Our Week in the Forest...
This week has seen some serious collaborative teamwork among the children who have brought to life some ambiguous ideas, and in the true spirit of the outdoors have not even flinched when the heavens have opened!
Possibly inspired by all the restoration work that has been taking place at Fulham Palace the children took ownership of a pile of cobbles left behind in the gardens to create their own structures, from towering pillars of stone to buildings that were used as shops and houses in their imaginary role play. Their creativity and critical thinking didn’t just stop with their careful selection of stones that fitted together nicely, they resourcefully also made their own cement by mixing the mud and water together. Combine all of this with their developing skills of using the shave-horse and forest school tools to shape and refine pieces of wood, and before you know it they’ll be building their own houses!!
The children have also been having a go at weaving on our rustic weaving frames throughout the week, incorporating ropes, ribbons, sticks and all manner of elements from the natural environment. They looked amazing suspended from the trees and further inspired the children to consider what else could be woven together and suspended in the forest. So, before we knew it there were installations of wooden planks swinging together in the air not dissimilar to a contemporary art exhibition at the Tate.
Along with the sunny intervals, we have also made the most of the sudden cloud bursts during the week which has provided the children with two of their favourite elements, water and sloppy mud! Along with splashing in the puddles and having an endless resource for the mud kitchen it has also offered opportunities for experimenting, the children were particularly fascinated with the ‘waterfalls’ of water we created with the tarps and were astonished at how many pots, pans and containers one ‘waterfall’ could fill.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and we cannot wait to see what adventures next week brings!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham