Our Week in the Forest...
The weather this week has been as unpredictable as ever, as have the children in their pursuit of learning and the activities they have taken part in.
On Monday, our camp became somewhat of a quagmire, so every activity revolved around mud. The children built upon their already excellent physical development as they ran around our camp, squelching, sliding and skidding between logs, trees and other children. Our Mud Kitchen was in high demand, however in the forest there is never such a thing as too many cooks. There were pies, cupcakes, potions, teas and coffees and all other kinds of mixtures that were measured out and mixed with great precision.
Throughout the rest of the week, although cold with some threatening winds, it has been delightful and the children as usual, have loved being in the forest. This week a number of them have been particularly interested in pullies. They have filled buckets with sticks, stones and items from the mud kitchen to see which will fall the fastest, or what they can use to balance out the buckets. In a similar fashion to our mud kitchen, the children are using so many mathematical and problem solving skills, all in a very real way (not to mention the more difficult matter of communication skills when it comes to sharing – next week we need more pullies!).
The children have also created their own musical instruments this week. First, they scavenged for items in the forest such as sticks, stones, leaves, etc. then they filled plastic bottles. The novelty never seemed to wear off for the children as they stomped around with their new forest style maracas, the same however might not have been said for the practitioners. We love to see how the children express themselves and it’s amazing how such simple instruments can bring such joy to the children.
Along with engineers and interpretive dancers, we’ve also had artists and authors this week. The children have loved using our chalk eggs to scribble over all the logs. It has been such a sensory activity to feel what it’s like drawing on paper, to then draw on logs and then some even experimented by drawing on themselves. Children thrive when given the freedom to develop their mark-making skills in a way that excites them, and we hope that this leads to competent and confident writers later in life.
We hope you have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham