Our Week in the Forest...
It’s been lovely to see lots of our Little Forest Folk-ers back again and they took no time in getting stuck straight back in to life in the forest.
This week it’s been a joy to observe how the children are becoming more creative with the loose parts we have in the forest. We have been trying to reduce the number of resources we take to the forest each day, while still maintaining an environment that is rich for learning. What we have found is that the less we set up, the richer the environment gets. Children are forced to become more creative with how they use the natural materials found in the forest in their play – turning sticks, logs, leaves, mud, and stones into vehicles and objects that only children could conjure up in their imaginations.
One afternoon the children spent a large part of the day creating a bird out of sticks. A number of weeks ago the children found the skull of a bird and have been quite interested in various types of skeletons and bones which all helped with this activity. The children worked together to find sticks the size they needed and then scavenged for leaves to use as feathers, or to even find the occasional real feather! They have also continued to play in our log car. Each day it seems to be a slightly different vehicle. Maybe a car one day, then a bus, boat, plane or train the next and that is the beauty of loose parts; with a new log here and an extra stick or two there the children have created something completely new for a completely new adventure.
After our walk to the hill at the start of the week the children then created their own mini hill at our base camp. Using logs, they were able (with only a little intervention from educators) to build a ramp that they could run up and down. The children experimented by running up and down themselves, but also by rolling things down. We quickly found out that objects that were round rolled really well, but funny shaped objects like the dinosaurs tended not to roll at all.
This week at Paradise we also had a lovely campfire. The children were mesmerised by the flames, as they are each time we have a fire. We roasted apples that we then ate for dessert after our lunch and listened to stories as the fire kept us toasty warm.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth