Our Week in the Forest...
There has been a lot of excitement in the forest this week leading up to World Book Day on Thursday, where we saw some brilliant costumes and characters which brightened up the rainy day.
We had a bright and sunny start to the week at Paradise, so we took the opportunity to get a selection of paints out, which the children always love. We saw some intricate dot patterns and big hand splats! There were lots of painted numbers hanging at various points around Paradise as the children walked into site and they enjoyed racing to hunt for the different numbers when they were called out. Some of the children traced the numbers with their fingers and described the shapes that the numbers made.
It was World Wildlife Day on Tuesday. As usual, the children were heavily involved with searching for critters and talking about Lucy; a friendly, confident wood-pigeon who visits the snack circle every day. They also enjoyed being extra quiet at circle time so that they could listen to the woodpeckers pecking in the distance across the forest. On an adventure walk the children spotted lots of wonders and found forest treasures. The children took their time to balance across thick tree stumps.
One of our Playworkers brought a new twist on ‘What’s the Time Mr.Wolf?’ into the forest, called ‘Grandma’s Footsteps’ which the children thoroughly enjoyed playing. Some of the children pretended to be a Grandma and then spun around to catch the moving children behind them. There were many giggles of delight as the children crept closer and closer! Imaginative role-play continued as props were made in the forest, focusing heavily on sword making. Here, the children found two sticks they deemed suitable and tied them together using a square lashing knot.
To round the week off, we celebrated World Book Day on Thursday. It was such a joy to see the brilliant and creative characters that appeared in the forest. We had a cow, a witch, Peter Rabbit, Hoppy Bunny, firemen, paper dolls, a shark, Stick Man and a dalmatian. We also had The Smartest Giant in Town, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a Princess Pearl with dinosaur mix. The children were excited to discuss each other’s outfits and guess what everyone had come as. In the morning, we spoke about where we can access books and the children suggested libraries and toyshops. We spoke about how libraries are a brilliant resource where people can access books for free.
The Tiger Who Came to Tea also made an appearance in costume, and everybody sat around in a circle and read the story whilst eating snack. This book is obviously a well-known favourite as all of the children anticipated what would happen next in the blanks, joining in with sounds, and copying actions described in the book. After the story had finished, we spoke about what our favourite parts of the story were and asked questions like “How do you think you’d feel if a tiger appeared at your door? Would you let them in and invite them for tea? Why do you think the tiger was so hungry and thirsty? Why do you think the tiger never came back for tea again?” which got some creative responses! Some rainbow cupcake cases and baking trays were brought in to the forest and the children took care to bake ‘buns’ for the tiger.
The children busily created all sorts of characters and themes, including Wallace and Gromit (which extended to guide-dogs attending puppy-classes) and the Three Little Pigs, and were busy running around for a lot of the afternoon! At lunch time, we took a break from the rain and ate lunch in the big tent while reading and sharing the brilliant stories that were brought in from home. The children were all very keen to have theirs read out.
It has been a very creative week that has ended on a high! We look forward to more story-telling in the forest and are hoping to continue with more book-themed activities. Thank you for getting involved with World Book Day – the children have had a lot of fun with it! Have a lovely weekend.
Little Forest Folk
Wandsworth