Our Week in the Forest...
Well we made it through this crazy week despite the threat of gales and deluges creating giant puddles in camp. What a gorgeous week it has been! Our kids, as always, blowing us away with their creativity, exploration and resilience in the face of changing environmental conditions!
We have had plenty of literacy focus this week from practicing our reading, writing and marking using chalks on the logs, planks and cable reels and looking at books with the children being in charge of telling us the story or picking out details from the illustrations. We have had a pop up shop that has been offering the discerning customer a variety of natural resources sourced from the palace grounds as well as another offering ice-creams and porridge to those looking for a treat.
The children helped gather fallen flowers from the tree at the edge of camp and collected pine cones, unusual twigs and leaves to use as both things to sell and as money to make purchases. Prices were decided on and written down on the shop display counter and numbers added up to the total so the children could take turns in playing at both tending the shop counter and being a customer themselves. This gathering and displaying of items encouraged a sense of value in the goods on sale and some of the children who were very involved with this activity took their purchases straight to their backpacks to take them home.
Investigating colour and textures has been a focus as well this week with a large paper wrap for one of our trees and the colours yellow and blue available for the children to decorate with. Teachers supported the children in describing and discussing what was happening as they explored the changes in colour that were revealed when these pigments were blended. Other children took some of the small end pieces of chalk and discovered that they could hammer and grind them to make colourful dust that could be absorbed into woolly gloves and clapped into billowing clouds in the air or spread over surfaces or rubbed into wood. Other times it was mixed with water to create colourful potions and other children approached to observe as well as mimic to make their own. This was an utterly child-led activity and is a great example of the kind of scientific explorations that free play can provide.
We have started incorporating some basic rhyming songs and games into our circle and snack times where the children have to listen out for words that sound like their name to take their turn to come up for their fruit. They really enjoy these games and help each other to figure it out by shouting out for their friends as well as themselves. Once they have made their first selection they are free to step forward as they finish to select more at their own pace and it is lovely to see them accommodate their friends and help out by passing empty plates for refills.
A rather exciting event is taking place in the second half of this week with the arrival of Max, Tyrone and Michael who are the contractors assigned with the task of building us a beautiful wooden platform that will prevent one of our protected trees in the centre of camp from suffering root compaction. The first stage of work was to erect a fence around the work zone with some of the children jumping in to help me move balancing logs and search the depths of the giant muddle puddle for any spoons, ladles, pencils and paintbrushes that may have taken a swim! They gathered around, fascinated, as the fence was erected and huge planks carried in and laid out on bespoke concrete moulded feet to form the basic supporting structure. The guys were fantastic at answering the questions being peppered at them and impressed with our children’s enthusiasm for what they were doing. We predict a lot of building and fixing role play taking place in the forest as the children continue to absorb this fantastic, close up view of a genuine construction project unfolding before them.
As you know, we said goodbye to the lovely Kate but wish her luck and happiness pootling around on her houseboat and all the kids know to look out for Captain Kate when they’re near the water! As one door closes, another opens and we are so excited to have play worker Gemma join us as a full time member of Team Fulham! We have been lucky enough to have Gemma play with us in the Forest many times over the last several months so she is well known, and very much liked, by the children.
Hope everyone has a fun filled and relaxing weekend and we’ll see you next week!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham