A few days working with Foundation Stage children at Annesley Primary School, Nottinghamshire.
With a theme “Children in other countries”, we set off on expeditions to make new friends:
We could fly in a ‘plane
We could drive in a car
We could ride on a donkey
Or hang onto a motorbike
We could sail in a boat
Or gallop in a horse
We could squeeze all of us onto one elephant
Or have an elephant each
Or we could sit on a flying carpet
Children went off exploring, finding other adventures, other animals, other children
One group went to cold places and made a tent and a campfire. They cuddled up with polar bears at night to keep warm. They met wolves and bears and many friendly animals
In Africa. another group saw lions, but were not afraid, although on person was scared of elephant noises
Working in the school garden, we made those tents, built those shelters, found homes for monkeys, frogs and crabs, assembled that picnic ( nuts, apples, leaf-ice-cream), photographing and drawing the results. Eventually we made friends with other children and recorded our adventures on pop-up cards with grown-ups doing the writing because when you are 4 years old it’s useful to have minions to do those sort of things….
And Jack (3 years old) said:
The eagle and the owl are friends,
And beavers make dams,
Whales swim in the sea,
And squirrels climb trees,
But the eagle flies
High in the sky.