Our Week in the Forest...
With the countdown to Easter well underway we have welcomed our regular children and holiday campers back for a second week of Easter holiday activities in the forest. The weather this week has really warmed up, Spring is definitely in the air, evident in the array of colour appearing throughout the Palace gardens. The children have enjoyed adventure walks in the walled garden, counting and smelling the different types of flowers that are growing there. They particularly love to explore the maze of bushes where aromatic herbs are growing, checking each nook and cranny just in case they discover another baby dinosaur skull!
Earlier in the week some of the children made a balancing see-saw from the loose parts, experimenting with various planks and logs until they found the most suitable ones for their construction. Their intrinsic need to challenge themselves really showed, as did their determination to perfectly balance with one foot on each side, they make it look much easier than it is in reality! Other children joined and the see-saw turned into a diving board. The children organised themselves, taking turns to move up the plank, crawling, hopping, jumping and slithering, some even chose to go backwards. When they got to the top of the plank they had to choose how to get off. There were some impressive jumps, twirls and dives that even the Olympic diving team would be proud of!
During our afternoon sessions in the log circle, the children have been reflecting on what they had enjoyed throughout the day and what they would like to do the following day. Some ideas involved enhancing their structures to create new challenges and others suggested using the tools to produce props for their play, specifically the drills. So, Chelsey has been supporting the children during the week to drill their medals, watches and necklaces using some tree cookies we cut the previous week. It was really lovely to see how confident the children were with the process of using tools, thinking about what they wanted to make and planning where they needed to put the holes to achieve the desired effect.
And finally, no Easter week would be complete without Easter cooking, and Easter cooking must involve one key ingredient, chocolate! The children made chocolate bird nests, shaping the nest from shredded wheat, and bound together with chocolate. When the nests were complete, they carefully filled them with eggs and a tiny little chick, although I’m not sure they will last until Easter weekend…
We hope you all have a wonderful sunny long weekend and we cannot wait to see the children back in the forest next Wednesday!
We cannot wait to see what next week brings and we hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham