Our Week in the Forest...
After experiencing all the seasons in one week the children have been closely observing the changes taking place throughout the Palace Gardens during their adventure walks. With Autumn upon us the dramatic transformations have captured the children’s imagination, they have been asking about the different coloured leaves and why some trees are not sleeping yet. This has presented us with many opportunities to discuss and examine how some plants and trees are now going to sleep and how different flowers and trees are creating their seeds in preparation for more to grow the following year.
So, this week the children had a closer look as Poppies to discover where the seeds grow and how these are naturally dispersed for the following year. After looking at some pictures of flowering poppies we talked about how all the petals disappear and the poppy transforms into a beautifully shaped flower head. The children each then took a poppy head to examine if further, they were fascinated by the sound when the head was shaken and then amazed at how many seeds came out when tipped into the palm of their hands, one of nature’s most beautiful designs!! The children continued to examine the tiny seeds before finding places across our setting where they could sow them, fingers crossed we will start to see more next year.
The recent opening of the natural play area in the grounds of Fulham Palace has provided the children with a new area in which to explore and challenge themselves during our walks into the gardens. From the first moment, the children were so confident and comfortable with negotiating the various structures, balancing independently along the supported tree trunks and gauging from which heights they could jump.
It has been interesting to observe how these simply designed features offer so much variation for imaginative play and how our children can self-direct and sustain their play with such ease, possibly because their exposure to using natural loose parts to create increasingly challenging structures is such as integral part of their everyday play in our setting. I also like to think that the ongoing presence of our children and how they use tree stumps, logs and planks in such creative ways has offered some inspiration for Fulham Palace to opt for such a simple and stimulating style of public play space…
With the colder weather approaching please can we remind you to pack a nice cosy hat and pair of gloves, particularly for those chilly mornings. Have a wonderful weekend!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham