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Woodland creatures and their homes
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Adult-led focus activities
The woodland environment__________
In order to stimulate children’s interest in the project and encourage investigation, set up an interactive woodland display in your setting…
Adult:child ratio 1:4
Links to the Foundation Stage Curriculum
CLL | Begin to use talk to pretend imaginary situations. Ask simple questions, often in the form of ‘where’ or ‘what’. |
KUW | Show curiosity, observe and manipulate objects. |
CD | Use available resources to create props to support role play. |
Fiction books from the Percy the Park Keeper series by Nick Butterworth (HarperCollins) are ideal for this display (and indeed the whole project)
Information books on woodland animals (see ‘Book bank’, page 16, for some ideas)
A selection of woodland puppets that the children can access as well as some 3-D animals if your puppets
You will also need a selection of natural woodland materials such as bark, fir cones, leaves, twigs and stones and some spring flowers, if appropriate
At a later point you might need a cassette recorder and a digital camera
Cover a table or shelf (wherever you have decided to set up your display), with a brown cloth to represent the woodland floor. You might like to use some blocks underneath the material to give the display some shape and form.
Drape some green material behind – either hanging from the ceiling or on a display board. If you are using a board, cover it in green.
Arrange the books – if you are using a board, some could be mounted on covered boxes. Arrange the puppets and natural materials attractively.
If you are beginning the project in the springtime, put out some flowers such as primroses, violets and daffodils in pots among the animals and natural materials.
1 Encourage initial interest in the display and the project by reading the story books with the children during whole group sessions. Mention where you are getting the books from.
2 To focus even further on the display, invite the children over to look at the display and play with the puppets initially in groups of three to four.
3 Ask the children to identify the woodland creatures the puppets represent.
4 Use the opportunity to look at some of the books together. Some children might lik...
