Our Week in the Forest...
Our beautiful orange fox has become a regular sighting in the forest. We saw her again this week and some of the children asked to go on an adventure to track her to where she was living. So, like true adventurers, we crept around Fulham Palace Gardens, looking for clues and hoping to catch sight of the fox. A couple of times we spotted the fox and got tantalisingly close, but as soon as she saw us she was off again. The children loved tiptoeing around the gardens looking for further clues as to where the fox might we hiding. When we did eventually find her den, the children stood and patiently waited calling “Hello foxy”, but predictably the fox didn’t appear. We will most definitely be keeping our eyes peeled for the next time she shows up near our base camp so that we can observe her movements.
The excitement of the first flurries of snow can never be underestimated in the forest. The children were wowed as huge flakes floated down, catching them in their hands and on their tongues and of course making plans for what type of snowmen they would build if the snow continued. Some of the children then recalled the previous year when we had a significant snowfall in the Palace and talked about their memories of sledging and building a snowman with seven carrot noses! Sadly, there was only a tiny sprinkling of snow by the morning, just enough to touch and feel it’s icy coldness. We will have to wait a bit longer to fulfil our snow building plans.
This week we have reintroduced Helicopter Stories to the forest. Helicopter Stories is an Early Years approach to communication and literacy skills based on storytelling and drama, and has been a really great way to engage the children in making those links between imagination, the written word, reading and acting. The children always create the most imaginative storylines which are scribed for them by one of the educators, these are then acted out with their friends at the end of the day. The children were excited to tell Bella their stories this week featuring lions, tigers, birds, squirrels and of course a sprinkling of Darth Vader.
We have also introduced something different for morning snack in the form of a ‘snack bar’. We have been asking children what would make the forest better and one regular reply is more playing time. In response to this we have been trying out having a snack bar open during the morning so that the children can choose when they want to come for a snack, find their name, pour their own milk and chat with their friends whilst enjoying their fruit and one of Becky’s yummy biscuits. So far it has been a great success and the children have given positive feedback saying that they prefer morning snack this way. We will continue to develop this, with plans to introduce opportunities for children to cut their own fruit.
We hope you all have a wonderful weekend and look forward to seeing you all next week!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham