16th March

Area

The forest area of this kindergarden was located at the beginning of Jegersberg, next to a big green area but still in the middle of the forest. So their main area was about 1 000 sqm. It included rocks, a lot of trees where they can climb, up and downs, a little streem and a bit of grass. The games could be very flexible.

The role of the leader

The kindergarden teacher and her two helpers were very conservative. The children were teached with the few main rules at the very beginning. These are basicly: Some stopping points on the way from the kindergarden to the forest and that they have to stand in a queue until everybody is here and then they can start running again in the direction of the forest kindergarden. Another rule is to be careful with sticks and (throwing) stones. But that’s it. The children know where the invisible border of their area is and stay in it even without getting told from the kindergarden teacher. She is just walking around during the day and sometimes plays a little with a few of the kids. But most of the time she is standing next to the fire, where kids can come any time to warm up or just be there. Even if some kids are crying the kindergarden teacher usually doesn’t come immedetly because mostly they manage it among themselves.

They don’t have typical toys, which you know from a normal kindergarden. Their toys are mostly the nature itself e. g. Sticks, climbing up trees, playing with different kind of ground, birch, sticks or moss. The only built play areas are a small and a big shelter or basicly out of rope and sticks e. g. a hammock leather or a horizontal net between trees. Other materials they need for the day are isolation mats to sit on, sth for lunsj, sth to built a fire with and a first aid kit for emergencys – which happens really rare!

So a normal day consists of meeting at the kindergarden house, having a warm up there with some singing and talking all together in a circle and then walking to the forest area, putting the backpacks in a built shelter and start playing around. After around an hour they meet all together again and do some singing before they eat their lunsj, which consists of sth warm when it is cold outside e. g. Hotdogs with lompe or just bread with cheese in summer. They eat outside on isolation mats around the fire and when it is raining in the small shelter. They usually even play outside when it is raining and just go to the shelter to eat. After that it is again free play until 2 PM. Then they eat their matpakke and walk back to the kindergarden house after that.

The role of the kids

All the kids manage to play during the whole day without getting bored even without the typical toys. And they are allowed to to it most of their day by themselfes. There are only a few ‘meetings’ where they have to come together and sing or talk a little. But they also enjoy that and sometimes start singing the songs during the day.

Their motivation is more internal than external or if it is the last one then it comes more from the other kids that they challenge each other what they can do e. g. Climbing up a tree and jumping down. But as they have different skills everyone knows his borders and know when he/she can’t climb higher, need a break,… So they really know what is good for their body and just listen to it. They also don’t care about to get dirty so they just do what looks like fun e. g. Sliding down a hill, rolling on the ground, …

Activities – all taking place in the forest area:

• running and chasing
• sitting in kind of dens and watching or playing with surrounding sticks
• playing with different kind of stick also next to the small streem
• climbing on trees
• making a prisoner and bond him (big boys)
• ringen und raufen (english?? -> fun fighting)
• playing with different forest obsacels e. g. Ground, sticks, birch, moss, grass and disussing in the shelter
• sitting on a toy and talking
• fantasy play e. g. mother, father and child or beeing a hotdog seller
• …
• in wintertime the also go sledding on the big green area

So the kids learn most of the things by watching, trying and failure and get teached very little. But still they have really good motor skills e. g. Climbing, running quite fast on the different kind of ground, jumping, balancing but still know their borders.

I think they learn a lot of abilities and skills by playing like that. Especially in this young age they get used to being outside and moving, so they will miss it if they are not doing it later. And they are good in different kind of acitvites as they have a good basic of all motor skills.

I think it is also good for the concentration later at school. But hopefully they can manage then to sit down for a while and getting typically teached. That would be interesting to know!