Our Week in the Forest
This week at Winkworth we’ve been gardening! We’ve sectioned off a little part of our back garden for a project to put in some raised beds. We hope to grow beans, tomatoes and sunflowers when it is ready. Our little gardeners have been very helpful, digging and making the ground flat with rakes and are excited to talk and learn about all the steps involved in growing our own plants!
The children have even set up their own gardening science experiment. Some spooned compost into egg boxes, carefully placing cress seeds in each section, watering them when done. Others placed their cress seeds on wet kitchen roll paper. We then explained we are going to put half of them somewhere dark and the other half somewhere light. Our Little Forest Folk-ers are really curious and excited to see which ones grow the tallest!
We extended this learning throughout our play, with pallet tractors, a farm shop and cafe selling fruits, vegetables and of course cake! Dressing up and role playing involved cows, sheep and pigs and a small world farmyard with sawdust, grass, moss and a pond added to the fun. All of this rich imaginative play helps develop our youngster’s understanding of the world around them, in line with our EYFS based and child led curriculum.
We also started working on a little craft project for the upcoming Mother’s Day. Without giving it all away, the children shaped clay into hearts and used a chopstick to put a little hole in them. They talked about how cold and squishy the clay was and, of course, how much they love their mummies!
A real life ladybird came to visit for World Book Day, telling tales of all that she had heard and the tricks she and the other animals had played on those naughty robbers Hefty Hugh and Lanky Len! We also explored how important different insects are for helping things grow, as well as the other essential ingredients, being light, food, soil and water. Book tokens were given to all the children who enjoyed the opportunity to have their faces painted as their favourite book characters!
All in all, it was a great week getting dirt under our fingernails and nurturing the next generation of green fingered and book loving young people!
Little Forest Folk
Winkworth