At parents’ evening last week I was flicking through my daughters’ literacy books. Story after story concerned adventures in the woods; getting lost and having to build a den to sleep out, meeting bears and other wild animals, cooking campfire teas for fairies. Some of the inspiration for this writing must have come from their experiences at forest school. Working in schools, I often hear teachers say that pupils are struggling with writing, not over pencil skills, phonics or spelling, but because they don’t know what to write about.
As a child I was an avid reader of Enid Blyton stories. My siblings and I would roam the countryside looking for Famous Five style adventures. (Once we did find some stolen treasure, but that’s another story). We built dens and campfires and cycled or walked for miles only coming back when we were hungry, but these days children have nothing like this freedon. Our worries about traffic and stranger danger mean we keep our children where we can see them. TV and computer games keep them occupied indoors and experiences outside the home are often prescribed and controlled; dance classes, swimming lessons and visits to the shops. There seems little space and time for children to play freely and invent their own stories, so its no wonder some are not inspired to write.
I’m working with a year 1 group this term (5&6 year olds) and we’re focusing our forest school on storytelling. So far we’ve created a story together about an old lady, a dragon and some burried treasure. The outdoor space and freedom to act out the adventure means the story has become real. (I knew this had happened when one of the children complained the dragon had just bitten her!) We’re collecting the photos and drawings in a class book which the children can write in week by week. Like all children they are naturally inventive and I’m enjoying hearing about fairies with spots and heros with nettle hair and huge moustaches. Their teacher has taken the book back into the classroom to encourage more writing in between sessions; I look forward to seeing the stories evolve.
Nature has always inspired people to write and children are no exception. I have a collection of drawings and writing that children have given me following forest school (e.g. “Forist shcool is the best shcool ever”). I’m going to scan them and create a gallery on my Facebook page, because they inspire me that this is a job definately worth doing