Forest School...
The concept of Forest School is not new. Using this Scandinavian model of learning children are encouraged to play and use the outdoors as a starting point for a huge range of skills. Alongside practical and creative skills the children develop relationships, confidence and self esteem. They problem solve and plan, and use thinking skills on a scale that is not always possible indoors. Different areas of learning can be combined to make experience real, active and relevant. Measuring, cutting, joining, shaping, counting, sharing, negotiating, co-operating, endurance, turn taking and risk taking are all managed in this large scale environment. Children discover and then try out their own ideas using found materials and their natural surroundings.
Dave is a qualified Forest School practitioner and has worked with a local Forest School set up in a park, supporting visiting primary school children with adventurous outdoor tasks. He also set up his own Forest School for Primary aged children to visit off site, enjoying outdoor links to the creative school curriculum. We use the woodlands connected to the back garden to provide a range of focused activities. We also encourage the children to discover the woodlands for themselves and have their own ideas.
Tasks could be part of a 'habitat' theme encouraging the children to use branches, leaves and other found materials to create dens to sit in and shelter. This may also be part of a 'den day' to celebrate shelter and acknowledge homelessness or displaced people. We may be supporting the Save The Children project with activities such as this. It might be that the children self initiate their dens and use materials around the garden to create a play, relaxation or reflection space of their own.
Forest School is a very special time for children and in our busy, and at times, material focused world, it is an opportunity to connect with nature and immerse ourselves in the natural world around us in both miniature and large scale, enjoying the colours, shapes, smells, sounds and textures. It is an opportunity to be still, to just 'be' in the here and now, to rest our minds and to slow down. This encourages children to be mindful, to reflect and to approach their world, new experiences and problem solving in a calm and confident way.
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Other tasks or self initiate moments might include, singing, dancing, fairy ring games, leaf searching, foraging, gathering, building, clambering, silence, listening, observing, reflecting, frame building, bug hotels, sun catchers, tree faces, mud craft, drink sharing, tree painting, digging, printing, sketch booking, small world, sensory trays, feeling, animal and bird watching...
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