A brief but lovely half term week with visiting holiday campers and some regular sessional friends for a few days too!
We started the week with a very soggy Tuesday, which gave us the gift of muddy puddles and plenty of rainwater collected in overhead tarps for the mud kitchen. The sun came out gradually throughout the rest of the week and we went on adventure walks to the spring, collecting things to play with on the way, and noticing the blooms on the rhododendron bush near the well. One morning, the children divided into two groups and set each other challenges on their journeys! Group one had to collect as many rocks as possible, while group two were tasked with gathering sticks and pine cones. Both groups came back to camp in character as a different animal and the rest of us had to guess what they were from their sounds and movements. (Horses and dinosaurs, in case you were wondering…)
We chose to set some intentions during circle times this week, exploring what it means to have a goal, or something we want to achieve by ourselves. Some of the examples we heard included:
“I will be brave in the holidays.”
“I will take care of trees.”
“I will play with my friends.”
The first of these intentions above was very useful in our physical activities this week, such as when children had a super long, super high zip line to tackle. The long and gentle gradient of the drop gave all the children the option to choose where they felt comfortable getting on the seat and we saw many children who had been a little cautious in the morning choosing to climb up onto a tree stump in the afternoon with the help of an educator, and launch off from the highest point! Those children certainly achieved that intention of being brave and we were so proud that they tried and tried again until they felt comfortable with the motion and mechanism.
We wish you a wonderful weekend and can’t wait to see all our sessional friends next week for the final instalment of the Summer term!
Little Forest Folk
Wimbledon Village