Our Week in the Forest...

This week our little adventurers have enjoyed the company of old friends as some of our alumni returned for holiday camps. It was wonderful to see the excitement as the children’s faces lit up once reunited and they wandered off together as if no time had passed.

The children have embraced the changing of the seasons and have started to use the new resources that are becoming more readily available. Mud has been extremely scarce through the dry summer months but now we have lots. They have used this wonderful material to create birthday cakes, faces, towers and bug hotels. On one day, digging in the mud, they came across a creature they had never seen before. It was a chafer beetle larvae. Fascinated by this strange looking creature they asked lots of questions and we found out together that they eat mud and roots and that they live underground until they change into beetles and emerge. Leaves have also been fluttering down all around us recently and the children have wasted no time in using them. They are ingredients for potions, cakes and pies but also bedding for animals in the bug hotel and the hedgehog house.

Our Little Forest Folk-ers have now completed our wonderful hedgehog house. It has been fantastic to see so many of them wanting to get involved in this project and how far it has come from the start. The children have developed their ideas and used their experiences to see a project through a whole development process over time and come out with a wonderful finished creation.

This week we have experimented with setting up some different physical challenges around the climbing tree using planks and ropes. The children have stepped up to the challenge with such confidence it has amazed us all. We have seen Little Forest Folk-ers climbing with incredible foresight as they pick and change their route according to the obstacles facing them. Also, they have become very good at explaining to others the best way to approach a physical challenge and as they share their expertise, they will help each other on to new heights.

We are all looking forward to welcoming back our sessional children next week and seeing what new adventures we will go on!

Little Forest Folk
Barnes