Among the many things that we plan and create for the children, there is no better moment than when all those things are completely thrown out the window in exchange for deep, timeless, cooperative play. Today was one of the most incredible and satisfying days I have had in the forest with children. Our entire day after circle and snack was spent planning, building, and touring a house the whole group built together.
Our “loose parts” area has been slowly gaining attention and given long periods of free time, themes and ideas are starting to be executed in the most wonderful ways! The house the children built had everything from a food garden to a forest, a gate, a power line, kitchen, beds, roof, and much more. The creation itself was impressive, but the collaboration was where the magic lies. Each child found a purposeful role in the play: tour guides, architects, gardeners, basement builders, forest caretakers, and bakers!
We also marveled at how well the children have absorbed our introduction to mapping. We introduced the concepts of landmarks and the mnemonic Eat, Soggy, Worms, Now to represent the cardinal directions. And, by looking at our map of Flying Deer Nature Center, the children were able to recognize lots of their favorite places on the land as well as places they have never been! Some children had the opportunity to create a map of our campsite using all naturally found objects as well.
Through a couple wandering exercises, we allowed everyone to trust their inner compass to lead the group from landmark to landmark in our buckthorn forest. On Wednesday, we even added an entire storyline to our wander in which the children each took turns to add a sentence or two to the story. Fostering leadership and creativity as well as literacy skills, this activity is adapted from the ancient story telling ways of the Aboriginal cultures of Australia.
The warmer weather allowed us to take out our journals again this week to take note of things learned: directions, maps, parts of our house, favorite parts of our day. Journaling is one of the Core Routines developed by one of our mentors Jon Young. It provides a wonderful opportunity to sharpen memory, reflect on life and tell the stories of exciting things that have happened in nature.
Our learning about insulation continued as we finished our squirrel nesting box. We will hopefully get it up into a tree next week—it has to be hung quite high! We put some wool and wood shavings inside to help entice a squirrel family to nest there.
Lastly, we said goodbye to Fall Fairy, who handed over reign of the land to Winter Fairy. We made Fall Fairy a home to rest until next year!
—Julie and JJ
November 5, 2020