Our Week in the Forest...
Heavy Rain, Giants and Gruffalos, and children flying through the trees!
What a start to the week we had with the heavens opening up and unleashing a serious downpour of rain! The children soon churned up the mud and became mud monsters as they slid down the muddy slide we had made. The children also watched with excitement as large pools of water gathered on the tarps, waiting to see the educators push the water out, causing humongous splashes as they hit the ground! We had lots of muddy fun which meant some of our children took home most of Chiswick House with them!
The next day the rain had cleared and it was almost as if summer had returned. With the lovely weather, we decided to go on a big adventure walk around Chiswick House and Gardens. We began our walk and let the children lead the way. As we were making our way around we discovered something... in the trees there appeared to be a Gruffalo or Giant's house, as decided by the kids! What a discovery! We were all so excited by the thought of a Gruffalo or Giant being nearby that we began to look for clues and traces of their existence. We soon started finding large footprints, broken trees and gaps in the bushes that appeared to be that of tracks from our mystery Giant or Gruffalo. We followed the clues, discovering bird houses and even bat houses as we searched around. We also came across two other Giant or Gruffalo houses. The walk was full of discovery and imagination and it was fantastic to see the children so creative with the clues they were discovering and making links with how they were related to our Giant or Gruffalo!
At the end of the week we had lots of fun flying through the trees using the zip wire Victoria had set up for us! Victoria is one of our rope set up superstars and enjoys challenging the children with new obstacles such as rope ladders, swings or slack lines. On this day Victoria had set up the zip line and it challenged the children to use their upper body strength, holding their own body weight as they flew down the line. The children were all able to take on the challenge and showed great confidence and bravery as they glided through the trees almost like bats or flying squirrels!
Talking about squirrels, we had a lovely moment this week when we noticed a mother squirrel relocating her nest from one area of our forest to another. To do this she must have already built a new nest and was now transporting her babies wrapped around her neck and holding them with her mouth. It was such an exciting event for the children to watch as this very brave mother squirrel navigated the ground, looking out for any dangers such as dogs and then clambering to the tree tops with her babies in her mouth! The children were all in awe of the brave act and watched quietly and respectfully as the mother squirrel made the trip three times with her babies!
We have had such a wonderful summer with new and old friends, it has been an absolute joy! We hope you all have a lovely long weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick