Our Week in the Forest...
This week has been full of special celebrations, starting with Shrove Tuesday, followed closely by World Book Day and then a long-awaited message from Silvia one of our previous educators who is now travelling the world!
Pancake day is always a firm favourite with the children, tucking into a healthy pancake during morning snack time is a great treat before all the physical adventures to follow. The children discussed what fillings they preferred, a particular favourite was honey and banana which they helped prepare at the snack bar, their enjoyment of these delicious pancakes was so evident in the absolute silence whilst they ate, it’s not often you can hear a bubble burst in the forest!
On Thursday, we talked about World Book Day during our morning circle time. Bella asked the children to think about their favourite book, why they liked it so much and which character they would like to pretend to be. It was fascinating to hear about such a wide range of literature, with the children listening attentively to their friends sharing their reasons for liking their book. Throughout the day the children had the opportunity to make their own books, designing them with both illustrations and text, some hand written and other parts scribed, some of the children then read their stories to the group later in the day.
Loose parts have played a big part of the children’s imaginative play this week. Everything that moves in the forest from cable reels to benches, from sticks to tarps has been used in the creation of secret dens, moving cars, treehouses, seesaws and even a forest cabin complete with beds and hammock. The planning, team work and problem solving they display is becoming progressively more advanced and impressive to observe. An example of this was when a group of children had finished playing on their ‘bus’ and headed off to build elsewhere, along came a second group who then redesigned this into a seesaw, then a train and finally a submarine. During the week children have been revisiting the various creations and adding to and adapting them to meet their needs and interests, and inspiring their friends with ingenious ways of combining loose parts.
With the growing season on the horizon we have been passing through the walled garden this week whilst on our adventure walks. On one of the days we ventured inside the green houses to see what the gardeners were preparing to be planted. The children were fascinated to see the gardeners had collected lots of potatoes and placed them inside egg boxes! Marlon explained to the children how potatoes don’t have seeds like apples, oranges or beans, and that to grow new potato plants the gardeners need to plant whole potatoes. The children noticed that there were lots of different types of potato, some were long, others short, some yellow and others pink. One of the educators read the names of the potatoes on the labels and gently the children held them in their hands, smelling them and carefully feeling the skin.
Following on from last week’s letter writing and learning about the United Kingdom, this week we branched out a little wider after receiving a photograph and message from Silvia. Silvia is now at the start of her adventure around the world and offered to keep in touch as she explored different countries. This week she is in Patagonia from where she sent us a lovely photo in the mountains, and who’s that in her hand? None other than the little fox that the children gave Silvia as a leaving present! We wondered where Patagonia was? One child thought it might be near Putney. So, we used Googlemaps to find out where it was and discovered it was a very long way away. We then looked to see where Putney and Fulham Broadway are located and decided that Patagonia was a little further away than both of them. The children are now excited to find out where Silvia will be travelling next!
We cannot wait to see what next week brings and have a lovely weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham