Our Week in the Forest...
This week our setting has been transformed by the autumnal rain, creating new and exciting areas of water and mud that the children and educators have incorporated into activities and games, and has provided us with an unlimited amount of soft, gooey mud, most of which has probably come home on the children!
Naturally mud has played a huge part in the children’s play and as always they have developed endless ways to use it creatively in the activities they have initiated, from fishing for ‘stick fish’ in the muddy puddles to using it to paint the tree bark and observing it change in colour and texture as it dried. The children particularly loved making mud balls and using them to make plates of cakes, cookies and ice-cream in the mud kitchen, whilst other children experimented with hanging them on the trees. After noticing how the branches couldn’t hold the weight they persevered with making smaller and smaller mud balls until they had figured out the ideal size for attaching them to the branches, so you may end up with some unusual baubles on the Christmas tree this year…
The torrential downpour on Tuesday produced a huge pond like area through which we placed lines of stepping stones using our tree stumps. The children soon turned this into adventurous narratives, and by adding planks, ropes and more logs they sustained their play throughout the whole morning, carefully balancing and negotiating the paths to avoid the creatures and monsters lurking in the water and occasionally having to rescue their friends who slipped in. As they observed the water slowly getting lower, and eventually disappearing all together, they continued their water themed play by building sailing boats from the loose parts and making fishing rods from all the curved branches they could find.
It has been another beautiful week throughout which the children have been strengthening their friendships and developing in confidence, evident in how they are already learning the value of helping and encouraging each other, sharing the resources and participating in sustained play together.
We hope you have also had a wonderful week and have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham