Our Week in the Forest...
It has been another delightful Holiday Camp during which we have welcomed back some of our old Little Forest Folk children and a few new faces during the week. We could have easily mistaken it for the summer holidays, with the gentle warm breeze, beautifully sunny skies and the first glimpses of butterflies amongst the trees!
Creativity has been an omnipresent theme throughout the week, with the children spontaneously initiating environmental art using all manner of materials, members of the public could have easily confused our site for a new Tate Fulham! In the true spirit of Andy Goldsworthy and Richard Shilling we observed children creating configurations using small gravel stones, making tiny igloo shaped structures, symmetrical forms and small totems, along with formations of sticks that had been arranged on cable drums, tree stumps and across the forest floor. To support their interest, we wrapped one of the huge balancing trees with calico in the style of Christo and Jeanne-Claude, the children have loved experimenting with this throughout the week, painting along the contours of the wood, making finger and hand prints and using mud to highlight the texture. We intend to reinstall it next week so that the children can observe how it evolves and changes over time, not only through their creative contributions but with the effects of the weather.
Their innovative thinking and collaboration has also extended to building, with treehouses and dens becoming a feature of the forest. Their imagination for creating all the component parts of their structures has been amazing, using planks, rope, sticks, tree cookies and paracord to fabricate self-standing walls and intricate details, there was even a working doorbell and some very inventive traps!
In between all that creativity the children have also been enjoying plenty of stories and adventure walks in the forest, keeping all the educators happy with offers of mud cakes and gooey cups of tea, and of course finding a bit of relaxation time with their friends to listen to the birds happily singing their songs about the wonderful Spring like weather…
We hope you too have all had a lovely week and we cannot wait to see what next week brings!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham