Our Week in the Forest...
“Creativity is intelligence having fun” – Albert Einstein
After another long bank holiday weekend, the children have returned raring to go and this week proved to be one focused on art, design and creativity.
One of our ongoing projects is our covered “jungle” play area in the bushes. Having cleared out some of the brambles, the children now have taken ownership of this hidden area. It has many paths leading in and out of it, as well as fantastic trees to climb and balance on. The children have been using the ropes to make all sorts of platforms, tents and climbing rails to assist their imaginative play. As this area was found by the children the educators have taken a step back to allow the area to be that of the children’s. When invited in we encourage and support their construction plans and take part in their narratives.
Another fun activity this week was our sticky leaf plates. At the start of one of the mornings the children were each given a paper plate with double sided tape attached to it. The children were then challenged to decorate their plates as we walked into the forest. It was really interesting to see the variety of collages the children had made by the time we had reached camp. One child had made a smiley face from leaves and sticks, another had carefully lined up his leaves all of a similar size in three lines and one had searched for only bird feathers to decorate their plate. This was a fantastic activity and resulted in the children each displaying their sticky plate collage at morning circle time.
This week we have also continued our story scribing. Our stories have started to get longer and the children have now also started adapting traditional stories such as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ with alternative endings. The children have responded well to this method of developing their literacy and it is something that we look to continue and perhaps, in our future newsletters, we will feature some of the children’s stories.
Alongside our creativity within literacy and construction, the children have also been playing with musical instruments in the forest. Our days are filled with nursery rhymes and songs, and it is nice to support this with giving the children opportunities to interact with a variety of instruments.
Although it has been a short week, we have fitted in a lot of fun and creative activities. It has been fantastic to see all the great things the children have made and we look forward to more creative projects in the weeks ahead.
The Secret Life of...
For anyone who might be interested, we have been contacted by Channel 4 who are currently casting for the next series of The Secret Life of 4 Year Olds and The Secret Life of 5 Year Olds and looking for children to take part in the new series.
This is not organised through us but we’d love to see some of our fabulous kiddies on the TV so if you are interested in applying you can apply here: http://bit.ly/sloyoapply
Food in the forest:
Our full April menu can be found on our website HERE
Sun-dried tomato & courgette pasta salad
So many veggies, sun-dried tomatoes, courgettes, garlic, Basil, lots of olive oil and a little tomato passata and purée.
For each batch of pesto we use a kilo of courgettes and a kilo of sun-dried tomatoes for a tasty summery flavour.
Enjoy your weekend adventures!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham
