Our Week in the Forest...
We have been very fortunate with the weather this week as there has been nothing but blue skies and sunshine! We decided to make the most of it and spent our week exploring Chiswick Gardens by taking our trolley and moving about to different areas, so that we could enjoy play and snack times in new environments. Base camp this week for us was close to the ‘fallen tree’. The grass is now lush and long, with lots of big shady trees and tree stumps, which meant practising our climbing and jumping. The children this week have been magnets to the fallen tree and have shown so much interested in the different coloured bark, the earth surrounding the area where it has been uprooted and of course the length of the tree (which has been an excellent balancing beam!)
Some of the children, who in the past, have been nervous to jump off anything on their own, are now gaining the confidence and courage to try and give it a go themselves. The interest this week has increased due to the support of their fellow Forest Folk friends who always give a helping hand and word of encouragement when needed. The fallen tree was the perfect width and length for ‘tight rope’ walking. The children all challenged themselves to get from one end to the other and awarded themselves with a giant jump off the end! The children were so kind and patient with the younger ones who wanted to have a go too.
The new sunny site has been an excellent setting for the children’s imaginations to run wild. The long grass has proved popular with some of the children who have decided to use this as a setting for their role play. One day sees us exploring a jungle with a volcano, which explodes, bringing dragons and witches to the forest! They have managed to conjure up an imaginary giant potion pot, residing in a hole which the fallen tree has left. The children all had great fun taking turns, adding ingredients, stirring the pot and taste testing.
Following on from the children’s interest in hunting for bugs, a small group of children took a trip to the Natural History Museum to see the Sensational Butterflies exhibit. Butterflies danced around us as we took a closer look at their eating habits, saw the eggs that they had laid, found caterpillars and saw a massive collection of chrysalises with butterflies newly emerged. It was an amazing experience. Afterwards we went inside the Natural History Museum where the children decided that they wanted to see the dinosaur exhibit. We explored until our feet were tired and headed back to the tube station. Even a ride on the tube with friends can be such an exciting experience! We finished our day with a snack and a play in the park. By the end of the day we had four very happy children and two very tired educators. We are already thinking of new ideas for our next day trip!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick