Our Week in the Forest
This week at Little Forest Folk Winkworth our Little Forest Folk-ers have been living, breathing and in some cases… eating stories! If you heard the shrieking and squealing from London we wouldn’t be surprised - everyone has had so much fun making classic stories come alive!
We began the week with Goldilocks and the Three Bears. After having the story read to them, the children jumped right into active role play with the props provided to them in the garden. First they tested all the different sized porridge bowls exclaiming if it was ‘too hot', 'too cold' or ‘just right’, then onto the same with the chairs and beds before re-imagining themselves as the bears, returning home to find their things all messed up and even broken in some cases! At circle time later, this led to a great discussion. The children showed great empathy and comprehension of the story when asked if they were on Goldilocks or the Bear’s side, they decided that Goldilocks shouldn’t have gone in the bear’s house and used their possessions without asking.
On Tuesday we went on a bear hunt - brought to life via a multi sensory assault course. The children knew all the words to this modern classic and had so much fun wading through swishy-swishy grass (ferns!), splashing in the stream (drain pipes, coloured scarves, tyres and blue cushions), going through the mud (real mud, obviously), stumble tripping through the forest (a big pile of logs) and through the snow storm (a tuff tray full of a sensory mix of rice, oats, flour and tin foil) to the bear’s cave (a pallet fort with a real live…. teddy bear in it). Then it was a high speed blur of doing it all backwards until they were back safely home remembering not to go under, over or round anything on the way! A small world set up of the same story in a Tuff Tray provided further opportunities for the children to explore the vocabulary, characters and even add their own elements to the story.
Wednesday’s tale was that of Little Red Riding Hood. After debating which version to go with, we settled on the modern interpretation. In this version, the wolf doesn’t gobble up granny but she escapes and gets the wood cutter to chase the wolf away before he eats Little Red. However, you wouldn’t have guessed this once the children started acting out the story! They adored dressing up as Little Red Riding Hood, filling little baskets with goodies for Grandma and dressing up as Grandma in her shawl and shower cap and, most fun of all, pretending to be the wolf with a fabulous hairy wig that was perfect for the occasion. There was a lot of talk of ‘what big teeth you have’ and ‘all the better to eat you with’ that day! Alongside the role play, the children spent hours ‘baking’ in the mud kitchen with the most delicious smelling cinnamon scented play dough. They rolled it and mixed it with forest materials such as pinecone pieces and transformed it into cinnamon rolls, gingerbread cookies and…. sausages for Grandma’s basket of goodies. Elsewhere the children used mud to paint pictures of the characters in the story, which once again stimulated their vocabulary, understanding of the story and provided fabulous messy play.
On Thursday, a magical life size gingerbread house appeared in the forest, beautifully decorated with candy canes, gingerbread men and sweeties. Hansel and Gretel was the story of the day, so the children laid a sawdust trail from the house, made a witches hat and added all sorts of gruesome ingredients in a huge cauldron, including cotton wool eyeballs, coloured potions, mini beasts (toy ones!) and feather boas, then stirred it all up with a huge stick. The children also made their own gingerbread biscuits from scratch, taking turns to measure ingredients, stir, roll, cut and then decorate their gingerbread people. Mmmmmm delicious!
What this week showed is just how much the children can learn when playing and having fun! The role play and sensory activities provoked such good conversations, extended vocabulary and broadened the imaginative play of all the children, providing a safe space for them to explore difficult emotions such as fear and encouraging a love of stories that sets them up for a lifetime of learning, all whilst having the absolute best time ever!
Little Forest Folk
Winkworth