Our Week in the Forest...
Winter has finally arrived in the forest! We have experienced some truly beautiful mornings with frost shrouding every blade of grass in glittering ice and the children observing the “misty fog” all around us as well. We explored how we could hear the grass crunching under our toes, with some of the children lying down, cosy inside their waterproofs, to study the frozen blades and leaves close up.
One of the older children noticed that some areas of the lawn had returned to a green colour while others were still white and wondered why that was. We were able to explain that the rising sun was warming it up and it was melting the ice shown by the white areas matched the patches that were still in shadow. This prompted him to request that I tell him again where rain comes from. We had been playing in the mud kitchen a few weeks ago, making waterfalls and rivers flowing down the hill and I had explained the water cycle to him; the warm sun evaporating water from the ocean, forming clouds, moving up over high mountains, turning back into water when it cooled down and falling as rain which would make rivers that flowed back into the ocean again. His making this leap and recognising this connection is a great example of the how our children in the forest are able to have opportunities to apply their learning about the natural world in real and tangible ways.
We have been investing time once more in marking making and literacy again and have been hearing from several parents that some of our Little Forest Folk-ers have started writing letters and talking about writing at home. We have used frosty benches to draw, write and mark make with our gloved fingers and then we have continued with chalks or with pencil-sticks in the mud! We have used our recycled cardboard to make shields that the children decorated with pens, chalks and paint as well as making holes to poke through leaves and twigs to add 3D decoration to their individual masterpiece!
On Tuesday, an A-frame was lashed together from pallets for the children to climb on and this new configuration proved a great success. It was incorporated into many role play games as well as simply being used to expand confidence and embrace the simple joy that is manoeuvring over and conquering a tricky activity! The children took real ownership of this structure and soon the painting trays, rollers and brushes had been brought from the painting area so that they could decorate their structure as they wanted. A great deal of collaboration and negotiation took place and it was lovely to see some leadership qualities being utilised to delegate tasks and to solve sharing issues with skill.
The hottest topic of the week has to be our gorgeous platform to protect the tree roots that has finally been finished! Gathering the children around the edge, we took our time to investigate it in close detail; discovering that it smelled like Christmas trees and that the grip strips looked like “tiny stones” but when we pushed them we could feel they were squishy! We talked about how to be safe stepping up and down and if someone was getting on or off we should “give them some space”. Once we were all in the middle of the platform we stomped our feet to enjoy the rumbling thunder noise it made and the children immediately set about claiming it for themselves through play.
“It could be a stage!”
“It’s a train! This is your stop, open the doors and mind the gap!”
“We can eat our snacks on here!”
“We’re sausages!” (as they rolled across the surface)
This week they have also worked to make tickets for “The Show”! One of our friends made popcorn to sell to us and then the audience all gathered around the edge to watch as our actors took turns taking the stage to act out stories. This new and exciting introduction to our setting will be of huge benefit to us and our little people and it is a lovely feeling to know that we are simultaneously ensuring that we limit any negative impact our presence might have on our lovely campsite.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend and we will see you all next week!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham