Our Week in the Forest...
Let's go fly a kite!
When you have a windy spring day, there is only one thing to do...build and fly kites! With Christie's help, our children have been very creative with resources in their kite designs - taking nappy bags and applying the material to their kites. A bag of yarn also became helpful and once attached, children looked up in wonder as they ran across the meadow amazed to see their kite bobbing about in the air above them.
When some kites didn't work, the children discussed the problems with educators to find a solution - 'Maybe the wind ran out!" said one child, while another said, "Mine needs more string!' and they got to work on improving their kites. Eventually, screams of "mine is flying!" let the educators know that they had met success. This child led activity was a great way of combining science, art and design, and maths as children developed concepts about forces and how small changes in design can affect their kite’s performance. The sheer fascination in watching their kites take flight and how they could make it go may also suggest that this was perfect for children who currently are interested in trajectory schemas.
After having visited Hampton Court Palace with their family, one child has been really interested in hearing stories about Henry VIII and his six wives. This interest spread until a group of children were equally as engrossed in the dramatic twists and turns of the story. It never fails to surprise educators how long children can concentrate on stories without books or pictures and as soon as Henry died in the story they were asking 'what happened next?". Their concentration couldn't be distracted as the story then covered sibling rivalry with Mary having her sister Elizabeth arrested and cousins at war with Elizabeth and the Queen of Scotland battling it out to win the ultimate crown! Children remembered key parts of the stories and used play to consolidate their understanding of the historical events - in their imaginary play the children placed Xiao under arrest and escorted him to the tower. No matter how many imaginary letters he wrote and sent to the queen, the children took great delight screwing these letters up and screaming "No! You have to tell your army to stop or we will sign the paper to say your head will be chopped off!".
Pancake Day was the perfect excuse to have a fire and the children helped Virginia make special pancakes where eggs were replaced with banana and oat milk was used instead of cow’s milk - they watched with eager eyes as their little pancakes turned a golden brown in the pan before they devoured the pancake with their topping of choice. The forest was filled with these delicious smells and an unusual silence resulting from children's mouths being full of pancakes!
We recently won Gold in the Green Tree School scheme run by the Woodland Trust and the plaque arrived – our Little Forest Folk-ers were over the moon and we have used photographs to remind children of all their hard work that went into achieving the award which included recycling, decorating trees, a Shakespeare in the Forest Challenge and photography. We are very proud of the children's achievement!
We hope you all have had a lovely week too and cannot wait to see what next week brings!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon