Our Week in the Forest...
Forest paint, bubbles and the return of the slack line!
To start the week off the children were making their own forest paint. The children made their paint using the fallen berries from the mulberry tree near the entrance to Fulham Palace. During drop off the children worked together to fill a small red bucket with any berries they could find under the mulberry tree. We then also collected any fallen flowers we could find during our walk-in adventure… After our morning snack time had finished the children could finally start to make their own paint. To do this we used water with the berries and flowers and mushed them together using sticks until the water had successfully taken the pigment of our mixture. We were then able to use the paint on logs to see what colours we had made. This activity was great as it had many different roles for the children. Some of the children were only interested in collecting the berries, some were interested in carrying them, and then some were interested in making the paint itself. This was a fantastic way for the children to use the natural resources around them in a creative way that taught them about how versatile the natural world can be, and of course all the children worked beautifully together!
This week we have also been playing with bubbles. On Tuesday morning, Otis made a big bubble wand using ropes and sticks. Then with a bowl of extra bubbly mix (fairy liquid and water) and our pro bubble maker Bella, the children were able to play and chase the humongous bubbles that Bella was making. The children also explored making their bubbles using their hands. The children were shown how to use their thumbs and index fingers as a circle, creating their own bubble maker, and then were shown how to blow the bubbles. This was a fantastically messy and exciting activity, with the children chasing Bella up and down the field.
A few weeks ago we noticed that our slack line was feeling rather neglected due to the popularity of our swings and the nest. We therefore took away the slack line for a while, so that later in the term we could reintroduce it. This week we did so and with enormous success. The children have been using the slack line again and were so excited when they once again discovered it between the trees. This was also true of our pulley buckets which we held back for some time due to the success of our mud kitchen. We have now incorporated the pulley buckets with our mud kitchen, allowing the children to fill them with muddy water and lower them up and down, with the familiar result of a muddy shower. We find it important to make sure we keep the children inspired and interested with their learning, and we find this supported through rotating the resources we put out, and some days even using no resources other than our natural surroundings.
Team update
With the closing of this week it is with sadness that we will be saying goodbye to our fantastic practitioner Maria, who is returning home to Austria. Maria has been an energetic, creative and inspiring educator in our Fulham team and it goes without saying that she will be greatly missed by the children and all the staff. Maria is known for her fantastic face painting skills, dramatic storytelling and for being an all-round play superstar. The Fulham team would like to wish her all the success in her future.
Enjoy your weekend adventures!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham