This week, our learning intent for our older Little Forest Folk-ers has been all about demonstrating an understanding of stories! We’re shining a spotlight on literacy this week, encouraging the children to dive into the magical world of storytelling 📚✨. Our focus has been on helping them engage deeply with the narratives they’re being read 📖, as well as anticipate plot lines and recognise key story elements 🔍. We’ve had a story-perfect week - exploring tales together and embracing our learning intention with lots of special book-themed setups! ❤️📚🌲
On Monday, we stepped right up and read Molly’s Circus together! 🎪📖 After enjoying the story, we dove headfirst into the big top with our very own Little Forest Folk Circus! 🌲🤹♀️✨ Our circus had it all - clowns 🤡, trapeze artists 💫, and "fair" ticket prices, all managed by our enthusiastic, child-led ticket office 🎟️👏.
One thing not in our circus? Animals! But we think they’re right where they belong - in the wild, not the spotlight! 🐻🌿
Speaking of wild, we had hula hoops (for dancing, not snacking!) ⭕, colourful silks for twirling 🌈, and beanbags for juggling 👐. Although, if we are being honest - the real juggling act was the kids managing all the fun at once, rather than just three beanbags! But hey, in this circus we don’t judge - we just enjoy the show! 🎭🎉
Tuesday was bee-yond fun! In fact, we’re buzzing to share how we celebrated World Bee Day! All our busy bees were on their best bee-haviour as we marked the occasion with a special sweet treat — honey on oatcakes! Yum! 🍯🐝
But before we could bee-gin the feast, our little worker bees had some very important work to do… What’s the work of 2–5 year olds? Play, of course! And play we did! 🎨🐝🍃
We kicked off the day with a bee painting activity, where the children created their very own bee sponge stamps to decorate with. Then it was straight to our hive-themed mud kitchen! Beyond this, we had our bee-rilliant hive-inspired climbing frame, which kept the children buzzing with excitement! ⛺🌼
Our little ones dressed up as butterflies and bees, zipping and zooming all over the garden! They began chasing each other and pretending to bite - which gave us the perfect opportunity for a bee learning moment... Bees don’t bite… they sting - and only to protect their colony!🐝⚠️❤️
After all that serious buzz-ness, we set off on a bee-autiful adventure walk to visit our very own Fulham Palace bees! We learned all about the life cycle of bees, how hard they work and just how bee-yond important they are to our world! Did you know bees are responsible for 1 in every 3 bites of food we eat? And even more, when it comes to the golden deliciousness of a honey oat cake! 🌸🥄🍯🐝✨
On Wednesday, we celebrated World Diversity Day - and a journey it was! 🌍✈️ Forget Around the World in 80 Days - how about around the world in 8 hours? 🌎✨
We started the morning with a very special song, we didn’t just say “hello”… we said bonjour 🇫🇷, hola 🇪🇸, privet 🇷🇺, nî hâo 🇨🇳 and konnichiwa 🇯🇵!
After snack, the children explored small world characters from around the globe, encouraging imaginative play 🌏🎭. We also had a themed flag activity where our little explorers matched national flags and created their own designs at our flag decorating station! However, the fun didn't stop there, we also set up a full international school role-play set, creating the perfect environment for learning about different cultures and languages 📚🌍.
Clearly picking up on the theme, the weather gave us all four seasons in one day! From desert heat 🌵 to rainforest rain 🌧️, it really felt like we were travelling the world! 🌞🌦️❄️🍂
On Thursday, as part of our book-themed week, we had a Tiger Who Came for Tea day! 🐯🍵 It was purr-fect because it was one of the children’s favourite stories… and the educator’s too! 😺
After we enjoyed the story, we tucked into a special tiger themed tea party! 🍰☕ Everyone had a roar-some time sipping tea and enjoying delicious treats. 🍪🐾
For those who had had enough of the role play, we set up a clay station - perfect for making ceramic mugs for tigers or little ones to drink tea from! 🐯✨
It was a roar-some day filled with fun, creativity and laughter! 🎉🦁
Over lunch, to continue our story-themed week, Dan told lots of special Australian fables 🦘📖, keeping both the children and educators super engaged! It was a paw-some day!
Safe to say, this week was a chapter full of fun and we can’t wait to turn the page to see what next week has in store! 📖✨
Little Forest Folk
Fulham