Our Week in the Forest
What a sunny week we've had in the forest! With the weather feeling positively tropical, it was time to channel the holiday spirit and soak up the sunshine! 🌳☀️
Speaking of The Channel... on Monday, we took a deep dive into all things marine life! And when we say deep, we mean the deepest, darkest ocean kind of deep! 🐠 🌊 🦑 Our submarine setup transported us into an underwater world where our brave maritime mechanics set sail to discover mysterious deep-sea creatures. It was a challenging mission, but thankfully, neither our scientists nor our vessel cracked under pressure! 👨🔬Meanwhile, back on dry land, we got creative with some sandy play and a special phonics activity. This was all in line with this week's focus for our older children: developing phonological awareness. ✍️ 🔤
On Tuesday, we kept the holiday vibes rolling with a special ice cream truck setup that brought the summer atmosphere to camp! 🚐 🍧 Our truck had everything you’d expect from a top-tier ice cream van:
Music? 🎶... Cue the jingle!
✅
Wheels for speedy service? 🛞 … We were on a roll!
✅
A window for chatting with customers? 🪟
✅
Scoop ice creams 🍨, colourful lollies 🍭, and a soft-serve machine🍦?
✅
✅
✅
The children were hard at work - it was all 99 percent effort and no flaking! 💪🍫
They even whipped the educators into shape, showing them how to man the truck! Ever entrepreneurial, our little explorers invented their own fabulous flavours - some classic, some totally unique. While our hospitality experts manned the window and perfected their customer service skills, our back-office crew managed the money - making sure every bit of change added up just right! It was a sweet opportunity for imaginative play, teamwork and a sprinkle of counting and maths practice! 💰 🧮 💼
Wednesday was a sizzler of a day! 🥵
Luckily, we had the shady comfort of our beautiful Bishop Tree site to keep us cool - cool as cucumbers, in fact! 🥒 Speaking of cucumbers… anyone for a cucumber sandwich? 🥪 Why? Because it was a picnic-themed day! 🥪 🧺 🧃 🍓 👒 Before it got as hot as a picnic thermos, we set off on an adventure snack picnic - let’s go alfresco! Then it was back to base for a special picnic scavenger hunt! 🔍 The children searched high and low (quite literally - some items were hidden in the trees!) to track down and identify all the “picky bits.” 🍉 And as if by magic… lunch was a picnic surprise! 🎩 ✨ Instead of our usual soup, we had a "picky bits" special: four types of veggies turned into DIY wraps, plus a vegetarian sausage roll! 🌯 🥕 🌭
Totally unplanned, but totally perfect for the day! In the afternoon, the picnic fun continued with role play — there were teas all around, even in the heat. We must be mad… or just English! It was a truly brie-lliant day (sorry, had to squeeze in one more pun)! 🧀
Thursday was all about climbing! 🧗♂️ We started our day at our usual site with some super fun tree climbing!🌲With the help of not just Maria (our amazing Forest School expert) but also Charlotte from Little Forest Folk Winkworth, the children reached new heights - quite literally! They learned all about climbing safety, including the importance of keeping three points of contact on the tree at all times and how to test branches to make sure they’re strong enough to support their weight. By the afternoon, it was hot, hot, hot! 🔥 so we moved to our shady Bishop Tree site, where we cooled things down with some cracking ice play! 🧊❄️ Specifically, cracking frozen creatures out of blocks of ice! The children chipped away, problem-solved, and stayed nice and cool while having loads of fun. All in all, despite the heat, it was a very cool day!
We had a great week and can’t wait to see what next week has in store!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham