Last week we celebrated May Day at Forest School. May Day celebrations date back to ancient times, when Romans celebrated the festival of Flora, the goddess of flowers and spring. Many of the old customs celebrating new life and fertility survive to this day. We looked at two of these last week; the Green Man and Morris dancing. Legend has it that the Green Man runs through the forest, breathing life into nature, passing his energy to all living things, green! Morris dancing is a form of English folk dance, based on rhythmic stepping and the use of implements such as sticks and handkerchiefs.
Kindy kicked off the celebrations, with Charlie coming fully prepared to be the Green Man, dressed head to toe in green waterproofs! The children gathered sticks to bang together and danced around Charlie to the sound of the accordion playing. They then went off to explore and climb trees. Sophie lay in the daffodil patch, very quietly, waiting for her Prince to come! Reception enjoyed the accordion playing so much, they independently formed a band and using things found on the forest floor, made instruments to play. Very creative!
Reception children continued last week’s gardening theme, when on Thursday afternoon, they planted out a new herb garden and created a wigwam for the sweet peas to grow up. Thank you Mr Gaszka for the sweet pea plants.
Nursery fully embraced the May Day celebrations, with Miss John taking on the role of the Green Man. She danced through the woods with the children skipping and banging sticks around her! The children soon decided to find other things to bang with their sticks including the tree trunks and my boots!
Year 1 took their Green Man dancing to the next level and actually learnt a bit of Morris dancing. Everyone took part and found it was great fun learning to dance with imaginary handkerchiefs in your hands! After all that jigging about, it was time for a ‘snack’ from the forest floor, delivered on beautiful ‘bark’ platters!
Albie was our Green Man for Year 2’s May Day celebrations. He was quick to volunteer, not quite so happy when he realised it meant dressing up in a cape and headdress! They were all very good at picking up the Morris dancing routine, and were seen still practising it at break-time the following day!
I had a wonderful week celebrating May Day; dancing, singing, banging sticks and giving thanks for nature. But Miss John enjoyed it the most!
Mrs Wilson
