Snack time was slightly different today as the children sported their new rucksacks and carried their own snacks and drinks.
Decisions about when and where to stop for our mid-morning snack have always been left up to the children, but now they have the added responsibility of carrying their own food and drinks. They usually have water to drink and a choice of fruit or dried apricots.
We bought the rucksacks for the children as we wanted to encourage independence
, in a similar way to the Scandinavian model where children look after their own things all day when they are in the forest. Also, the children are now able to bring natural objects, such as a special feather or leaf, back to the nursery to share with the other children or to use for artistic creations. We try to make a bridge between the Forest School experience and the experience in the nursery, and projects such as 'building bridges' often overlap.
FAVOURITE SPOTS
Where to go in the woods is left up to the children, so we usually have our snack at one of the children's favourite spots. These are now dotted throughout the woods and the children have given many of them names, including 'roly poly hill', a bank where they can roll down or pull themselves up on a rope; the Gruffalo tree, with vines for swinging, jumping and climbing on; and the 'mammoth trap', a big ditch where the children imagined they may catch a woolly mammoth!
When we stop, the children clean their hands with an anti-bacterial wipe, then sit in a circle wherever we may be, to enjoy their snack. At this time we often discuss what we have been doing, ideas for where we may go next, or somebody may tell a story.
Reflections has operated a Forest School programme for children over three years old since summer 2009. Three groups of up to 12 children go to the woodland by minibus every week (in all weathers) for at least 30 weeks a year. Families are sent a four-page diary of each visit.www.reflectionsnurseries.co.uk.
