Our Week in the Forest...
We started off our first full week back in the forest after our Christmas break with a discussion about the Three Kings. The 6th of January marked The Three Kings Day which is celebrated in a few countries across Europe and the rest of the world. Selina bought in three beautiful loaves of bread for the children and three of the smaller buns contained a raisin. The raisins signified that the children who found them would become a king for the day and wear a crown that Selina had made. This sparked further interest from the children who then decided to make their own crowns out of paper and foil – using scissors and glue, helping to develop their fine motor skills.
Our Little Forest Folk-ers also experienced multiple physical challenges in the forest this week with a swing and tightrope being set up. We had an amazing spider's web which was created by both educators and children! Everyone did an amazing job of making sure their knot tying was safe enough for them to climb, testing their skills afterwards by climbing up the web. Later in the day, some children enjoyed untying the knots, remaining calm when this was difficult and continuing to try, not giving up! This appeared to be a popular activity this week as other children did this the following day, with one child untying the whole knot, which had been done by an educator, by themselves!
We also got creative this week as the children made wands, dogs and other imaginative creations using twine, sticks, ivy and other natural materials which they later on painted in different colours such as greens, blues and purples.
We saw a diverse range of role play which included a group of fire fighters saving the Koalas from the fires in Australia. This was a great observation as children are engaging in current news and developing their understanding of the danger of fire and how it can cause such devastation. Through role play our children are developing their understanding of these stories and how they make them feel.
We finished the week with more animal role play with the children pretending to be different wild animals, including cheetahs, tigers and lions. Libby pretended to be a giraffe and the children explored their knowledge of food chains as the cheetahs said they were going to eat the giraffe, with the lions joining in too!
With our first January week behind us, we look forward to what next week brings. We hope you all have a lovely weekend and look forward to seeing you next week!
Little Forest Folk
Barnes