Our Week in the Forest...
The beginning of the week was full of children recounting their ‘Trick or Treat’ adventures with parents and siblings, as well as stories of firework displays they visited over the weekend. This felt like a good time to introduce children to Diwali (the Hindu celebration of light) and why this celebration is so important to many people around the world. Our Little Forest Folk-ers have enjoyed stories of Rama and Sita, and have handcrafted beautiful Diva lamps from modelling clay. They used their thumbs to make the well in the lamp and decorated them with natural treasures from the forest. As they worked, they recounted the significance of these lamps, “they lit the way for Rama and Sita to come back home” said one child, holding her lamp aloft for all to see.
We have seen so much imitation in the children’s role play this week, children have taken on the roles of forest school educators and have built little role play fires, complete with boundary circles, emergency water supplies and assertive reminders to their imaginary children to “walk around the edge!”.
We also had another group of children be forest educators facilitating snack time, with a full rendition of the hello song and rules! Not only is it heart-warming to see yourself through the eyes of a child but it also helps remind us that this type of play is so important in their development of understanding communities and the world around them.
The children also started the week building their own obstacle course; at first it was a simple construction made of some planks of wood and a pallet. However, more and more children became involved and each wanted to put their own extension onto the course until we had a collaboration and negotiation of ideas that resulted in children having to jump through, or tiptoe around the circumference of tyres, balance up slopes, bounce over gaps between logs and wiggle under bridges. Being able to have autonomy over their physical challenges demonstrates that our Little Forest Folk-ers have a high, yet realistic expectation over their own capabilities and managed risks really well. It was also a joy to see older children cheering on younger children or being supportive with a hand to hold when needed!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon