Our Week in the Forest...
The highlight of this week was feeling the change in the air and seeing more of sunshine in our forest. With birds singing a bit louder than usual and a few new buds on the trees, we are excited for the spring to come. We have been trying to spot some early signs of the new season and have noticed that the robins have been visiting our site more often than usual. We thought that they might be searching for food and new materials to build their nests. We scattered some natural wool on the trees and the ground to help the birds create their new homes.
The week started with some strong winds so we couldn’t visit the forest as we usually do. So we’ve decided to take advantage of our new room and the playground that’s next to us. We have tidied up the courtyard and prepared the growing beds where we will be planting some strawberries when the weather is a bit warmer. We have also decided to plant some flowers in our new garden to attract the bees and butterflies. A lot of us felt very enthusiastic about digging the soil and pulling out the weeds to make our garden beautiful and ready for the spring.
We spent the rest of the week playing and learning in the woods. We have put up a puppet show for our friends and created magical and imaginative stories. Apart from presenting the stories to our friends, we have been really enjoying the books as well. This week’s favourite was the “Oi Cat!’ story and some of us know the lines from it by heart so we read it aloud with our educators.
To stimulate our muscles and climbing skills, we had a wobbly bridge in the forest that seems to be everyone’s favourite activity. Our challenge is to go from one side of the hill to the other whilst holding onto the ropes and crossing over some logs that are very uneven and wobbly. This strengthens our core and arm muscles but above all makes us giggle and laugh when we fall or when one of our friends lands on the floor. Victoria, our lovely educator, had put up some great obstacle courses in our outdoor classroom and we have been very engaged in testing them.
As it’s the end of the carnival, we wanted to sparkle up our time in the forest a little and created some masks for dressing up. We also played some great tunes to boogie to and danced a conga, limbo and musical statues in the sunshine. We were very impressed with some of the moves!
We have also said goodbye to our wonderful educator Jaye who is going back to Australia to see her family. She brought a lot of creativity, joy and laughter to our forest and we will miss her dearly but we are incredibly excited for her adventures! Goodbye Jaye, thank you for everything you have taught us!
We hope everyone has a lovely weekend and enjoys the outdoors as much as we do! For our sessional families we wish you all a great half-term!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick