As we launch our Forest Kindergarten year, we are fully focused on connections. We weave together activities that will connect the children to each other and to their school home at Woodend. “Is this my school?” asked one child as we hiked from the Ultimate Climber to the Mansion and back through the Meadow to the Oaks classroom. Yes! How lucky we are. We have a beautiful new classroom AND we have 40 + acres of wild space full of wonder.
And what better way to connect to the wild than through some forest friends…so we started our year with Mama and Papa Toad in the classroom, and soon the Oaks were finding toads of all sizes wherever we went.
We also found many slugs, a box turtle, a big millipede, centipedes and dragonfly larva.
Making a “home” for the turtle (with a few doors). There are pointy sticks to protect it from predators.
All you need is a giant slug!
“Look at this bug I found!”
We made ourselves at home in the Oaks play-yard and at the Oaks’ home base Hilltop Home. After reading the book Happy, the children made mud faces to show how they were feeling on the first week.
In just two weeks, we’ve also explored the Children’s Garden, Rain Garden, Bamboo Castle, Fire Circle and Chestnut Tree, the Meadow, the Pond, the fort woods near the mansion and the Ultimate Climber. And there’s still so much more to come!
“We made it through!”
Teamwork pulling the wagon up to Hilltop
“Watch me jump!”
Mud = Happy
Ponding
The Chestnut Tree – big enough for everyone
Tigers prowling in the tall tall grass…
While we help connect children to their home in the wild, we also support them as they forge connections to each other. Through play, they make plans, share ideas and language, negotiate roles, set limits, take turns, form friendships and so much more. Shared stories are one way we help connect children to each other and begin building our class community.
Reading Jack and the Beanstalk
Reading together
Reading with a friend
Who will be Jack? Here are some beans.
Acting out the story – What happens next?
Stories of their own outside
Stories of their own inside
Building the Titanic. “I can read you the story of the Titanic without the book!”
Friendship
Snakes and cars in a castle, what could be better?
The wild cat and his caretaker in their den.
Story time at the garden, after picking cucumbers, sorrel and tomatoes for our snack.
Bonding at the Dig Pit
Friends on a journey.
We read the book Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis, talked about ways you can play with sticks (and ways you can’t), then the Oaks wrote their own book showing what they would do with sticks.
Storytime at Hilltop – Not a Stick
Teamwork: first stick fort
“It’s NOT a stick…it’s a horse! His name is Johnny.”
Storytime – Not a Stick, written and illustrated by the “Nature Kids” (aka Oaks)
There is time for solitude. Children also need space and time to listen to their inner voices, to observe, question, experiment, wonder, and express their own stories.
Making a home for the animals
Vehicles are actually characters too…
“I’m a boat and these are my jet engines to move me forward.”
Checking out the “Feelings Den” at Hilltop
Personal expression through art and writing
Quiet reading time
Creating his own “small world”
Experimenting with ramps
Small world play
What happens if we overfill the jug? Fountain!
“I have to put the same number and same kinds on each one.”
Patterning
The best hiding space!
We brought two kinds of caterpillars into our classroom for the first day. The children observed the caterpillars over the last two weeks, drew pictures, and found their habitat in the meadow. They then imagined what the butterflies might look like and drew and painted pictures. And in the highlight of our week, we got to watch one monarch butterfly emerge today!
Observational drawing of caterpillars
Butterfly, imagined
I
Butterfly, imagined
“It’s a monarch butterfly!”
Wonder
Books we read:
Happy by Miles van Hout
Up Down and All Around by Katherine Ayres
Roxaboxen by Alice McLerran
Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis
Jack in the Beanstalk
Play with Me by Marie Hall Ets
A Year Around the Great Oak by Gerda Muller
Audubon Nature Preschool 