Our Week in the Forest...
What glorious weather we have had this week! Beanies and gloves have stayed in our backpacks and the jackets have even come off to be replaced by vests. Quite a surprise considering this time last year we had the beast from the east! All this early warm weather and sunshine has brought out the spring flowers and our site at Kew was covered with yellow daffodils and purple and white crocuses. Our explorations got us talking about the different colours of the crocus petals, examining how they were similar and different and focusing on the pattern of the leaves which had a very thin white stripe down the middle. We then explored the leaves of the daffodils and discovered lots of patches of tall thin green leaves growing around us without yellow flowers and were able to identify that soon daffodils would grow in these places as well. Back at Chiswick some of us were able to name and point out the daffodils, snowdrops and crocuses we found growing in the gardens.
On Tuesday, we were delighted to find that Otis had created a zip line for us to whizz through the forest. The children eagerly lined up for their turn and came back again and again throughout the day for more turns. We had many other physicals challenges this week, such as the climbing frame which involved navigating up the ropes and back down the ladder, and the stepping stones which required big steps both up and across to reach the next log.
We have been exploring shapes a lot more this week and the children are becoming more confident in using a range of shapes to make 2D pictures or 3D creations. We are able to use the names of common 2D shapes and are beginning to recognise 3D shapes too, talking about their features and naming the shapes that we can see, such as a square on the bottom of the pyramid. We are even becoming more confident in using the names of tricky 2D shapes like hexagons and octagons.
Recently the children have become quite involved in building stick houses, pushing sticks into the ground. They are able to create some impressive structures, using leaves to make roofs and tall sticks for chimneys. While some of the children dip in and out of this play it is great to see some of them see the activity through from start to completion, remaining focused on their goal of building a house for almost an hour. As we left our creation behind to continue onto our base camp we talked about what might move into our house, with suggestions of fairies and mice.
We hope you too have had a lovely weekend and cannot wait to see what next week brings!
Little Forest Folk
Chiswick