Our Week in the Forest...
Our children returned full of energy and excitement this term, starting off the week with plenty of muddy and creative play. The mud kitchen has been in full swing with a constant stream of buckets loaded up with mud, water and natural materials found throughout the forest, providing the kitchen with enough ingredients to ‘feed’ all the hungry forest customers!! It was lovely to observe all their interactions during which they discussed the textures, what the mixtures felt like and how it smelt.
Pancakes and coffee were the days specials with a whole variety of flavours, shapes, textures and smells coming over the counter, although some of them were a little over-priced!! We were really impressed that some of the children could recall the actual ingredients needed to make pancakes at home, and were encouraged to think about using measurements and if they needed more, a little, a lot, or if they had enough for their recipes. Following the cookery process, they added their imaginary flour, eggs, sugar and salt, mixing the ingredients and cooking their muddy concoctions. During their foraging, they also came across numerous insects, particularly worms, and were encouraged to think about how to hold it kindly, rather than adding it to their pancakes, observing with interest wriggling and moving across their fingers.
Later in the week the children made elder beads from pieces of wood previously cut from elder branches. We demonstrated how to use a ‘pokey outey’ stick to push the pith out of the elder beads to create a hole for threading. The children watched carefully and listened intently to the safety instructions, adding their own ideas of how to stay safe while using the stick. Each child chose what to make with their elder beads using string and pipe cleaners to create necklaces, bracelets, super power watches and animals. When they were finished they added the final touches to their creations with pens and pencils. It was fascinating to watch them carefully chose which colour to use and create patterns on their beads, with some of the children colouring each bead a different colour, whilst some chose the same colour for each bead, some used wiggly lines and of course the snakes and worms needed eyes and a mouth…
We also had an Inset day this week which was focused upon creativity in the forest. This was an opportunity for the educators to reflect upon the children’s interests and develop some resources for creative projects that would incorporate elements of the natural environment and inspire the children to develop these ideas further. They came up with some really exciting project ideas and are really looking forward to sharing them with the children. Keep an eye open for some fabulous printing and paper making activities over the coming weeks…
Little Forest Folk
Fulham