Our Week in the Forest...
The Icelandic have hundreds of words to describe snow, well we believe our little forest folk can match that with their extensive vocabulary to describe what we are constantly surrounded by, MUD!
With the recent rainfall the children have been instinctively drawn to the muddy areas in our forest and their language has become so rich in describing their experiences of this squelchy, sloppy, sploshy, gooey, slimey, sticky, messy substance.
The children have been experiencing mud in all its glory throughout the week, discussing how it sounds, what it feels like and what lives inside. They found worms, centipedes, beetles and woodlice. It was a great opportunity to look at the insects in detail and discuss how they differed, where they lived and of course what they had eaten for lunch!!
Mud play is a beautifully open ended activity that meets the diverse interests of children through multi-sensory experiences and is a fundamental connection with the natural environment surrounding them in our forest. Children have been using their creativity to make mud soup, using their critical thinking skills, developing their fine and gross motor skills through making marks with sticks and testing their balance and coordination on slippery muddy slopes.
As well as being an amazingly versatile resource recent research has also shown that dirt contains microscopic bacteria called Mycobacterium Vaccae that stimulate the immune system and increase the levels of serotonin in our brains, which helps us to relax, evident in so many engaged and happy looking children during the week!
It has also been a week of splish, splash, sploshing in the huge muddy puddles and catching the rain on our tongues. The children have been making the most of the rainy weather, catching water from the tarps, flicking the droplets from the leaves, and generally getting as muddy as possible.
But it hasn’t all been about getting muddy and wet, the children have also had some cosy time eating warm soup with their friends under our canopy and listening to stories while the rain goes pitter-patter all around us.
It’s wonderful that we can give your children this invaluable opportunity to get their hands, and faces, dirty and apologise for the constantly muddy clothes that your children have been bringing home this week, but let us reassure you they have had soooo much fun!
Food in the forest:
We have some new additions for our February menu, which can be found on our website HERE
New dinner:
Moroccan Roast Chicken with Lemon, Olives and Cous Cous
Whole chickens, roasted with fresh herbs, lemon, olive oil, salt & pepper. Roasted slowly until the meat falls off the bone. The cous cous is cooked with the marigold vegetable stock and sliced olives. We also add all the lemony, savoury cooking juices from roasting the chickens. Next, we mix the chicken through the cous cous with fresh coriander and add a little more lemon and seasoning if needed.
We hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham
