Forest Stories

Stories from the Forest

Curiosity drives what and how we learn

ISP’s Early Childhood Foundations teacher Samira Bello, shares how our youngest learners, three and four year olds, become increasingly curious and want to learn more as they regularly explore the magnificent natural setting of the Divoká Šárka nature reserve.

In the forest, we explore all the natural materials around us and wonder about the ones we enter for the first time. We encounter large, huge, small, and minute things. From mushrooms to oak apple gall, from sticks to moss and leaves, from weevils to beetles. 

We use our sensory organs of touch, smell, sight and hearing to look closely at the natural resources in the forest.

Finding holes in a tree stump and sticking long sticks into it to figure out what lives inside of the hole. Sometimes different creatures jump out and at other times, nothing appears but the children persistently and patiently watch after every stir of the stick inside of the hole.

Can you see the beetle coming out of the tree stump? The children are often overjoyed to see that their effort and persistence paid off when they discover a beautiful creature like this beetle. Sometimes we hold creatures like this and talk about it and sometimes free them.