Our Week in the Forest...
The children at Barnes this week have fully immersed themselves in the wonderful world of imaginative play. On Monday some of the children requested that we read ‘The Troll’ by Julia Donaldson. Afterwards the whole forest was full of pirates, trolls and animals. We had children ‘trip trapping over the rickety bridge’ with a nasty troll hiding underneath ready to pounce. The troll then chased the spider, rabbit or mouse all around the forest with fierce grins on their faces. The animals shrieked out as their chasers gained on them! Once caught the roles reversed and the hunter became the hunted.
On the other side of the forest a pirate ship was taking form. Huge logs were slowly moved as little pirates worked in teams to build their vessel. Once the bow, starboard, port and rear sides of the ship had been built it was time to make it habitable for a crew of reckless pirates. Logs and wooden boards formed seating and a stick and a flag formed the sails. Of course one wooden board was saved for the all important plank! As the pirates set sail roles and responsibilities were handed out. Some were the baby pirates who made themselves sleeping quarters in the hull. Others were captains or parents, each with their own purpose and all fully involved. All was calm until the captain screamed “SHARK!!!” It was all hands on deck as they sought to defend themselves from this most frightening of intruders. It turned out the shark could walk and was dutifully made to ‘WALK THE PLANK!’
Adventure walks have started this week too. Children would request "beach" or "river" and off we went. We strolled through the meadow grass taller than the children and raced down the hill to Beverly Brook. On the way we stopped to admire the abundance of minibeasts in the bushes. We found iridescent beetles, spiders, ant hills, beautiful butterflies, slugs, leaf bugs and an incredible Scarlet Tiger moth!
As we arrived at the river we had a picnic snack on grassy banks before walking down to the muddy beach for some river wading, where the children explored texture and sound as their wellies squelched and squelched through the mud and water!
We can't wait for next week to see what exciting things will happen, and once again a HUGE welcome to Little Forest Folk Barnes!
Have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes