Our Week in the Forest...
It has been another fantastic week here. We have had more children settle into our environment and they have all been a fantastic addition to our Little Forest Folk Wandsworth squad! Each new child brings their unique personalities and interests with them into the forest. Mathematics has been the real focus of the week, the children have been exposed to multiple number games which they have thoroughly enjoyed. The children have then incorporated their mathematical knowledge into their everyday play to solve ways of sharing toys and activities.
When the children arrived in the forest they noticed an array of different coloured cards dotted around the space. Each colour had an allocated number - purple 1, yellow 2, green 3 etc. The children were eager with anticipation as to what to do. Initially they were tasked to find three cards, come back to base and tell the teacher what number they had found. This demonstrated the ability to recognise basic numerals. The older children were very adept and tried to help the younger ones recognise the numbers, realising the link that each different colour had the same attached number. With the bar set, the challenge was intensified. The children were then tasked with collecting the numbers, to make a total of five. This was very challenging, but the older children realised that the three and two made five which helped the younger children notice that green and yellow makes five. With simple forest resources (sticks) this helped the children to complete the simple additions- having lots of fun along the way!
Later when using the swings, the children applied their maths knowledge to turn taking on the swing. “Why don’t we have fifteen swings each” suggested one. So they did, whilst each child was on the swing the other four children counted each swing. When we got to 15, the child on the swing was eager to pass the turn to the next child, go to the back of the queue and help the next round of counting.
Wednesday brought another storm to London, and with the winds so high we safely retreated to the bowling club. A day of fun activities ensued including a fun game of skittles. The children really enjoyed rolling the bowls to knock over the pins. Whooping and cheering when they had been knocked down. As a group we counted how many pins were standing. When the roller took their turn, they were able to stand up and inspect the pins to count how many had been knocked over and how many were still left standing. This is really advanced maths for the young ones but they took it in their stride!
Have a lovely weekend everybody! See you next week.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth