Our Week in the Forest...
This week has been full of exploration as children returned from their holidays or started their first day in the forest. There have been many discoveries and one of the children’s favourite discoveries was of the shield bugs in our climbing tree. Recently there has been a few of these bugs in the tree but they are difficult to spot since they are so well camouflaged! The children excitedly called out to their friends when they had spotted one. They spoke about where they thought the bugs had come from and where they might be going, some children were brave enough to gently hold the shield bugs in their palms. We decided to move the shield bugs out of the climbing tree so we didn’t stand on them whilst we were climbing. The children looked for a safe place the bugs would like and decided the bush might be a good place as there were lots of leaves to eat.
Another great way the children have explored the space this week is through playing hide and seek – this familiar game has been very popular with our new children. The children took turns to count or hide and they then all ran around the site trying to discover the best places to hide and excitedly waited to be found. When they were spotted the forest erupted with screams of excitement before it was the next persons turn to hide.
Things have been getting really busy in the mud kitchen this week and the children have worked hard to create lots of different concoctions. We have had lovely soups and hot chocolates made up of water, mud and leaves, stirred to perfection with sticks. We have also had mud balls of different sizes and densities; the sloppy mud balls were used for pizzas and we had more dense mud balls used for ‘dough’ and even for playing catch with!
Whilst the bakers were busy in the mud kitchen, the builders were working hard to build a bakery for the bakers in the tree. They worked together to collect planks and ropes before tying them up in the tree and creating our very own Little Forest Folk Tree Top Bakery. The children in the kitchen carried over their baked goods and passed them up to the shop to be sold. It was great to see so many children working together!
Some children have been climbing in the nest for the first time, after observing their peers make their way up the tree some have taken on the challenge and decided to follow. It has been wonderful to watch the children approach these new challenges with confidence and learn through trial and error when the first attempt was not so successful. Our older Little Forest Folk-ers have shown so much support and encouragement in explaining how they got up and celebrating when their new peers have joined them up the tree!
We have had a fantastic week and we cannot wait to see what next week brings! Have a lovely weekend all!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham