Our Week in the Forest...
What fun we have had for our half term holidays!
It was so lovely to have some of our old Forest Folk friends return to play with us. Once reunited, friendships continued on as if no time had passed. Two of the children were so happy to be playing in the forest together again that they had their own wedding ceremony complete with amazing chocolate cake.
At Rocks Lane, the children continued to rotovate, dig and explore the vegetable patch so that we are ready to sow seeds in spring time. As they were digging the children came across something rather unusual. They cleared the dirt from around the object and they soon recognised it as a dolls head! They spent some time cleaning it up and as we studied it closer we found some writing on the back. After a quick google we found out that it was from a doll made in Germany in 1906. The children were fascinated by how this old porcelain dolls head managed to find its way into our vegetable patch and after so many years!
We were also lucky enough to head out to Twickenham on minibus and train this week. With some lovely warm weather in the sunshine, the children explored this new environment with intrigue. They immediately spotted the thousands of flowers that were spread out all over the gardens. They learnt the names of the crocus flower, snowdrops and were very keen to point out the dandelions. We talked about how crocus flowers close when it rains to protect the pollen and we spotted bees already buzzing around drinking the nectar from inside.
Soon enough the children, having explored this new environment, got to work using the abundance of natural resources at hand. They found hundreds of suitable sticks for den building and quickly formed into groups, with some continuously building a pile of suitable sticks, and others using the sticks and propping them up in the ground to create mini tipis. After some time, there were two fantastic dens that had been created. Then the children noticed that there were lots of bricks on the site and proceeded to strengthen their dens with the addition of towers and walls. They carefully laid them out creating a wonderful circular inside space.
The Twickenham site also has a wonderful climbing tree. With the addition of a few ropes the children scaled up in small groups using amazing problem-solving skills and a growing awareness of other children on the tree. Once up in the tree the children decided that they were monkeys and they started to create all sorts of magical food. When someone was tricked into eating the food, it made them fall asleep, much to the delight of the monkeys! Soon there was a whole family of monkeys either making the magic food or sleeping in the trees.
Whittling was also featured on most days this week and the children have become experts at peeling of the bark and revealing the different layers of wood beneath. Once they had whittled their beautiful sticks, they became necklaces, fishing rods, super sticks, electric buzz crushers and coat hooks!
We hope you all have a fantastic weekend and will see you next week for even more adventures!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes