Some of the things we got up to today were...
Wood collecting, passing, sorting, carrying, lighting, cooking, toasting, warming, eating, sheltering, climbing, bouncing, balancing, hanging, swinging, searching, finding, creating, singing, decorating, peeling, making, learning, labelling, connecting.
The beauty of the woods is that they give the freedom to hold and facilitate open ended play and child led ideas.
At the end of our day the children shared what they had enjoyed about their day.
" I found some newts, come and see them, I have to show you, there was a whole family under the logs"
"I loved the chrysalis with the caterpillars head sticking out of the end of it"
"I like finding my tree and running in the rain"
"I like swinging in the hammock"
"I liked playing by the stream and making new friends"
"I liked eating the eggs"
"I like the egg I decorated"
"I loved mixing and making the cakes"
"I didn't know you could make a candle from a babybel"
"The pen I made with the ink was good, we crunched the charcoal and it made black ink"
"I am getting really good at using the peelers"
"Goodbye woods...thank you"
A massive thanks to all of the children who have spent time in the woods this Easter and throughout the year. It is brilliant to observe different interests and engagements and no matter what we may plan to do, their play always evolves following their own ideas.
This summer we have more sessions for children and some family days where children can bring their adults to the woods. We are also holding a 'Friends of Sawpit Woods' weekend session, where everyone is welcome to come and play and explore in the woods and find out a bit about what we get up to week after week and get involved in managing our new Children's Forest'. All of our dates for booking of upcoming sessions are on the website now! Can't wait to see you all!