BushBabies - Nature Workshops for 3 - 5 year olds
starting on Saturday 15th September 2007
What is BushBabies?
Each Week We Will Follow This Format
Wake Up: - a series of exercises designed to awaken the mind and body for child and parent (Relax Kids based). This part of the workshop will introduce that week's theme.
Trail: - the trail will consist of an activity, with things to find and things to do.
Craft Time: - this is a sitting down exercise where children and parents are instructed on a certain craft. The craft will be relevant to the workshop theme. All crafts can be taken home. Crafts will include using a range of materials from crayons and paints to chenille stems and beads.
Story Time and Relax Time: - at the end of the workshop all of the children will come together and will listen to a story that is related to the workshop theme. There is also opportunity here for early year's meditation and visualisation whilst listening to an adventure from a Relax Kids CD.
BushBabies is a concept of bringing groups of young children and their parents/guardians together to develop a young child's awareness and confidence in the natural environment and attune them to the seasons.
3 to 5 year olds will be accompanied by their parents/guardians in 1 - 2 hour sessions, which engage children in nature. Sowing the seed at an early age will develop a child's understanding and respect for the environment.
The National Curriculum guidance sets out six areas of learning for 3 - 5 year olds. These are:
- Personal, Social, and Emotional Development
- Communication, Language and Literacy
- Mathematical Development
- Knowledge and Understanding of the World
- Physical Development
- Creative Development
EnchantedForest aims to target and some what follow these areas of the foundation stage of the National Curriculum as a way of preparing a child for school or any other means of education.
EnchantedForest incorporates Relax Kids yoga, meditation, and visualization into the workshops; mainly at the start and end of each session.
Please note EnchantedForest are sensitive to each parents/guardians beliefs of how their child is going to be educated; whether it is main stream, private or home educated. The use of the National Curriculum guidance by no means suggests a dependence on the National Curriculum and is purely used as a way of structuring the sessions.
Personal, Social, and Emotional Development
As a child will be amongst other children and adults, he or she will learn what it is like to be in a group, learn to share and take turns, learn how to listen to others when asked and begin to feel confident to speak in group situations.
In this group situation a child will develop personal skills such as confidence and independence, increase their level of concentration and learn to take care of themselves, each other and their environment through the activities that they will be participating in.
We will encourage children to share their emotions and not be afraid to tell someone if they are sad or unhappy about something. They will then begin to learn that problems can be resolved if you talk to somebody.
Children will be encouraged to wash their hands after being outside, which is all part of a Childs understanding of personal hygiene.
Communication, Language and Literacy
Naturally the sessions will contribute to a child's speaking and listening skills in an environment surrounded by other children and adults - children learn from others.
Some sessions will require the children to describe things, how things feel (hard and soft), where something is (above, below, besides) and how they feel themselves (hot or cold, happy or sad, tired or excited). This will develop a child's speech and understanding of how they feel and how other things feel.
Each week children will listen to a short story and will learn to have "quiet time". The story will be related to the session that day and will be a time for children to listen and relax before the session ends.
Each session will always start with a poem or rhyme about nature and the weather and will fit to a tune of a classic nursery rhyme. Predictable structures and language develop a child's language and literacy skills. Children and parents will join in using shakers.
Mathematical Development
Many of the sessions will allow children to explore maths through a variety of ways including repetitive counting of different natural things such as trees, sheep, leaves etc.
The sessions will encompass the following:
- Length and weight will be explored using natural items i.e. feathers and stones, and different lengths of sticks.
- Shapes will be explored using natural items i.e. leaves, stones, twigs and bark.
- Counting natural things when appropriate will enable the children to remember consecutive numbers i.e. counting from 1 to 10, 1 to 20 etc.
- Symmetry and patterns will be explored and what better way than to use the natural world. Butterflies, leaves, bark, and flowers are all exciting examples of explaining symmetry and patterns.
- Categorising and sorting is an important part of a child's development to enable them to understand why things are similar and why things are different.
Knowledge and Understanding of the World
All the sessions will contribute to a child's understanding of the natural world. Children will discover and explore what animals live in the woods including insects, birds, mammals and maybe amphibians and reptiles. They will have the opportunity to learn what the animal looks like, where it likes to live, and what it eats.
The weather will be an important part of the session and understanding how it affects us, other animals and plants.
The seasons will be celebrated and children will be encouraged to enjoy being outdoors whatever the weather and to learn that they have to dress appropriately.
Children will encounter trees and flowers and will be familiar with selected names and have an understanding of why they are there and why they are important to us and other animals.
Physical Development
Getting out into the forest and having gentle exercise will benefit those that are participating in BushBabies. It is important to make walking an enjoyable experience from a young age so that they will continue to do so through their childhood and into adulthood.
Walking in the forest with uneven ground, holes and logs is an exciting world especially for children. It is also a challenging place and children will learn that this is what forests are like. We will encourage children to have confidence in a wild place but with a sense of caution and to always look out where you are going.
During some sessions we will imitate different animals (insects, birds, mammals and even trees and flowers) using our arms and legs. Physically this will gently develop a child's range of movement and mentally will make them aware of how animals are similar to us and how they are different.
Children will be encouraged to use their senses in exploring the environment, by looking, listening, touching and smelling. Children will be taught what they can and can't touch and understand that some plants are dangerous.
We will celebrate anyone's Birthday in the group. It is an important that children begin to develop recognition of important dates and days in the year such as birthdays, Christmas, Easter, and mother and fathers day, etc.
Creative Development
Most sessions will involve making a craft relevant to the time of year and the activity that we have been doing.
Children will require lots of parent support; however this will be dependent on your child's age and ability.
The idea is to give the children a craft activity and let them explore this independently (with an on looking parent) and teaching them to feel the materials they are using. So mess is no concern.
Listening to music and copying music will develop a child's listening skills. We will follow simple repetitive patterns with shakers and banging on different items. Children will explore noises they can make themselves such as clapping and making noises with your mouth.
Children will see many different colours outside and will be encouraged to learn these colours as well as looking at all the different shades.
Throughout the sessions the children will have chance to play and explore although this is something that the parent can do with the child at their own time and leisure.
Each week (with all parents consent) each child and parent will be the photographer and take photographs of what they find and other members of the group.
Important Information
Where
BushBabies are held a Stansted Park. Workshops will meet in the arboretum near to all the facilities. Workshops will be based indoors and outdoors which is very much dependant upon the weather and the type of activity. Workshops will be held in the arboretum itself. Indoors activities will be held inside a Traditional Mongolian Yurt with a wood burning stove.
Facilities
Stansted has many facilities for you and your child to use including a large car park, toilets, café, garden centre, and grounds and woodland to explore.
When
BushBabies Nature Workshops are 1 – 1½ hour sessions. We aim for approximately an hour but sometimes the workshops may last longer.
Workshops will take place every third week on a Saturday morning 10.30am – 12.00pm and Saturday afternoon 1.30pm – 3.00pm. The workshop dates are as follows:
15th September – Introduction (Friendships)
6th October – What is Nature?
27th October – Seed Gathering and Autumn Time
17th November – Hibernation (Home for a Hedgehog)
8th December – Christmas Time
A Few Important Things to Think About
Children should be dressed appropriately for outdoors activities and craft activities. This will also enable the child to understand that certain clothes are for certain activities and that they shouldn't be afraid of getting dirty - it can always go in the wash. It is important that the child feels that they can explore to their hearts content.
Within the group there will be children of different ages and abilities. However this is not a concern and we have the flexibility within the session for you to take longer over a certain activity if you wish or to politely say to your child that you will come back to that later after the session or some other time.
We have a structured session plan for each workshop, but sometimes we may not end up following it. We may have a teachable moment where we find something exciting in the woods, which the children will benefit from learning about.
Cost
A BushBabies workshop costs £5.00 per child. Simply pay on the day by cheque or cash. Cheques made payable to "EnchantedForest".