Stay and play week has been delightful for both the children and the team as we welcomed parents and grandparents into the forest for the morning to experience our setting and play alongside their child and others.

Pirate and mermaid shows were entertaining as the children dressed up and sang songs and told jokes.

Sensory play has been very popular this week as playdough has been made, squished, stretched and squashed into various shapes. Tubs of multicoloured scented, sticky, slime have also been concocted and our children have explored the stickiness, softness, and smelliness of the activity. On our hotter days we had ice play in the forest which the children helped prepare the night before. Small tubs of water were coloured with food colouring and paint and then placed in the freezer by the team. The blocks of translucent ice were icy cold to our touch and both slippery and smooth as the ice slipped out of their containers and ice trays. Melting slowly under the warm hands and sunshine, the children enjoyed cracking the ice into smaller pieces using wooden hammers.

Face painting was hugely popular yesterday as our artistically skilled staff created princesses, unicorns, dragons, Thor, Captain America, puppies and tigers. Lots of bewhiskered children ran about the forest reenacting their favourite “Paw Patrol” stories. One Little Forest Folk-er wanted to just be a mummy so we created a cardboard baby carrier for her to help her carry her toy bunny around the forest on her chest.

Cutting and sticking, stories and singing, building and balancing were a rich part of our week in the forest.

Little Forest Folk
Twickenham