This week we have taken two groups to the forest to experience learning in the wild! Forest School is a fabulous experience that we run for our pre-school children which has many benefits for them. Over the past couple of days we have seen the children flourish in their new environment. As it was our introductory week, we spoke about hazards and risks and how we were going to keep safe. We set some boundaries, they were far away so we had lots of space to explore but we could always be seen by an adult!
We looked at trees that might be good to climb and then we climbed! We squelched in the mud, a lot, some of us even lost our wellies in the muddy mess!
We explored nature, there were lots of plants to look at and one in particular we could smell. Wild garlic! It was everywhere, so we felt very hungry. We stopped for some snack before going to find more to explore.
Then we went to look at the horses in the field next door. They were munching on their grass so didn’t want to come and see us.
Before we knew it, it was time to go back to Cart Mill but we can’t wait to get out again next week.
Category Archives: Froebel
Froebel Friends
We were delighted to be part of East Renfrewshire’s Froebel Friends first exhibition at Netherlee Pavilion on Saturday, where we had the opportunity to showcase our children’s wonderful woodwork creations.
Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) was the inventor of kindergartens and a pioneer of early education and care. Froebel’s work and writing changed the way we think about and value early childhood. His principles of unity and connectedness, autonomous learners, value of childhood in its own right, relationships matter, creativity and the power of symbols, the central importance of play, engaging with nature and knowledgeable and nurturing educators were considered revolutionary in the 1850’s (Froebel Trust, 2021). At Cart Mill we firmly believe Froebel’s principles continue to be so relevant and we strive to adopt them into our everyday practice.
Our Cart Mill children just love our tinker table where they have the freedom to “learn through doing”. It is truly magical to observe our children exploring their creativity by creating their own unique and marvellous models using a wide range of natural and manufactured materials. Simply giving children freedom to spend time discussing, planning, designing and investigating resulted in this amazing box bursting in creativity, with each model having its own unique story.
”Woodwork is active learning at its best” (Bruce 2004:109). It is such a rich learning experience to explore creative and critical thinking skills through problem solving , trying new ideas and building on previous learning experiences. Our children have formed unity and connectedness by exploring where wood comes from and experimenting with its different natural forms of wood, shavings, sawdust, sticks, cardboard and even recycling from home!
It was an amazing opportunity to meet like minded Froebelian friends and form new connections and relationships. We had such a lovely day and were so proud to share our children’s work and experiences with our Froebelian colleagues.
Please feel free to speak to our Froebelian experts Ana, Fiona H and Emma if you would like any further information or pop in anytime to see how we put Froebelian principles into practice. We are so excited to see where our Froebelian journey takes us next!
Article 13 – you have the right to find out new things and share what you have learned with others.
