What a difference a weekend makes! We went from a gorgeous sunny Friday with children requesting high viz vests instead of jackets, to dressing like little onions to combat the weather!
This gorgeous snow has brought such a magical transformation to the forest. Walks into camp have been made all the more fun with the discovery of frozen puddles to stomp and crack, as well as delicate ice crystals that need the gentlest of fingers to touch. One particular patch of ice caused great hilarity as the children slipped and slithered and held onto each other as they played with the tricky surface, the educators were there to help.
We watched as Forest Fox appeared from the hedge with something in their mouth, used their quick paws to dig a little hole, popped whatever it was they carried in and used their nose to carefully smooth the soil back over. We decided they were saving a snack for later, “Maybe something for their Mummy” suggested one child. Florence used the Encyclopaedia of British Wildlife to show the children how to recognise animal footprints in the snow and they hunted for tracks left by our little forest friends. It has been lovely to see children pick up this giant brick of a book to independently investigate the pictures and spot some animals that they recognise for themselves.
On Friday we celebrated Chinese New Year with all sorts of activities. We learned that the colour red is very lucky, and that each new year is given the name of an animal. We watched a video of the Chinese lion dance and learned that it is to scare away baddies!
After this some of the children joined in to paint a box bright red so that we could make our own lion head. While it dried, we used bright blue and red on a giant black sky to create an exciting firework display like will happen in the sky tonight. Once our head dried, we stuck on sharp teeth and eyes and covered it with colourful paper before attaching a blanket for a body and dancing the lion dance!
What an exciting and lucky lucky day!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham