Our Week in the Forest...
With the weather introducing a plot twist this week, we welcomed back rainy days that saw our Little Forest Folk-ers engage in lots of water play.
Children were fascinated with the rain that collected on the tarp shelters and were working out ways to get access to it. This started with children trying to jump and push the reservoir of water to make it spill out over the side. Watching the water fall to the ground was fun at first but then the children wanted to utilise the water and came together to problem solve. One of them went to fetch a spare flexi-tub while the others located a small hole in the tarps a short distance away from the reservoir. Then began the effort of reaching up to tilt the tarp to make the water run in the direction of the hole while a child stood under it, holding out the flexi-tub yelling "I can catch it!". The team effort paid off and not before long the children had a lovely tub of water that could be used with the mud kitchen equipment or added to handfuls of mud.
Children also requested that they wanted to do some sawing this week and worked with Sam to saw lengths of wood to use in later projects. As they worked they would periodically stop, put down the tools and investigate the cut they were making. This led to conversations about depth and measure and they made predictions about how many more turns with the saw it would take to complete the job. The younger children were also very observant of the older children and we noticed that they would approach the work station, put their safety gloves on and hands behind their back without being prompted as role modelled.
On the adventure walks with Christie and Hannah the children have been really intrigued with the slugs that have made an appearance in the rain. They have been studying the way they move, their textures and colours and how they differ from worms. This has led to some small creature den building back on site with Linn and we have noticed the children's skills in securing sticks with knots is coming on really well!
We hope you all have a dry and happy weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon