Our Week in the Forest...
After the long Bank Holiday weekend, the children returned to the forest, eager to share stories about their visits from the Easter Bunny or time they have spent with family. There was a small group of children who wanted to take Hannah and Xiao for an adventure walk to show them the 'Witches House'! The children were working together to use lots of recall and discussion to decide which paths to take in order to get there. What was really fascinating was listening to the stories that had been woven around certain landmarks, "This is the wobbly bridge...this is the tree where the Witch posts her letters!".
However, a wrong turn must have been taken and the walk didn't result in finding the house but the children and educators really enjoyed the walk and chance to chat together and were back on site safely, ready for lunch!
Over the last few days, the children have been keen to be included in the process of den building and Gavin, Linn, Brandon and Spike have encouraged this. The children have particularly enjoyed tightening guy ropes and trying to practice a new knot they have been shown (or invent their own knots) as well as finding the perfect stick to use as a tent peg and help drive these into the ground. Of course, nothing is more fun than running under the tarps and making tunnels with it! This has been a really good way of children developing their construction play and making 3D structures.
The return of the paints has also seen a lot more children take up mark making and at first, they would focus on producing their art on the paper provided. However, it was interesting to watch a group of children gradually move the paint out of the painting area and closer to some planks of wood they had found, which was then painted with an assortment of green shapes.
Potions have also made a massive come back this week! The children have been working together to fetch water and pour this into a well which they had made. From there, the individual potion makers could then take out what they needed to stir in with all of their other ingredients which they had gathered. Some potions helped trees to grow and needed only a small splash of the potion in order for the magic to work, while other potions had to be baked inside cakes and biscuits so that their magic could be experienced by those that chose to eat the sugary treats! We are currently waiting for Gavin to return to his normal 'non-monster' self, but it could take a while!
We hope you all have a lovely weekend and cannot wait to see what next week brings!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon