We have been greeted with shimmers of sunshine this week, giving us the luxury of hanging our jackets up with our backpacks, ready to explore all the forest has to offer us while our high-vis vests blow like capes in the wind! The children have utilised our natural resources, paired with supplies like string, paint and paper to create some wonderful things that show off all of their ideas and individual interests. They constantly amaze and inspire us all, but especially this week, they have arrived ready to roll up their sleeves and get stuck into any activity, reminding us as a team that we are so often learning from them as much as they learn from us. Their persistence to try things, play with friends they might not usually play with and bounce back when things don’t is truly something special to witness as an educator.
Our construction area had a makeover this week, being turned into a Pirate ship a bit like the one from one of our favourite new stories, “The Pirates next Door!” Using crates, planks and logs, the ship was built by our own team of Jolly Rogers, helping to share the load of carrying the building materials in and steady them ready to set sail!
For the Pirate’s to succeed in their quest, they needed swords and so the search began for the best sticks to use. Once found, Gemma helped some of the children use a technique called ‘lashing’ which required string to be tied round two sticks to keep them together. Watching Gemma model and demonstrate how this was done, a few children tried it for themselves; resulting in a lot of smiling, proud faces holding the finished swords.
A few of the children showed interest in making a trap using some rope and sticks. This required the use of a mallet to hammer the sticks down into the ground. Without needing prompted by an educator, the children took turns and told each other to “stand back” so not to get hit. We were able to step back and watch the lovely moment where two children found a mud ball sitting on a log. They proceeded to splat it and squish it in fits of laughter, until realising it belonged to another child who had placed it on the log whilst having a turn of the swing. After some discussion, they helped to make another mud ball…and another, and another, until they had plenty to splat!
Literacy and storytelling has weaved itself into the children’s play so nicely too, with some of them creating structures and props based on their favourite stories. One example of this was the making of the three little pig’s houses. Care, consideration and attention to detail went into collecting the necessary objects to create a straw, stick and brick house! After the children were happy with how they looked, they collectively told the story out loud using petals as the three little pigs and a stick as the big bad wolf! The big bad wolf proceeded to blow down all three of the houses…yes, even the brick one!
To make the most of the windy weather, the children have created the most beautiful windmills out of brightly coloured paper. On our walk in at the end of the week, the children and some of the educators noticed bright colours coming from our camp where Claudia had been setting up. As we got nearer and nearer one of the children exclaimed “it’s a windmill!” The wind was blowing them round and round which created such excitement and joy for us all to watch. Claudia had created some windmills with the paper by folding and gluing different parts together. She asked if any of the children wanted to make their own and it was an overwhelming “YES!” With her help, the children each had their own to take home.
There has certainly been a slower pace than usual, giving us all time to stop and notice things in nature that we might otherwise pass by. Slower walks in to the forest have allowed for lovely conversations and a chance to pick up fallen leaves and flowers from the trees and shrubs around the Palace gardens, to be used for potions in the mud kitchen or to support the children’s role play.
Drawing to the end of what has been a whirlwind of a week, we would like to take a moment to highlight what we take for granted each and every day within our setting; beautiful interactions, lasting friendships, endless creativity and spending our days outdoors with our little Fulham family! The children are the reason we as educators do what we do and love our jobs so much; always putting smiles on our faces and keeping us going. We hope that each and every one of our families stays safe in the coming weeks ahead and we hope to see you all soon, happy and healthy.
Little Forest Folk
Fulham