Our Week in the Forest...
‘The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things’ Plato
With the gentle morning breeze the trees stretch out their limbs and wake up to the sound of our little adventurers as they make their way through the forest paths. Hidden spaces call out with their mysterious worlds, drawing the children into their imaginary spaces with sleeping dragons, fairy villages and Gruffalo footprints that disappear along forest tracks. As we catch glimpses of red and yellow coats negotiating these secret worlds we hear the children whispering to each other, laughing and joking and suddenly appearing through concealed doors of holly, hornbeam, rowan and hazel…
It is this happiness and pleasure that we constantly nurture each morning to ensure the children feel relaxed, excited and curious about their day in the forest. The forest walk leading up to our new setting offers many new experiences as it truly feels like an undiscovered natural world full of new varieties of trees and plants and adventures yet to be discovered. Combined with the advent of Spring the children are observing the small changes each week, fascinated by the buds that are appearing on the tree branches, the tiny shoots in the ground and the flowers that are springing to life.
It has been inspiring the children to ask many questions about the environment:
‘What are the names of these trees?’
‘Why does this have flowers and not the other trees?’
‘What makes a flower yellow?’
‘Why are some daffodils different?’
‘Can trees feel?’
We definitely have some budding botanists in our midst!
As a way of making this learning truly inspiring we have been planning activities that incorporate elements of these native trees and plants as a way of bringing to life the hidden magic of the natural world. This week we have been utilising some of the native elder to produce wooden beads that the children have been transforming into beautiful necklaces. The children particularly liked whittling the bark from the elder branches, it is always a very soothing activity and amazing for their fine motor skills and coordination, then with some support we cut the branches into bead sized sections and finally ‘popped’ out the pith with our tent pegs, and voila, hand-made beads ready for them to thread on their cords.
There was also another reason for these delightful creations which the mums will discover on Sunday! If you haven’t received something already…
The joy within Little Forest Folk
We have a brand new video which was filmed by one of our fabulous parents in winter 2016, showcasing the joy of our Little Forest Folk experience.
Food in the forest:
Our full March menu can be found on our website HERE
Our Friday morning snack:
These are our favourite fruity cookies, complete with crackled surface and a gooey centre.
Happy Mother's day for all those Mum's on Sunday... we hope you're thoroughly spoilt!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham
