Each week I will give you an idea for an activity that I have used in my Forest School sessions. I will try to link it to the EYFS (2014) and schematic play if appropriate.
This week I tried making Stick Men.
Intent
Within the nursery, the children have access to the Stickman book by Julia Donaldson and often try to make their own. I wondered if I could introduce some knife skills to the group too.
Implementation
I left a stick man I had already made in my Forest School Trolley (I can show you that in the next blog). A child found it and started to play with it. I suggested that they could try and make their own if they found the right stick. The children then went to find a stick which they thought looked like a stick man. They needed three sticks, one for the body and two for the arms. I supported the children 1:1 to use a knife to carve a flat face into one end. They used a glove on their non-working hand and asked the other children to stay out of their blood bubble. The children arranged the arms up or down and used the wool to tie them on. I gave them a pen to draw on faces if they wanted. At Christmas time, they could paint on a red hat and white beard to make a gnome or Father Christmas.
Impact
Below are some of the ways you can link making a stick man to the EYFS and to your children's development. You need to know your children well to make the leap to using tools and have completed a level 3 Forest School Leaders course.
Listening and attention (40-60) - Two-channelled attention.
The World (40-60) - Looks closely at similarities, differences, patterns and change.
Exploring and using media and materials (40-60) - Manipulates materials to achieve a planned effect.
Health and Self-care (40-60) - Shows understanding of the need for safety when tackling new challenges and considers and manages some risks.
Moving and handling (30-50) - Uses one handed tools.
A child's transforming schema can be supported as the younger children a making a change to an object.
Moving and handling (22-36) - May be beginning to show a preference for dominant hand.