As we’ve continued to have sunny warm days this week, our forest has had lovely water play areas under the plane tree, where children could experience cool, refreshing water running down gutters, pools of water with floating ducks and conversations about bees who bring water to the hive to keep it cool. We had a big surprise when sunshine turned to sudden rain for a short while on Thursday, but our little explorers were ready for anything as we continued our adventure of learning about the world of bees. Throughout the week, our lovely family members who came to stay and play were delighted to make it into the forest and had a great time being shown around the site by the children and participating in all the lovely activities that were available.
Children donned their beekeeper hats and armed themselves with identity sheets to hunt for different insects and bees in the forest. It was a buzzing success as they scoured the area, eager to discover who was buzzing by. The barn was cleverly transformed into “The Honey Fever Shop” where children could buy food pollinated by bees, jars of honey, fresh milk and eggs. (We used empty milk bottles and egg cartons to bring the role play to life). If you didn't want to buy, you could be behind the till selling the produce.
There was a lot of storytelling using props such as puppets and story stones, alongside a wide variety of books. Some books were chosen with the aim to teach children about books and some covered children’s interests. Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit and Kanga with Roo were dotted around the forest trying to find a new way to get honey for Winnie. This really helped to develop our little ones’ imaginations and storytelling skills. Throughout the week, the craft table had activities which allowed our little adventurers to explore using different media and material. For example, on one occasion it had toilet rolls, which were painted to make bees. On another occasion, there were markers and papers for drawing and colouring. They even used glue and tissue paper for sticking as well!
Our popular tuff tray featured a wide variety of sensory play options throughout the week. One day it had dyed yellow rice arranged in bee patterns. On another occasion it had cornflour and another day saw dyed cheerios (black and yellow) so our Little Forest Folk-ers could stack them up creatively to form a bee. A small world bee role play was another popular tuff tray activity, where stones were painted in black and yellow stripes resembling a bee and flowers were painted and scattered across the tray. Bottle caps were placed in the center of the flowers with paint inside them to look like pollen. Everyone had fun dipping the bottom of the bee into the pollen paint and landing it on the flowers to pollinate them. This gave a wonderful opportunity to talk to the children about the important role bees and other pollinating insects play in the life cycle of plants and trees. Our little explorers also took part in making a bee bath, similar to a bird bath!
What a fun week we’ve had, we hope you all have a great weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Twickenham