Feathers and Old Friends
As the rain poured on Monday, the children discussed what they enjoyed about the rain. "I like to stick my tongue out and catch it", and, "It's good for the flowers" were amongst the many answers. We had two Birthdays we were celebrating early in the week, so the children gathered for some dancing in the tipi for a disco! Outdoor education provides a natural multi-sensory learning environment, with the children exploring all their senses in the forest and out on the Bowling Club field. A multi-sensory approach incorporates all the different ways that children like to learn i.e., visually, auditorily, kinaesthetically, and through tactile exploration. As Forest Educators we use the weather and environment as regular learning opportunities. We also try to create different activities and areas in which the children can explore and experiment. Dan created a "Feather Den" for our Little Forest Folk-ers to discover where they could collect many kinds of feathers and guess which bird they had come from. With our youngest Forest Folk-ers they explored counting them and concepts like up/down and hard/soft. Katie has also taken advantage of our growing sensory garden in the Bowling Club field and invited the children to harvest lemon balm and mint, touching and smelling the aromas to their heart's content.
Of course, one of the challenges of forest education is ways in which to incorporate technology. Given that we live in a technological age, this is also an important part of a little one’s education. We do this through a variety of different ways, whether using a speaker to play music for one of the many forest discos we've had this week or showing "how to" video to demonstrate making paper boats. Paper planes and boats have provided hours of fun this week, with Dan's "aircraft carrier" boat being a good starting point for paper plane races.
From the nimble of hand to the brave of heart, Simon's "Spider Web" has been challenging our Little Forest Folk-ers to climb new heights. Supported by an Educator to safely challenge themselves and to patiently take goes and turns, pride shone from the children’s faces from satisfaction of climbing to the top of the webbed net and successfully returning to the ground.
We also create many moments in which the children are the heroes or superstars of their world. Cici's ‘Red Team Radio’ has now become ‘Rainbow Team Radio’, it gives all the children an opportunity to perform a song, share a story or to request a song to hear. We've had some stellar performances. This week "Down by the Bay" has been a real ear worm, so if you hear your little ones singing this at home, feel free to join in!
The sun returned on Wednesday, bringing with it a very special guest… Sofia! She has joined us for 2 days this week and the children have been overjoyed to see her. It's been so wonderful to have her back, both Team Wandsworth and children have been absolutely thrilled to see her. As an old friend returned, a new friend has also joined the team...Vanessa! Our new Educator has just completed her first week with us. Lovely Vanessa has been great and has got stuck straight in with paper plane races and having lots of fun with the children.
It's been another fun filled week in the forest full of laughter and joy. Wishing you a very happy weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth