Rabbits, 6 Sept... First day back

Rabbits were happy to be together again, a group so at ease with each other it felt we were months into the year not just beginning.

With some new faces, and new friendships forming we supported the group in becoming familiar with each others' names with a few games designed for this purpose and closed our class with an activity; writing our names on rocks and forming them in a circle to recognise and connect with each other and see that we now form our class of Rabbits and we each belong.

The rabbits worked together and individually on crossbows, bow and arrows, ninja stars, swords and flying feather whimsical creations. Tools, like swiss army knives, hammers and nails, along with yarn, paints and feathers helped inspire these works.

Ms Rikia and Ms Megan were thrilled to see rich, deep, imaginative play underway, as familiar friendships rekindled and new partnerships formed. Soft toys (stuffies) and rocks were the characters in their play. We even have a story being composed by some of our group.

To open space for emotional expression and to begin to facilitate all children feeling they have a voice in our group we each wrapped a piece of yarn around our class talking stick as we shared how we want to feel at forest school this year and listened to each other as we shared. From this insight we discussed how we might help each other to feel the feelings of fun, friendship, learning and excitement that they identified they wanted to feel. This conversation supports a a collaborative approach to the responsibility we each have for ourselves and each other in our class.