Our Week in the Forest
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!
Our explorers wondered what the tractor gathering was all about and after asking questions to the Park Rangers, they found out that the gorse bushes had taken over and needed to be cut back as they were affecting the trees and other plant growth!
The Park Rangers asked if we would like a photo with the tractor, which many of the children jumped at, of course! They then stood back and, alongside the educators, enjoyed hearing the chainsaws and watching the chipper make easy work of the large bushes of gorse.
This week we have also had the thrill of seeing lots of horses and, because the ground is a little softer, loved watching them move from trotting into galloping, which gave the educators a great opportunity to talk about different words to describe the different ways that horses (and humans) can move. This brought an opportunity for the children to practice their own cantering, galloping and sprinting skills when they tried to race the horses up to the end of the track!
Within the camp, educators have been talking with our Little Forest Folk-ers about the festivals and important calendar dates that have been taking place, such as Chinese New Year, Lent, Shrove Tuesday, Ramadan and the similarities and differences between these times of the year for the different people involved.
We had a focus on Ramadan and talked about our wonderful educator Shahana not eating during daylight hours and then spending time creating and sharing meals with her family before sun up and after sun down.
The children also enjoyed creating more mini beast habitats, creating a forest version of a prayer mat, climbing up, down and around amazing webs, playing with textures and smells involving green lentils, oats, peppermint extract, cloves and a little bit of green food dye for good measure, as well as chopping and eating their own fruit snacks.
It really has been a wonderful week in the forest!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon Village