The theme TROLLS was chosen based on the fact that we see that the children have become very interested in trolls after we introduced the fairy tale Askeladden who raced with the troll and that we have used a lot of music from Edvard Grieg both on trips and in the nursery. Magic music as the children call it!

We have converted one of the rooms into a PROJECT ROOM, which we call TROLLHULA. This should only be used by small groups of 5-6 children at a time and always together with an adult who takes part in the game/ adds elements to the game to drive it further/ supports the children in the game. Here is the troll's chair, a real pine tree, many treasures and props that the children get first-hand experience with and actively use for exploration and play. We will use the big blue chest, among other things, to have surprises in it, and to put a speaker in which, for example, plays the sound of waterfalls/birds chirping etc etc to stimulate curiosity, start wonder and the children's imagination. This can be a starting point for good conversations with the children. There are also costume clothes and props such as scrapers, porridge balls, natural materials, large and small porridge ladles, the troll's slippers, Ashkela's scraps and shoes, sheepskin +++.

The rest of the department is decorated with "forest", cabins and dress-up clothes for fairy-tale characters, pictures of trolls, lots of books and pictures about and with trolls as well as shaping materials such as buttons/eyes/leaves/fabrics in earthy colours/glue/acorns/stones etc that the children can use in their creative processes. All other toys have been taken away or moved into the communal kitchen. This is to stimulate the incredibly important role play.

We will have regular groups with adventure time, play with adventure suitcases, role play and active use of books and dialogic reading aloud.

Tomorrow we start the project with 2 of us dramatizing Ashkeladden racing the troll, with proper costumes (old clothes). Then we eat rice porridge for lunch.

We have not made plans for what the project period will contain, because the very purpose is to find the way together with the children. Children's participation is the cornerstone of working in this way. We set up brainstorming sessions with the children with questions such as what is a troll?, what does a troll eat? How does it look? What do trolls do? Can trolls fart?...... and follows the children's initiative. If, for example, a child says that the troll has small babies, the next day there may suddenly be some baby socks hanging on the troll's drying line or we find the baby trolls' hats in the forest, etc. 

In addition, we can add things to stimulate imagination and wonder, for example one day the troll's slipper may be missing and the children themselves discover that it is missing - then we may find it in the forest when we are on a trip...

Recycling and natural materials are important resources in the project. Old curtains from the cabin have been re-sewn into scraps, unused clothes have been turned into wizard costumes, old fishing nets hang from the ceiling and are used as attachments for twigs, leaves hang on the walls, pieces of fabric have become forests hanging from the ceiling, great-grandfather's old slippers have become troll's, borrowed with copper kettles from the cabin for the occasion, brought in tree stumps and got the top of the neighbour's pine tree to be felled to use in the troll's den.

Now the stomach is tickling and we are very much looking forward to welcoming the children tomorrow