This week, the forest transformed into an amazing winter wonderland. We wanted to know more about how the world changes all around us and the changes that happen within ourselves especially in the quiet and dark winter months.
In one corner of the forest - in one of the ice caves - we were very surprised to find Olaf the Snowman in pieces! We worked as a team to put him back together using our knowledge of sizes. We put the big circle in the middle and the medium sized one at the bottom, but he just didn’t look right! We tried different combinations until he looked just like his usual self. The oval arms were a bit trickier as they all looked so similar to each other, but in the end after some tremendous teamwork, we managed to put him together.
In another area of the forest, we took part in an interesting ice experiment. We had salt, sugar, warm water and cold water in different bowls and we had to think about what would happen to ice if it was placed in each bowl. We all decided it would melt but we couldn’t decide which bowl would melt the ice fastest! We put the experiment to the test and after an hour, we came back to find that the ice in the hot water had melted while the sugar was still very much whole. We waited a little longer before checking if the ice had melted in all the bowls before the end of the day.
For those of us who were feeling creative, we spent some time at the craft table making snowflakes through mark making. Some of us followed the pattern precisely, using our well-practised hand eye coordination. Some of us were feeling a little more easy-going and made dots and swirls on our snowflakes. They all turned out quite beautifully!
The winter months have also made us more reflective and we’ve been talking more about our feelings and asking for help when our feelings are starting to feel too big for us. Just like the trees and hibernating animals who have slowed down, we also wanted to find ways to slow down when we’re feeling a bit out of sorts. We had so many fantastic ideas! We decided on a quiet spot to go to when the forest is getting a bit too loud or busy so we can breathe and relax and listen to softer sounds like the birds singing or the wind rustling the trees. We also had a good idea to find calmer activities such as reading a book in our cosy reading corner or drawing our favourite characters to slow down any racing minds. We’ve also done very well using our kind and gentle phrases to wait for our turn or to share resources which really helps everyone feel happy and cared for.
We’ll be back next week with more stories of our adventures in the forest!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham