Our Week in the Forest...
Rumbles, Thunder and a Volcanic eruption in the forest!!
From thunderstorms, to monsoon downpours to clear blue skies and then icy-cold morning temperatures, the children have truly experienced the elements this week! Autumn is definitely here and with it a great variety of weathers. This hasn't stopped our hearty Little Forest Folk-ers and instead has inspired them to question their surroundings. The rumbles and crashes of thunder we heard this week were truly amazing and the children were all so brave. Instead of being scared they were excited about the power of nature! Our most interesting afternoon had to be our Tuesday walk out.
As we prepped the children to get ready, the sky was covered by a blanket of dark stormy clouds, some off the children thought the sun had been turned off! With the dark clouds we knew rain was close and as we started to walk back to the Hogarth the downpour began, turning the paths in the forest into streams that ran past the welly boots of the children. As we reached the car park we began to see lightening in the distance followed by an orchestra-like percussion of thunder! We all made it back safely to the indoor space, completely soaked but full of excitement!
With the noise of the storm some of the children were talking about other noisy things and one child was talking about a volcano. He was so interested in the idea of a volcano and wanted to learn more. We therefore thought it was the perfect time for a library visit and took some of our children to the library the following day. We were able to look at a variety of books and also found some books about volcanoes. The educators then asked the children if they would like to make their own volcano, to which all the children all excitedly confirmed they would! We collected the ingredients needed and when we got into the forest began building our volcano.
We used an old washed milk bottle and then surrounded it with natural resources, including red leaves to make it look like the lava was already coming out! We then gathered all the children and led by Jacki, the child who had first had the thought about volcanoes was able to trigger the volcanic eruption as he poured in the last ingredients! The lava came pouring out of the volcano and the children were all very excited! It was lovely to see the thoughts and questioning of this one child develop, which in turn encouraged others to join in with his learning, and resulted in an exciting event for everyone!
As well as discussing natural processes, the children have also been very creative this week! We have been making lots of lovely collages using glue and fallen leaves. We have also been painting and making beautiful images, some of which have gone home, if they've survived the rain! It has been a lovely week in the forest and we look forward to the future autumnal weather in the weeks ahead!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick