Our Week in the Forest...
The mud kitchen has definitely been one of the most dominant activities for the week. The children have been baking up a treat (perhaps inspired by parents watching Great British Bake Off) and have been making a whole variety of cakes, treats and sweet for their friends and teachers to pretend eat. This creativity and mixology of materials has led from some of the cake batters (mainly mud and water with a pinch of holly leaves, for those who want the recipe) turning into a cement/clay like material which has been used for construction and sculpture, transforming our kitchen into construction site! The children have then used their materials to build dens, houses and a variety of things. What has been lovely with these activities has been the amount of conversation between the children as they plan, asses and reconsider their ideas as a team. Especially with all of our lovely new children, these activities have been a great way for them to socialise and get to know each other, making new friendships along the way!
With the start of the new term it has been so exciting for the children to be returning back to Kew Gardens after a long summer break! Luckily the beautiful Dale Chihuly sculptures are still on show until October so we have been able to take the children on adventure walks to go admire the beautiful forms! The children were mesmerised with the colours and movement within Chihuly's glass sculptures and this fuelled plenty of questioning from the children regarding what they were, how they were made and why were they here at Kew Gardens. This formed the basis of some fascinating conversation both between the children and teachers but also just between the children themselves!
Finally the last reoccurring theme this week has been superheroes, and for sure that would be the best word to describe our brave new children who have settled in so well at their forest nursery! Our little superheroes have enjoyed using our superhero capes to fly around the forest fighting crime and saving those in need. There has been a beautiful sense of imagination in their play and unfortunately for the teachers, they have mainly been the villains of the narrative, being captured and taken to prison!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick