Hello Sunshine!
What a difference the sunshine makes! This week we have been lucky enough to spend our days in t-shirts and shorts, smelling of sun cream and feeling that bit lighter without waterproof coats and trousers!
At the beginning of the week on the magpie team, birthdays were celebrated by drawing cakes, candles and cards in the ground! The children took turns to blow out the candles, sing happy birthday and open pretend presents; asking each-other how old they were and what flavour of cake they had! To transport them to their busy schedule of birthday parties, a train was ready at the station in the form of an upside-down bench; Katie told passengers to fasten their seatbelts and whizzed them off around the track to their said destination!
Later in the week, Conor helped the children to saw some tree cookies using a bow saw; enabling the children to make their own resources. Some made clocks, others made sandwiches...some even made teddy bears because the wood they were using had the shape of teddy bear ears!
We brought some clay which the children loved using in a sunny spot at camp. They collected pink flowers from our nearby magnolia tree and used the petals to press and pinch into their clay. One of our children created the most magnificent representation of her daddy’s office using parts of the flower. Moulding some clay in the shape of a cylinder, a modern lamp was made to sit in the office too!
The children are always picking up on messages that the educators send on their walkie talkies. At the end of the week, a group of children went in search of some bark with a smooth surface on one side so that they could create their own walkie talkies! Educators helped by showing the children what buttons were on theirs and drew them on. One of the children noticed that on an educator’s walkie talkie it said, “battery low!”. To prevent their own walkie talkies running out of battery, they found a long log and measured squares big enough for their devices to sit on. With pens they drew squares and placed their devices onto them and charged them up!
On the Robins this week, the children went to help Matt the gardener plant some radishes in the walled garden! It was so exciting for them to hear Matt explaining what they were doing and knowing that they were contributing to something that they can watch grow and hopefully eat too!
The group also made the most of the magnolia flowers, using them in their mud kitchen recipes and to make artwork with branches, bark and sticks! Our lovely Harriet has been helping us before she heads off to the new Morden nursery. The Robin children kindly made her a gigantic chocolate cake, knowing that she loves eating chocolatey snacks from the Little Forest Folk-ers cafe!
As ever, the group have been climbing our popular Yew tree, swinging from branches and finding spaces to lie back and relax; much needed when you need a little shade from all the sun!
Some bricks magically appeared inside our camp towards the end of the week, and so inspired the making of campfires, walls for dens and circles to jump into! Petals were being used as marshmallows to be toasted on the fire.
Thanks all for being so great at coming in with sun hats and full water bottles. It’s kept our heads protected and our bodies nice and hydrated this week! For those off for Easter, we hope you enjoy some time off to relax and hopefully enjoy some more sunshine!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham