This week, as we welcomed holiday campers into our group, many of whom are already ‘bigger kids’ and usually attending ‘big school’, we expanded our thinking about life cycles to investigating the journey of caterpillar to moth or butterfly. Just in time for the caterpillar season to begin and inspired by ‘The Hungry Caterpillar’ by Eric Carle, children made some gigantic, bulging caterpillars using sports cones. They just kept getting longer and longer as more and more children fed them more and more sticks and leaves! In fact, they did such a good job at feeding up those caterpillars that by Tuesday there were some fully fledged butterflies fluttering around camp. There were dress up wings galore for children to choose from so that they could feel the sensation of being a newly emerged winged creature and many made masks inspired by the markings of these magnificent creatures.
While thinking about the patterns on butterfly and moth wings, we decided to get some tools out and create some Hapa Zome prints using foraged plants from the forest, as well as a few striking rose petals and tannin-rich leaves. The children listened carefully to the safety instructions and used two hands to keep control of the tool, or if confident enough, they used one hand and diligently kept their other hand behind their back or on their knee to avoid placing it on the wooden block while hammering! They arranged gorse flowers, borage and cow parsley along with roses, folded their fabric in half and finally applied pressure with blows from the hammer to make the dye from the plants stain the calico. When they opened their creations, a wonderful symmetrical pattern, reminiscent of wings, was revealed.
Of course, we also had to consider how a caterpillar emerges from a chrysalis transformed! So, we hung the hammock and let the children experience the feeling of being cocooned inside as pupae. This took place before lunchtime, and after eating we transformed the cocoon into a zip line, so the butterflies could take flight! They had to find their feet first, working out how to sit, balance and take off, at first guided by educators, and eventually all by themselves. We are very proud of our problem-solving, dexterous mini beasts!
We hope all our families emerge from this week into a wonderfully sunny weekend and flutter into next week for another week of holiday camp and our usual antics!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon Village