’m sure it did wonders for their self-esteem!
Part way through the week some of our older children decided to play at constructing a bonfire. They dragged or rolled branches, planks, sticks and logs from all over camp, discussing ideas and uses for a bonfire as well as displaying a good knowledge of the safety required. They talked about the kinds of things that can burn and added pieces of paper “to get it started”. Magic dust was added and a boundary laid out around the fire for safety before the children set about pretending to warm their hands and cook marshmallows for themselves and for the teachers too.
A lovely addition to this activity was that two of our younger children took it upon themselves to construct their own 'fire', copying what they had seen their older peers doing in their own, smaller way. They were equally proud of their project and were very diligent in collecting twigs, leaves and fallen flowers and working as a happy little team. It was fantastic to watch one child-led activity inspire the same in other children with the educators simply being on hand to support and answer questions so as not to disrupt the natural evolution of their play.
I think communication has been the main theme that has stood out this week, with many of the teachers commenting on the conversations and discussions taking place amongst the children, especially with our younger friends as their vocabulary continues to develop. There is negotiation, delegation, brainstorming of ideas and of course a huge amount of silliness and hilarity as they all play around with words and noises. Our children display such confidence in expressing themselves and also in approaching our educators if they need help in communicating their needs. The older children display great examples to inspire the younger ones and they all jump at the chance to join in games and songs that explore rhyming. They are keen to help their educators sound out words and create signs for cafes, bakeries and menus for customers dropping in. Our younger children have the opportunity to be in the thick of these moments, listening and learning through their peers.
We hope you've had a brilliant week and we look forward to more fun in the forest next week!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham