This first week of holiday camp has been an absolute blast! So lovely to see some returning children and siblings of our regular friends come to join us for fun and discoveries.
Monday brought us plenty of sticks from the gardeners pruning pile, so we were able to build a fantastic den in the nest. The children estimated how long the sticks would need to be for our supporting structure and hauled over what we needed before working together to place them carefully to form a wall and roof. Next we found small pieces to cross over and fill in the gaps before using the leaf covered twigs for camouflage.
Some of the sticks were strong and springy so we worked to make bows and learned how to shoot straight sticks as arrows. We made safe areas for archery and after each shot the children counted the educators’ strides to measure how far each arrow flew.
On one of the days some of the children were talking about paragliding and were describing what they knew about it to their friends so Katie, after some quick research, gathered together some craft pieces so that they could all work together to make their own parachutes! We talked about how when inventing something, finding out how something doesn’t work is just as important as finding out the right way to make it and how inventors need to keep coming up with ways of adapting their design until it’s just right. The end results were great, with newspaper, string, Sellotape, paperclips and effort all combining to create fantastic parachutes!
I gathered some brambles from an obliging hedgerow on my way into camp and we used sticks to smash up the berries so that we could mix them with water and make paint. Paper and shields made out of tree bark were all decorated with the bright purple dye and the children experimented with brushes and grasses to apply it where they chose. Mud was also used to paint on skin with one of our friends covering herself completely and becoming Mud Woman the superhero! After reading about how Captain America came to be, we talked about what training is and soon had created an obstacle course that could help us practice all the skills needed to be a superhero like jumping, running, agility and balance. Mud Woman, Batman, Captain America and Hawkeye took turns leaping from stacked logs, tiptoeing through laser ropes, balancing over seesaws and sprinting a lap around camp. Being a superhero is hard work; and that’s BEFORE you’ve saved the world!
It’s so fun to have this influx of new faces into our forest and to experience all the new ideas and enthusiasm they bring with them. We can’t wait to see what next week’s summer camp brings!
Little Forest Folk
Fulham