Our Week in the Forest
This week at Little Forest Folk Winkworth we’ve been continuing our focus on mathematics through playing, exploring, building and creating outside in the forest.
For our younger Little Forest Folk-ers’, we have embedded maths in activities such as songs and rhyme, including ‘5 Little Speckled Frogs’ and ‘5 Little Ducks Went Swimming One Day’, whilst providing rich sensory play with numbered ducks in coloured water and foam, which they absolutely loved! Every circle time we count the children together, using our magic counting finger dipped in the colourful counting dust of the children’s choice, then we shout that number at the top of our voices, or in a funny voice such as ‘robot’ or ‘underwater’. Sometimes, as a treat, we even ‘whisper’ it!
Combining and stacking objects is another way for young children to explore maths concepts such as comparative size, shape, weight, volume and we have offered opportunities for the children to do this on a small scale by stacking wooden blocks and a larger scale with tyres and cushions, which doubled up as a lovely little obstacle course afterwards!
We’ve also been exploring the language of early maths. For example, making shapes with the magnet tiles, including hexagons, cubes and even cuboids! Of course lots of houses and towers were built and knocked down too. Everyone enjoyed counting the beanbags as they were tossed overhead into the coloured rings and howls of laughter and screaming ensued when we measured our steps playing ‘What’s the Time Mr/Mrs Wolf?!’ We’ve also played with puzzles, made patterns with threading beads and counted insects removed from sticky green chia slimy swamp!
Adventure walks into the Arboretum have provided great stimulation for mathematical skills. One day we played a lovely game where we had to find 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, and luckily we were back at the cottage in time for lunch for the 1 thing you can taste! This is a wonderful mindfulness activity to help with self-regulation and connection to the local environment. The children also counted and smelt the daffodils and observed the bluebells and other bulbs trying to poke through the ground, prompting discussions of Spring and the seasons. A small world set up at the boat house ignited their curiosity and they were rewarded with a beautiful scene of mushrooms lit up by a torch when they looked closely through the hole provided.
All in all, it has been a wonderful week. We’ve been grateful for the drier weather and loved doing all the maths… all in a week’s ‘play’ here at Little Forest Folk Winkworth!
Little Forest Folk
Winkworth