Winkworth

Winkworth - The Whole Planet, The Oceans and Our Wildlife

Winkworth -  The Whole Planet, The Oceans and Our Wildlife

This week, to celebrate Earth Day on the 22nd, we have been exploring many activities around our planet. At the start of the week we looked at oceans, and we thoroughly enjoyed painting our own blue ocean onto paper. We were encouraged to create different lines for the waves as we painted, as well as discussing the sea creatures we would find in the ocean and if we have seen any in real life.

Winkworth - Bluebells, Blossom and Woodpeckers Galore!

Winkworth - Bluebells, Blossom and Woodpeckers Galore!

The bluebells are starting to show, the trees are filled with pink and white blossoms, there are woodpeckers everywhere and it really feels like Spring is here! The children have had lots of opportunities to develop their fine and gross motor skills with activities out in the forest and back at the cottage too.

Winkworth - Continuing Our Planting and Gardening Project!

Winkworth - Continuing Our Planting and Gardening Project!

Our Little Forest Folk-ers have helped us do some weeding and tidying up of our cottage garden and done lots of planting. This encourages environmental awareness and stewardship and helps them develop a meaningful connection to the natural world and take pride in the environment and little community we have here at Little Forest Folk Winkworth.

Winkworth - Planting Seeds and Raising Readers

Winkworth - Planting Seeds and Raising Readers

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!

Winkworth - Mathmatics in Play, Exploring, Building and Creating

Winkworth - Mathmatics in Play, Exploring, Building and Creating

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!

Winkworth - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Winkworth - Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mrs Claus’ bakery has had a lot of customers this week too. Our Little Forest Folk-ers got to work to roll out the gorgeous cinnamon playdough before using different size cookie cutters to make the shapes. They then used natural materials to make the face and the buttons of our little cinnamon people. 

Winkworth - Sparkling Smiles and Dazzling Teeth

Winkworth - Sparkling Smiles and Dazzling Teeth

What a cold start we had this week, but we still saw so many sparkling smiles that inspired us to think all about our teeth and how we look after them. This prompted some interesting questions. Do animals brush their teeth? We set off into the Arboretum to see what we could spot, but there was not a tooth brushing squirrel or a flossing owl in sight! There were however some Christmas nutcrackers in the path with big bright smiles. Using sticks covered in lichen, the children used their forest toothbrushes to scrub the nutcracker’s teeth.

Winkworth - Magic Shapes in the Forest!

Winkworth - Magic Shapes in the Forest!

We started off the week exploring the magic of shapes in the forest. The children spotted shapes in the natural environment and discussed which they liked the best. We kept warm exploring the different shapes of our obstacle course and then spent a cosy early evening making some lovely circle and star shaped Christmas tree ornaments for our nursery Christmas tree.