Our Week in the Forest...
This week in Barnes the children let their creativity flow!
They all took part in a fun activity with Morwenna, making their own puppets and masks. Children used sticky tape, card, colourful paper plates and pens to make their favourite characters. The younger children joined in and decorated their masks with leaves and other natural objects. Some of the children acted out their own stories and plays, coming up with lots of imaginary characters. They worked in groups of twos and threes, showing wonderful collaboration. Throughout the day the children continued their play and came back to story lines developing them further and adding character voices! Some children used their masks to support their role play games too.
We also had lots of creative writing in the forest initiated by the children. This week lots of them wanted to tell their own stories and asked the educators to help write them down. Some of the children had new ideas to write their own registers with the names of all their friends and educators, which might be a tricky and time-consuming task but not for our Little Forest Folk-ers! Their concentration is truly amazing, phonics recognition getting better and better and it is incredible how quickly they make progress with their letter formation. Few children with help of the educators also wrote special letters to a poorly friend telling them how much they are missed in the forest. Then they decorated the letters with their creative drawings. The younger children are getting very inspired by these activities and they enjoyed their own mark making with chalk, then wiping off the boards with a wet brush and starting all over again!
One day on our walk from the mini-bus, a group of children found a little tree that someone had pulled off the ground! They quickly decided it must have been a Giant from one of our stories! The Little Forest Folk-ers noticed that the tree still had it's roots attached so we could save it! Back in the camp they dug a big hole and planted the tree back in the soil. Next, they discussed between themselves how to build a special barrier to protect the tree from danger and wild animals. One of the ideas was to use some spongy materials so the wild animals could bounce back! In the end, they decided to find lots of rocks and put them around the tree. When the little stone protection was ready, they took turns to water the tree. Some of them also picked up the old dry leaves from its branches to let the new ones grow. We're looking forward to seeing what happens in the coming weeks!
This week we also had lots of fun physical challenges when children practiced their climbing and balancing skills. While older children challenged themselves to get to the tricky branches on our climbing tree, the youngest ones built their own obstacle course and they tried climbing the spider web made of ropes attached between two trees. Some of the children did it for the very first time but with a great confidence! Children also loved our “roly-poly” hill in Putney Heath and they enjoyed creating their own games and competitions including the fastest rolling or running to the bottom of the hill! They worked in pairs, waiting patiently for their turn.
Thank you to all the parents who attended the Parents Evening this week. It was wonderful to share the progress and achievements of the children with you. We all are very proud of them!
Have a wonderful weekend and summer!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes