Our Week in the Forest...
With Autumn in full force the children have been enjoying the new bounties that the forest has to offer!
Leaves of every colour have been falling all around us as we wander down to basecamp. The children enjoy trying to catch the leaves as they fall and collect them so that they can use them in their play. They have created leaf collages, leaf prints and leaf art installations. All of this wonderful leaf fun has inspired some interesting talk around shape, colour and size as the children compare and contrast their findings. One discussion led some of them to test the air resistance of the leaves as they fell to the ground and compared this with sticks and mud!
The Autumn leaves have also filled our forest floor with a bright carpet of yellows, oranges, reds and greens. As the children went about their business they discovered that as they dragged something along the floor they could make a track! Soon they had gathered sticks and planks to create their own zig-zagging forest roads. Once complete they ran along their road network pretending to be different vehicles.
One group gathered some larger sticks, logs and planks and formed them together to create a hyperdrive car. Taking it in turns to drive, the children took us on adventures around London. First we explored going to each other’s houses, then we decided to see if the car could drive down the Thames and finally we ended up in the ‘best playground ever’ and the children ran off into the forest to play - which truly is the best playground ever!
Our forest playground has been put to good use this week as the children and educators have adventured off to the roly-poly hills, wandered around the pond and explored the ever changing woodlands. It’s wonderful to see how our Little Forest Folk-ers confidence has grown as they continually role-play wherever they are.
This week we also got into the Halloween spirit and hollowed out some pumpkins with the children. They then drew their designs onto the side ready to be cut out to make wonderful festive lanterns. We hope those of you trick or treating enjoyed yourselves!
We can't wait to see you all next week for lots more Autumn fun!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes