This week, Jemima (our very own talented ceramicist) has supported children in experimenting with clay. Here, tools and objects were used to mark, poke, dig and score, whilst moulding techniques were demonstrated to form useful shapes. We all had fun making bowls, cups, some meteors on sticks and a variety of animals from minibeasts to a rather marvellous elephant. Making faces of family members was a big hit too, and children enjoyed seeing features materialise easily. Clay, a fun and forgiving medium, is a great way to help children experiment in a way that helps them identify that if something isn’t quite right then you can keep on trying until you are happy. Similarly, clay is also hard to keep free form mud and leaves in this environment, so children were supported to manage frustrations, and look beyond these natural additions, to focus on how awesome their creations were regardless!
From clay meteors, a space theme continued as throughout the week children have been passing, pinging, and ping pong paddle walloping a tennis ball that some have pretended was an asteroid, suspended between the trees. This has always been a much-loved activity, and the developments in coordination and strength, are highly visible by the week. The ball occasionally gets wedged up over the branches, and where once educators would be called over with a simultaneous “OUR ASTEROID IS STUCK”, we were impressed from afar when we observed several children supporting a long stick to try and get the job done themselves! Dan used the moment to talk about other ways they could get the ball down, and whether there was even something we could make. Great ideas included a helicopter car, a rocket car, a car with wings and a ladder. In the absence of several hundred kilos of sheet metal and welding tools, we have decided to work on making a ladder as soon as we can find all the right natural branch parts; we look forward to showing you what the children put together with rope soon!
Afternoons at the forest around the log circle or evenings at the Bowling Club around dinner are a great way for educators to find stories that can maybe reference some of the interests, ideas or ponderings of the children as they play throughout the day. On Wednesday, Matt read through “How to catch a star”, written and illustrated by Oliver Jeffers, which is all about a little boy who is determined to pluck a star from the night sky to be his friend. Here, we were able to revisit creative talks and reflect on our experiences with the ball in the forest as well as find new solutions to help the child in the story. This story also helped us connect some of the questions children had about the beautiful sun setting over the bowling field as we came back. With some thinking the sun goes deep into the ground, (as it also appears to on one of the pages), Matt was able to quickly use a globe and a yellow ping pong ball to show why it gets dark here, and how other countries would still be able to see the sun.
As ever, another great week with some glorious afternoon sun! Here’s hoping the sun pushes through for the weekend too. See you all soon.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth