Our Week in the Forest
We have had lots of busy tasks for busy hands this week as we have focused on using tools, building hand strength and exploring different materials.
On Monday, the children were shocked to discover the mess a cheeky fox had made all over our mud kitchen. The forest clean up crew leapt into action, using litter pickers to carefully pick up and sort the plastic and cardboard into different buckets. We used the chance to talk about the properties of different materials and the importance of reusing and recycling! To keep cool, we opened a car wash and the watering cans and sponges came in handy to scrub our tractors down and give them the rain shower we've all been waiting for. The children also had an icy spa afternoon complete with cucumber slices and crafts - making beautiful beaded hand fans!
Then on Tuesday, the forest hair salon opened its doors. The phone was ringing off the hook with customers and the salon staff worked hard, brushing and snipping the hair of their eager clients (using wooden scissors of course!) The hairstyles in our forest that day were phenomenal. In a shady corner of the forest, the children also worked together to save the sea animals, using different containers to transfer the water and raise the sea levels.
On Wednesday, the human clients were replaced with a pack of adorable puppies who came into the pet groomers for the finest treatment. Meanwhile, we invented a new sport - bean bag ladle toss. Using the ladle, the children took it in turns to aim the bean bag into our tyres. It was really fun to see our Little Forest Folk-ers encouraging each other, "Try again, you can do it!" The last challenge was cracking open ice using mallets, rollers and other tools to reveal the beautiful flowers trapped within. In the afternoon, we made some gorgeous abstract art with cotton pads and mallets, enjoying how the paint went splat!
We finished the week on a mega adventure walk to tidy up the Arboretum with our litter pickers and collect some beautiful natural treasures along the way. We had catkin moustaches and pinecone presents galore! The only thing that was missing from our walk was our own furry doggy friends. The children honed their cutting skills in the afternoon to cut out two ears and a tail and make their very own doggy balloon which we greatly enjoyed taking for an afternoon stroll!
Stay tuned for more exciting adventures next week!
Little Forest Folk
Winkworth