Our Week in the Forest...
This week we have excitedly welcomed mums and dads to the forest, along with some of the children and their families from our waiting list, for Stay and Play week. Everyone has enjoyed exploring their creativity this week from role play in our mud kitchen, creating structures using loose parts, using clay to create models and pots, painting and storytelling.
The clay was very popular at the beginning of the week. Some children made animals and habitats, they created a cave for turtles, an island for dinosaurs and an array of other animals including armadillos and birds. Some of our Little Forest Folk-ers decided they wanted to make pots. One child confidently showed his friends how to make a pinch pot by rolling his clay into a ball, poking in his thumb and then carefully pinching around the edges until the ball gradually transformed into a bowl.
Later in the week the children explored paints. They used watercolours on paper, mixing the colours and exploring what happened when they added more or less water. Some of the parents really enjoyed joining in with the painting too. Later in the day one of the children asked for face paints. Whilst an educator painted the children’s chosen designs, some of the children decided they wanted to do the painting themselves. The children painted themselves and their friends in such imaginative ways and some of the final masterpieces would not have looked out of place in an art gallery!
Music and storytelling has also featured in the forest this week. They enjoyed experimenting with sound and rhythm and sang some songs they had learnt at nursery and at home. Some children made up their own songs, dancing and moving to the rhythm and using a bench leg as a microphone. They taught the educators and friends their songs and we all had a go with the bench leg microphones. Some children wrote stories, scribed by an educator, which was then acted out by all the children at the end of the day. It was fabulous to see we have so many budding authors, actors, singers and artists in our forest and look forward to seeing what they create next.
We hope you all get to enjoy this wonderful spring sunshine this weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham