An Observation On A Forest School Play Moment

This week we’ve mainly been taking shelter in the shade, with water play providing the perfect way to cool down.

The group of reception children involved in this chutes play had been interested in den building last week, and we had brought some different resources to facilitate their interest for this week's session. However, as their free play began, they became interested in a pile of chutes on the ground.

Choice and following children's interests are integral parts of the Forest School learning process, so the den building plans were abandoned and the facilitation of this new interest began. The children started with one chute leaned against some pallets and experimented with pouring water down it. This was exciting and led to one child's idea to make “a giant water slide”.

More and more children joined in, and the construction began. The benefits of this collaborative play were huge. There were multiple opportunities for problem-solving - for example, how to connect the chutes, how to raise them when they realised the water wasn't flowing all the way down, and how to collect the water at the bottom.

Other benefits included communicating and cooperating with peers, opportunities for resolving conflict, risk-taking as they navigated large pieces of equipment, and the pure enjoyment of watching the water pour down to the bottom.

As the children's play companion, I was reminded of the careful balance between supportive adult interaction and stepping back to observe, allowing the children’s exploration and problem-solving to unfold and evolve. At one point, they were struggling with how to raise some of the chutes, and it would have been easy to step in and help them solve the problem. Eventually, one child brought over a wheelbarrow and, when they experimented with running the water down it and it still didn’t flow very well, another child ran off with purpose and then added an upturned washing-up bowl on top. These wouldn’t have been my 'adult' choices, but they did the job - and the children had been creative and solved the problem effectively.

And voilà - “the longest and most giant water slide” was created: independently, with a lot of experimentation, intrinsic motivation, and fun along the way.😄

“Let the child be the scriptwriter, the director and the actor in his own play.” ~ Magda Gerber

By Carrie Chapman