It’s that time of year! The holiday campers are upon us once again! We welcome back returning forest alumni and siblings, and it’s like they never left! Truly you can take the child out the forest, but you can’t take the forest out of the child! Pirates have been a central theme of our children’s play this week. Huge pirate ship dens have been constructed (and defended!), stick swords have been lashed together for swashbuckling and children have practiced sailing, hoisting tarpaulin sails and pulling high ropes.
Like all good pirates they have searched for buried treasure and have dug out some interesting artefacts from times gone by (some interesting metal objects that we’ve brainstormed as to what they are). The forest buccaneers have also used our mud kitchens to create squid soup and fish cakes! Recently our mini marauders have created and buried their own treasure, but good luck finding it without a map!
On the other side the Red Robins have been busy digging also. Our children have been fascinated by the roots of a dead tree, having carefully excavated it. We’ve closely inspected the roots and learned just how and why they grow the way they do. We had huge fun pretending it was an alien volcano and used muddy water from our kitchen to simulate molten lava!
Ground art has been popular recently with our keen drawers trying their hand at transferring their skills with paper and pencil to the floor with sticks! We’ve seen amazing balloons, hot dogs, snakes and chef hats all illustrated on the ground. Children have been incorporating maths and number skills (without even realising!) into their play a lot this week; “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” has stretched our counting muscles, and children have been measuring each other with long sticks.
The textures of the forest have been explored and revealed with crayon rubbings. Our feathered friends have become fonder of us as we bring them delicious seeds to eat on our adventure walks. We’ve learned more about Chiswick House and Gardens history on our walks too - we’re convinced some of the statues are depicting some of the outstanding teachers! Seed planting has continued also, with some new beans joining the fray. Many of the children are going home looking like a million bucks thanks to Kate’s world-renowned forest braiding salon.
We’ll be saying goodbye this week to one of our dearest friends, teachers and colleagues the inimitable and incredible Victoria, who is very sadly leaving us to return home to teach in Romania. We bid farewell to one of the best to ever do it with heavy hearts, but it’s bittersweet as we have every faith, she will bring life, love and joy to whoever is lucky enough to meet her next! Good luck in your adventure!
With that we welcome a new superstar to the Chiswick roster, our lovely new deputy Robyn! Robyn has already won over the team and the children; we’re certain you’ll love her too. A shout out to back office for recruiting another gem!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick