Our Week in the Forest...
We are still delighting in the joys of having a space of our own in the mornings and evenings. A big thank you to all the parents and staff who have helped to resource our new space! With so many new and interesting resources to play with we have been busy building houses and rockets with the Duplo, writing our names on the fridge with the magnets, practicing our threading skills with beads and shoelaces and sharpening up our rhyming skills with a sound matching game (although the box says ‘4 and up’ some of our three year olds are proving themselves more than capable of listening out for the rhymes).
We have also taken great pleasure in arts and crafts both at piccolo and in the forest. On our walk in on Tuesday morning the children collected leaves, sticks, feathers, pinecones and other interesting finds such as petals and pieces of bark. We then used these natural materials to make our own artwork, exploring the patterns and textures they created as they were dipped in and dragged through the paint. The children were particularly taken by the feathers and the effect that they left behind on the paper. Turns out that painting with feathers can be quite a mesmerising and calming experience. Once finished, we hung our artwork up to dry in the glorious sunshine. It was lovely to see our artistic efforts hanging up in the forest!
We decided to take a break from our usual spot in the forest for the first half of the week and set up in on the grass by the café under the shade of some rather large trees. The children enjoyed some much needed water play to cool down. The morning began with blocks of ice concealing some interesting toys. The children sat and scraped, sawed and smashed away at the ice to reveal the treasures below. Lots of fun to be had! The afternoon involved the excitement of filling up a giant splash pool donated by Amie. The children sat with incredible patience, watching the gardener fill the pool with the hose. They then got to take turns to splash to their hearts content, covering themselves and their friends with water along with filling and emptying buckets. With the sun turned up to its highest notch, it didn’t take them long to dry off in the sunshine.
Then on Thursday we retreated back into the forest anticipating the forecast of rain. It didn’t take long for the rain to start and after that it just didn’t want to stop. However this didn’t dampen the children’s spirits one bit. We were expecting to see some of our holiday campers being a little less sure, and perhaps a little unhappy about being stuck out in such weather, but if anything their spirits were higher than they have been all week. Quickly we were reminded of all the joys that rain brings. Not only a reprieve from the heat of the last few weeks, but puddles to splash in, mud to make cakes in the mud kitchen and just the simple joy of running around and feeling the rain on your face.
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick