Our Week in the Forest
Such a gorgeous week in the forest! Our wonderful explorers continued with their food and farming theme with gusto! Many wanted to create ‘chocolate cake’ in the forest this week, so we talked about ingredients needed and which fruits might go nicely with chocolate - apple came out to be a firm favourite with our mini chefs and they got to work using the left over peelings and our play whisk to create ‘chocolate, apple and cinnamon’ cakes and cupcakes in the mud kitchen!
Our chefs then decided that they needed somewhere warm and dry to eat their wares, so they took about roofing our mini teepee area, using the natural materials found in the forest. They checked the roof for leaks and decided “Let’s stay here forever!”... Or at least until pick-up time!
One of our educators introduced further vocabulary when she created tractors and trailers in a number of ways for the children. First, our newly appointed ‘farmers’ were colouring tractor drawings and talking about the size, shape, number of tyres and comparing the size and position of the tyres - bigger, smaller, back, front - on their tractors. Then, they were challenged with muddying up a larger picture of a tractor - imagining that it had been ‘ploughing’ the fields, planting corn and wheat. Our ‘farmers’ then learned that metal tools and larger equipment like tractors, need to be cleaned regularly, so that they don’t ‘erode’ or ‘rust’, which then led onto our inquisitive children asking and learning about the different parts of the tractor: cabin, body, tyres, traction, tread, grip and engine.
Another big event this week was when another educator arranged for the Wimbledon horses to stop and talk to us about how they are cared for and different ways that the horses themselves are looked after. Our curious Little Forest Folk-ers asked some wonderful questions and found out that horses don’t shower - they get ‘groomed’ instead by being brushed. They learned about the different parts of a horse, like the mane, hooves, horse shoes, tail, body and even that a part of a horse’s hoof is called a frog! Some of our explorers were very brave and stroked the horses noses - they especially enjoyed that! Rosie, the stables’ Jack Russell dog, is probably faster than the horses themselves - even though she is much smaller! We would love to say a big thank you to Sarah, Clair, Birdy, Rocky and Rosie from Wimbledon Stables for visiting us this week!
In amongst all of this, our active foresters have also enjoyed other activities such as puzzles, writing their names, creating autumn playdough pictures, building their own forests (using sticks, leaves, cardboard and acorns), adventure walks, tree climbing and conker hunting - where they learned the difference between a horse chestnut and a sweet chestnut conker! We found out that the well, the spring and the stream are still dry and how to create spiders and webs from conkers! What a huge amount of language learned and practised - what a wonderfully busy week we've had!
Have a glorious weekend everyone!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon Village