Our Week in the Forest...
This week in the forest the children have had so much fun exploring their new forest site! There are new areas to make dens in, amazing trees to climb, a really tall swing and lots of awesome logs to balance along!
Our wonderful little den areas have inspired some fantastic role-play games with the children becoming a pack of cheetahs and leopards, with kings helping to rule to animal kingdom. There was amazing cooperation from the children as they created their own families and took on different roles in collaboration with each other.
One day we had lots of ropes tied up in amongst some trees. The children showed amazing balance and coordination as they climbed up in the web and pretended to be spiders. The children were careful to make sure they always had three points of contact as they climbed up higher and higher. As they continued to enjoy the climbing throughout the day they created different role-play ideas whilst suspended above the ground! One game involved trapping Libby in jail!
Our rope swing is tied on a very high branch which is allowing the children to swing great distances back and forth. It's great to see their independence as even the youngest children are able to push the swing back and hop on all by themselves.
Our new site also has a wonderful excavation area where the children can dig for treasures. On one day our Little Forest Folk-ers decided that they were digging down to the other side of the world! They said “we are digging all the way to Africa!” and that it would take them “100 million years!”
This week we have also started to introduce tool work. We had some planks of wood and the children learnt all about how to use a handsaw safely and were then supported by the educators to cut through the wood. It was wonderful to see the their reactions as they managed to cut all the way through. They then smelt the freshly cut wood and described what they could smell describing it as nutty, wet, sweet, yummy, yucky and lovely! They then took their little piece of wood and turned them into telephones, walkie talkies and other wonderful creations!
The children also had lots of fun throwing paint balls at a target board. This allowed them to develop their physical abilities but also number recognition, counting and solving mathematical problems! It also created a lovely pattern on the board.
After spending spending so much time with our friendly robin at our last site the children were very keen to make their own bird feeders. They mixed up coconut oil and wild bird seeds moulding a mixture using spoons and their fingers. They then squished it into recycled tubes and hung them in the trees with twine.
We will be offering the children lots more opportunities for project work in the coming weeks that will inspire them to think of their own ideas to test and develop. We hope you have a lovely weekend and we are looking forward to seeing you all next week!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes