This week has also been the start of caterpillar season… they are everywhere! All different shapes, sizes and colours. Our little explorers have enjoyed seeing them so much that we have ordered some caterpillars for the indoor nursery. 

During the middle of our week it was suggested that maps should be made, so some of our little adventurers promptly went off and made treasure maps, whilst some of our other little ones wanted to make maps so we didn’t get lost on the way back from the forest!

On Tuesday, our Little Forest Folk launderette opened, using a very aesthetically pleasing washing machine that Shahana had made out of cardboard boxes! Our little explorers had a great time washing the hand towels and hanging them up on the washing line which was gently hung between two trees in the forest.

springtime bumble bees, using pinecones, strings and leaves - we then hung some of these around our camp.

Easter fun has been the theme this week! We started the week by saying goodbye to one of our families, who are relocating. They kindly gifted us some bird feeders, so we decided to go on an adventure walk on the child’s last day to find places to hang these special gifts up! Children enjoyed finding high-up places for them and we have said we will go back and check how the feeders are doing when we next go out on a walk! 

On Tuesday, Shahana got the children to line up, as it was time for our egg and spoon race!

This week the weather has thrown all the seasons at us! Cold, wet, hail and sun! Not to worry, this weather has been great for us to carry on with our growing projects!

On one of our outings we walked to the village to purchase some potatoes to plant. On the way there we took some time to enjoy a lovely snack on the bench whilst watching all the wildlife on the pond. We then took it in turns to feed the ducks, swans and geese whilst discussing the differences between them all. 

This week has seen us return to fantastic weather, the sun is shining and gloves and hats are almost a thing of the past, but we are not quite out of the woods yet (excuse the pun!) The warming weather as well as the time of year has given lots of reasons for fun and lots of different activities. 

We have been focusing a lot on independence, how we can promote it and encouraging our little people to try and manage obstacles and challenges before seeking help. We have amalgamated this into our play by hosting activities that help promote these values! 

What a week! We actually saw the sun, and revelled in it for a couple of days. We enjoyed some amazing adventure walks and even gate crashed a tractor party! 

We have also spent time educating the children about the Lunar New Year. We read the book “The Great Race” which is a children’s adaptation of the story of Chinese New Year and we also enjoyed exploring a tuff tray filled with rice, Chinese takeaway menus and little red envelopes to symbolise the start of Lunar New Year. A big happy Lunar New Year to all of our Chinese families. 

Children's Mental Health Week, looking after ourselves and our local environment 

February has arrived in the forest and has brought us a lot of rain! For us this is perfect - puddle jumping, adventure walks and mud play all make for an incredible day in the forest! 

The children have learned and learned and learned this week! At the start of the week, our lovely team were introduced to how to notice ‘the first signs of spring’, by looking for flower shoots, such as daffodils, snowdrops and bluebells. They also looked at tree and bramble branches to see if they could see any new shoots or buds growing. 

As the sun sets on a soggy week, we reminisce on all the fun we’ve had in the forest.

We collected and directed the water into the tuff tray and then put fish and fishing nets into the pond. To keep warm we sang the silly banana song and did lots of running around, which provided lots of giggles!

This week, we have all been focusing on looking after ourselves and our local environment when the weather is so cold. The children were given a table full of warm accessories, such as gloves, snoods, socks and challenged by the educators with getting them on by themselves!

Educators have used lots of ‘Panto’ language (“Oh no we haven’t!”) to make the camp feel festive and over the week, we have all thought about what ‘evil plans’ we all might have - all very panto-like! Paula’s evil plan was to give the rest of the staff a box of After Eights, with all the chocolates gone - but with the wrappers still in the box (VERY Evil!) and some of our wonderfully ‘naughty’ children thought about putting ice in Sam’s hood

This week, we have thought a lot about size and shape! We have considered how bear footprints and tracks might be ‘bigger’ or ‘smaller’ than ours.

This week we have been thinking about caring for ourselves and our environment, in particular trees, teeth and ourselves - especially when trying to keep warm and dry!

The children looked up at the clear blue skies and down at white sparkling frost, looked around themselves at the hues of yellow, brown, red and green that can be seen falling to the ground and at creams, whites, reds and browns when spotting mushrooms.