Colourful crispy leaves continue to flutter down all around us, and the forest floor has been hidden in a sea of beautiful hues, brimming with potential for unparalleled play! Following the lead of educators, children have been dragging their legs through them, with feet sideways, carving looping train tracks all around the forest which in turn, ploughs the leaves into colossal heaps before us. Sometimes these journeys are filled with a song called “Choo Choo Train” from our speakers that everyone loves, or sometimes accompanied by Matt rhyming a description of the trip, whilst supporting children to think of their own phrases along the way;
“Clickety Clack, Clickety Clack, look at that tree, now look at the track.
Clickety Clack, Clickety Clack, you’re wearing a scarf, I’m wearing a hat.
Clickety Clack, Clickety Clack, let’s turn this way, then turn back.
Clickety Clack, Clickety Clack, we’re pushing the leaves along the track”
Leaves galore are simply too tempting not to kick up or throw above our heads. In these fun moments, we have all been learning how to play in ways that respect each other’s space and safety. Here educators are also supporting children with skills to look for cues from friends to identify and understand each other’s feelings about whether we even like the feeling of leaves getting in our hair and down our necks, and when might be a good time to stop.
The leaves also continue to give us a natural confetti, rich in a variety of textures, shapes and shades, which are perfect for arts and crafts play. Children are free to use materials as they like here, and often lead on their own designs, experimenting with manipulating the materials around them, discovering different effects by trial and error. It’s not a conveyor belt of identical art projects here and we love that the children proudly take their glue or tape laden creations home, each with an entirely unique story about what the design is, after all it’s their art not ours!
This week we’ve been having lots of fun with gigantic boxes and Vanessa turned one into a magnificent castle, with perfectly shaped crenelations cut along the top, a princess by the great door, and a dragon sleeping inside. This amplified the children’s imaginations and a collection of characters charged around excitedly on a variety of magical adventures. After plenty of playfulness, children then thought of a brilliant idea to turn the castle into a home for minibeasts. Soon, armfuls of leaves were being scooped and placed into the cardboard container, with children motivating each other to get “more and more and more, all the way to the top!”. With the castle filled, it spent the rest of the day readied for any little bugs that needed a cosy new home; we just love that children here are so very conscious of the animals we share our space with! Well done Wandsworth Little Forest Folk-ers… you rule!
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth