There's something wonderful about allowing children to make a legitimate mess. It can provide such fantastic learning opportunities. It's when we apply a certain level of meaning to the mess created that we can see the magic happening...
Following on from our Blackberry and Apple tea week, we gave the children the chance to put their creative and imaginative muscles to the test and role play some cooking around our fire pit. The tea activity from last week inspired lots of conversations around cooking and making so this activity seemed like a good way of expanding on this interest.
The premise of the session was simple. We discussed first about what we had done last week, and tried to involve lots of key words and vocabulary to arm the children later. We also discussed what kind of dishes or drinks they might like to create. We then took the children to the "Kitchen" (Fire Pit) where an array of pots, pans and cutlery awaited to be used. The first task for the children was to gather some ingredients or as we called it "shopping". We took our shopping trolley and wicker baskets and stomped around the paddock foraging for plants and natural materials to be used in our creations. I do enjoy searching for things in nature, because very often we find things that we don't recognise or know the name of, alongside all the wonderful things that we normally spot on our rambles through the paddock like creepy crawlies and interesting plants. It's another way the children get an up close and tactile relationship boost with nature. Every little contact builds a better and stronger relationship to it, and hopefully in turn, a deeper understanding and respect.
We found feathers and leaves, twigs and pine cones, elderberries and blackberries, windfall apples and handfuls of grass and all manner of natural treasures to turn into a variety of delicious treats. Once back at the Fire Pit, the children could then crack on with the creation of some culinary masterpieces. And they didn't disappoint. There was a superb variety of different meal and drinks that were created. There were soups, pancakes, drinks, cakes, and a host of pies. Each one included different recipes, methodologies and ingredients but essentially the results were the same. To be honest because of the floating pieces of smashed apple and mud they looked quite disgusting, but as the children made their creations we asked questions to tease out the hidden learning and understanding being developed underneath the surface.
One of the main focuses was to get the children to think about the vocabulary of the session and to feed that into their creations. We were also discussing about how were moving and behaving around our fire pit in reference with our Forest School rule of "Respecting our Fire". We pretended to have a fire lit as we allowed the children to 'cook' their creations over the fire on some pot stands. The discussions were brilliant, with children talking through how and what they were making, and importantly we witnessed them actively correcting themselves and each other as they played around the fire.
It's super important not to ask leading questions during an activity like this. Very often as adults, we ask questions which reflect our own thoughts and opinions into the mouths of the children, who mirror those thoughts and ideas back in their answers, eager to please. Instead, I like to state the obvious about their creations or ask open questions: "Your food looks purple!", "Wow, that fire is hot!", "How did you make that?" or "What's in your pot?". Another important consideration is to give the children plenty of time to answer too, allowing them to formulate a response that's true to them.
These weeks are always fun to watch and it's very obvious which children help at home with the cooking or food preparations! It was a lovely week with lots of movement and running around which was lovely to see in the sunshine. Just what children should be doing! I would also like to apologise if any of the children came home with seriously stained clothes as the blackberries and elderberries got a little explosive! I hope you have all enjoyed your summer holidays and maybe you did some mud cooking all of your own!